SK Telecom carries first live TV broadcast over 5G

SK Telecom aired Korea’s largest New Year’s event – which included a countdown and bell-ringing ceremony, over its commercial 5G network.

The eleven-minute program was carried using the carrier’s “T Live Caster,” a live broadcasting platform.

The video of the event – which was taken by smartphone cameras installed with the ‘T Live Caster’ app and connected to a 5G mobile routers – was transmitted through 5G base stations and XtvN’s transmission system to reach cable and IPTV viewers of XtvN. The video was transmitted at a latency of less than one second – which is similar to that of the existing wired broadcasting system – despite the extremely congested data environment.

“With today’s successful live TV broadcasting over commercial 5G network, SK Telecom ushers in a new era of 5G-based media services,” said Choi Nak-hoon, Senior Vice President and Head of 5GX IoT/Data Group of SK Telecom. “In this new era, individual creators will be able to provide high-quality live broadcast anytime, anywhere, via 5G smartphones.”