SK Telecom is buying the control of CJ Hello Vision that is a number 1 business in cable TV.

After securing the control of CJ Hello Vision, it is heard that it will emerge with SK Broadband in April of 2016. It seems that it will cost SK Telecom between $1.32 billion and $1.75 billion (1.5 trillion KRW to 2 trillion KRW) to buy CJ Hello Vision.

SK Telecom is planning to hold a meeting for board of directors on the 2nd and make the buying of CJ Hello Vision official, and CJ Hello Vision is also planning to hold a meeting on the same day and approve its sale.

By buying CJ Hello Vision and merging with SK Broadband, SK Telecom is able to improve its competitiveness in pay-TV areas in just one effort.

If SK Broadband, which currently has 3.25 million households as IPTV140 members, merges with CJ Hello Vision, it will emerge as a large pay-TV business that will have 7 million members. If this happens, there will be a sudden change in pay-TV market’s structure.

SK Broadband’s labor union had distributed sudden notice on the 30th and made it known that it has decided to buy CJ Hello Vision on the same day. It has also made it known that SK broadband and its subsidiary company SK Telecom are preparing for meetings for board of directors on the 2nd.

“We are open to buying CJ Hello Vision.” said labor union. “If we buy CJ Hello Vision, we will be able to have an equal position with KT as a large pay-TV business that will have $3.51 billion of sales and 7.5 million households as members of ultra-fast internet.”

It is known that SK Group actually had first looked into Woongjin Koway that has MBK Partners as its biggest shareholder and cable TV company called C&M. However according to labor union, SK Group believed that buying C&M would not bring much synergy and changed its direction towards buying CJ Hello Vsion.

CJ Hello Vision is currently a number 1 cable TV company that has about 4 million households as members.
A person working for SK Broadband had said that it cannot tell much detail about SK Broadband buying CJ Hello Vision. High-ranking officials from CJ Hello Vision are not having any contacts with press and they could not be contacted either.