KBS, which declared 2025 as the 'Year of AI Broadcasting', has agreed to collaborate with Naver to enhance AI technology, integrate it with broadcasting content, and expand universal services.
KBS held a signing ceremony for a comprehensive business partnership memorandum in the AI field with Naver on the 24th at Naver1784 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, promising to work together to secure technological leadership and strengthen technological development capabilities in the AI sector.
Both parties agreed to work together to secure leadership and public interest in AI technology and to develop advanced media technologies and derivative content and services based on AI. They will jointly strategize and execute plans for the global dissemination of K-culture content and seek progressive solutions to issues related to AI intellectual property rights.
KBS and Naver will form an 'AI Win-Win Cooperation Working Group' to discuss specific ways to integrate AI technology throughout the entire process of planning, producing, broadcasting, and distributing video content. They also plan to collaborate on building disaster maps by combining KBS disaster content with Naver's AI technology, as well as working on universal public services such as automatic subtitle generation and screen description drafts for the hearing and visually impaired.
With KBS, which has world-class video content production capabilities and the largest audiovisual archive in the country, joining hands with Naver, which possesses AI technology solutions and cloud infrastructure, there are expectations for a synergistic effect in protecting AI technological leadership and revitalizing the AI ecosystem by jointly developing models applicable in the content field.
KBS President Park Jang-beom stated, "This business agreement is a joint declaration that goes beyond simple technological cooperation, aiming to secure leadership in AI technology while maintaining public interest," adding, "As a public broadcaster that has long created and accumulated high-quality cultural content, and as a global tech leader that connects the world through technology and platforms, we now aim to build a Korean-style AI digital ecosystem together and open a new era of AI services."
He continued, "I believe that if Naver and KBS work together, K-content can expand more powerfully into the world, thereby enhancing the national brand of Korea and fostering growth in various industries."
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon remarked, "Under the shared vision of securing AI technological sovereignty, this will be a very meaningful starting point," expressing confidence that it will create new value in the broadcasting and media ecosystem.
KBS, which announced this year as the 'Year of AI Broadcasting' during its foundation anniversary ceremony in March, plans to select collaboration tasks with Naver and engage in detailed discussions.
KBS is considering utilizing Naver's video analysis service 'MAIU (Media AI Understanding)' to extract video content from traditional KBS programs like 'Human Theater' and to adapt it into new content through Naver's generative AI 'HyperCLOVA X', applying this approach to various KBS content.
In the global content sector, KBS plans to use AI technology for multilingual translations of K-POP lyrics and choreography explanations to engage overseas viewers, provide sophisticated match prediction content before each game in the sports sector, and establish an AI-based real-time fact-checking automation system in the news sector, achieving AI innovation throughout the planning, production, and distribution processes of KBS programs.
On the 21st, KBS appointed an 'AI Broadcasting Innovation Advisory Committee' composed of six experts and scholars to lead the era of AI broadcasting innovation and contribute to changes and developments in the future broadcasting environment ecosystem. The KBS AI Broadcasting Innovation Advisors will be responsible for AI-based content production, AI business and marketing consulting, AI research status and technology/ethics policy consulting, and legal and regulatory consulting related to AI.
