“지상파·종편이 수도권 집중 부추겨”…지역 OTT가 대안될까

A recent proposal suggests that regional OTT (Online Television and Telecommunications) systems be built to support local broadcasting and media production in the metropolitan area of South Korea. The Korea Confederation for Citizen Development (KCCD) hosted a policy forum on 'Launching a Unified Special City of Jeollanam-do and Building a Future-OTT Citizen Broadcasting Platform' at the Jeollanam-do Provincial Government Hall on the 26th.

Park Jae-won, the president of the KCCD Research Institute, stated that "Jeollanam-do and the capital of Gwangju only merged together 40 years ago." He emphasized the need for a new cultural and economic policy to match the expanded scale. According to data from Statistics Korea, the total sales of the Gwangju region's content industry reached ₩1.4869 trillion in 2024, almost equal to those of the Daegu region (₩1.5295 trillion) and twice as much as that of Ulsan (₩7,063 billion) during the same period.

However, the employment rate growth of content-related workers in the Gwangju region only grew at a rate of 2.57% annually, while the number of businesses grew at an annual rate of 6.23%.

Experts argue that the culture industry has shifted from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, requiring highly skilled workers. The shift in labor demand has resulted in many middle-skilled workers moving to the metropolitan area, leaving specialized technical talent behind in the region. Overcoming this challenge is the main objective of the proposed future-OTT citizen broadcasting platform.

This platform would allow citizens to participate actively in the creation and broadcasting of their own content, contrasting with the traditional broadcast environment dominated by large corporations.

Discussion at the forum touched upon both concerns and potential solutions. One of the attendees, Lee Hong-guk, a professor of journalism and broadcasting at Gwangju University, highlighted the need for local media SMEs to foster content production. He also pointed out that most media-related projects selected for support by the Gwangju Information & Culture Industry Promotion Institute are often awarded to companies from Seoul.

Additionally, Lee noted that while the Gwangju Sensory Content Cube has advanced filming equipment, it lacks the necessary personnel to operate them, requiring technical support from companies in Seoul. He suggested that regional efforts should focus on training former employees, particularly retirees, as specialized technical workers and empowering young individuals to become content creators and platform distributors on OTT platforms such as YouTube.