YouTube, Tobe, BBC all in one place... Korea-U.S. Unification Committee, International OTT Forum in Seoul

Officials from the global online video service (OTT), ad-based free streaming TV (FAST), and domestic content industries discussed the future of the streaming industry and ways to cooperate.

The Korea Communications Commission announced on the 5th that it held the '2026 International OTT Forum' at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, Seoul to explore overseas expansion of domestic OTT operators and innovation strategies for the broadcast media industry.

At this forum, which is in its 5th year this year, about 400 domestic and foreign media officials attended and discussed platform monetization, business diversification, and content intellectual property (IP) expansion under the theme of 'a new future drawn by the streaming wave.'

The keynote speech was delivered by David Salmon, Vice President of Global Business at Tubi, an American FAST operator, and pointed out the changes and future of the global streaming industry centered on fandom.

In the session, Xiaohongshu and Google YouTube officials presented platform monetization strategies, and Tving's head of strategy, Kang Yu-jin, shared plans for the growth of domestic OTT.

In the field of content production, writer Noh Ga-young, producer Jo Eun-jin of YouTube channel 'Excuse Go', and producer Park Hyeon-yong of tvN's 'Bong Pung Earth Arcade' discussed development strategies for the content industry.

Kerensa Samanidis, head of iPlayer at the British public broadcaster BBC, and Kim Jin-man, head of MBC's production division, made a presentation on the topic of platform diversification strategy.

The Korea-U.S. Unification Committee also provided an AI simultaneous interpretation subtitle service using the technology of Hudson AI, which participated in the Ministry of Science and ICT's K-FAST expansion support project specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) dubbing. TVING, Wave, and Eggs Coming operated a corporate promotional center and introduced their main businesses and contents.

Ryu Shin-hwan, a member of the U.S. Visiting Unification Committee, said, "We will expand cooperation between the domestic and foreign broadcasting media industries and the government to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic industry and strive to spread Korean content globally."