SEOUL -- A new free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea is expected to have a profound effect on Korean film and TV.

If the pact is ratified, it will sweep away the 49% ownership cap on foreign companies' access to local cable TV and prevent the reversal of last year's controversial cut in the screen quota system, which mandates that exhibs must show a certain number of local films a year.

Partial details of the FTA released Monday also indicate that South Korea's term of copyright will be extended from 50 to 70 years.

The guidelines would take effect three years after the adoption of the FTA.

Television quotas for the broadcast of local films and animated content, currently 25% and 35% of schedule time, would be cut to 20% and 30%, respectively.

A restriction that prevents content of any one country from taking up more than 60% of air time would be increased to 80%.

Nonetheless, the agreement will not allow the direct broadcast of foreign satellite channels such as CNN in dubbed Korean, as requested by U.S. trade negotiators.

The agreement has stirred up fierce opposition from the local broadcasting sector, which has vowed to fight it in the National Assembly.

"Local cable TV channels, with their paltry levels of capital and content, can't hope to compete against the American media giants," said a representative of the Korean Cable TV Assn. "This agreement is no less than giving up national sovereignty of the local broadcasting sector."

The local film community is outraged at the inclusion of an article that caps the screen quota system at 73 days, regardless of the future state of the film industry.

Filmmakers have been campaigning to exclude the provision from the trade agreement and leave open the possibility of raising the quota in the future.

The screen quota stipulates that local theaters must unspool locally produced films for at least 73 days per year.

Before last July, it was set at an adjustable level between 106 and 146 days.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bookmark with..

Comments (0)

Write comment

This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.

There is a problem with the comment system, or you do not have javascript enabled.