KT Skylife, AI Sports Broadcasting Begins in Full Swing with Homeless World Cup
KT Skylife, AI Sports Broadcasting Begins in Full Swing with Homeless World Cup
Blog Article
KT Skylife [053210] is jumping into the artificial intelligence (AI) sports broadcasting platform business in earnest, starting with the '2024 Seoul Homeless World Cup'.
Skylife held a press conference at its headquarters in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 19th and announced that it had invested 6.8 billion won in 'Hogak', an AI broadcasting solution specialist and exclusive broadcaster for the Homeless World Cup.
Starting on the 21st, Hogak will be the exclusive broadcaster of the Homeless World Cup, an official FIFA-sponsored tournament held for eight days to encourage self-reliance of people in housing blind spots, through Hogak's own app, FIFA+, and Naver Sports.
This time, the horn will be broadcast using Israel's Pixelot AI camera system. It is a method of shooting real-time game footage with AI cameras installed in the stadium and automatically editing it.
AI-based sports broadcasting systems can achieve dramatic cost savings compared to traditional broadcasting methods.
According to data from the Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute in 2019, using AI cameras can reduce production costs by 90% compared to existing sports broadcasts.
Hogak is expanding its market by providing solutions optimized for sports broadcasting at a reasonable cost and currently signing broadcasting rights contracts with the Korea Football Association K4 League, Korea Volleyball Association, and Korea Handball Association.
Yoon Jong-hoon, the executive director of Ho-gak, said, “AI will automate the entire process from filming, editing, and graphic transmission to always provide sports videos of the same quality,” and announced that they 한국을 have also started advancing into overseas markets such as Malaysia and Vietnam. He explained that while it is currently a free model, they are introducing a paid model by expanding infrastructure and broadcasting rights, and that they are aiming to turn a profit within 2-3 years.
Director Yoon also said about the background of joining hands with Skylife, "Among telecommunications companies, KT has the best public nature, and when installing cameras in stadiums across the country, telecommunications is also important, so we considered KT's coverage as the widest."
According to Allied Market Research, a global market research firm, the global sports AI market size will reach $2.2 billion in 2022. It is also expected to grow at an annual average of 29.7% by 2032, reaching a market size of $29.7 billion.
In particular, as 'AI-based sports broadcasting technology' is attracting attention as a key growth engine in this market, Skylife announced that it will collaborate with Hogak to become 'Korea's only total amateur sports platform.'
In the future, Skylife plans to expand various functions such as game analysis, personal video editing, and sports education based on the AI-based broadcasting platform.
It is estimated that there are over 4.3 million sports enthusiasts nationwide, at least 200,000 aspiring elite athletes, and there are 37,000 public sports facilities and 1,000 local government facilities nationwide, so the market has ample potential for growth.
Cho Joon-hwan, head of KT Skylife's future strategy team, said, "We decided to start a new business considering the innovative cost-effectiveness of the amateur sports market, which has been a blind spot in broadcasting."
In doing so, he announced that he would build the only total amateur sports platform ecosystem in Korea in the long term based on the synergy between KT Group companies such as Sky TV, Sky IC, KT Cloud, HCN, and KT Sports, and also launch new AI products based on OTT.
Choi Young-beom, CEO of Skylife, said, "As the telecommunications and media industries are entering a period of decline and stagnation, we have been thinking long and hard about future growth opportunities, and rather than entering unfamiliar fields in which we do not have the capabilities, we have selected fields where we can make the most of our expertise." He expressed his ambition, saying, "We will evolve into an 'AI broadcasting platform' and lead the media market."