South Korea’s cable TV program providers are seeking to diversify the export destinations for their content from Asia to Europe and North America.

According to the Korea Cable Television and Telecommunications Association, new export targets include Italy, France, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. Over the past few years, their content has gained popularity mostly in East and Southeast Asia.

“Contract performance is backing up the analysis that the local cable TV industry has begun garnering acknowledgment on the international stage,” said a representative for the association.

During the International Market of Communications Programs (MIPCOM) in Cannes, France, in October 2013, Korean TV program providers logged $2.1 million in export contracts. That was three times the figure from the year before.

At the 2014 fair, some European and Asian buyers signed contracts with CJ E&M over dramas including “Bad Guys,” “Trio,” “Marriage not Dating” and “2014 Mama.”

CJ E&M, whose cable channel is dubbed tvN in Korea, also sold the format of its entertainment program “The Genius” to a French firm. The new version will likely be aired across several EU countries.

Food TV-Home Story agreed with an Italian production company to codevelop culinary content. The cooking channel is also set to reach deals with Japan’s NHK, Asahi TV and a Canadian distributor on its program exports.

Arirang TV clinched contracts with buyers from the Netherlands, Thailand and China during the annual fair.

While tvN’s “Misaeng” is about to tap consumers in at least six regions, including Hong Kong and the United States, JTBC is pinning hopes on overseas demand for “Nonsummit” and “Hidden Singer.”

The Korean cable TV lobby group KCTA said in a statement that it would make the most of overseas entertainment content fairs to ultimately attain competitiveness in the U.S. market.

As a first step, NBC is poised to unveil a North American version of the hit Korean reality show “Grandfathers over Flowers” of tvN.

The U.S. version is currently searching for actors to appear on the show, according to U.S. media reports. It is to be jointly directed by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who have been nominated for a total of eight Emmy Awards.

It has been speculated that Small World IFT will distribute the show in English-speaking countries.

At a recent conference, the KCTA presented “smart cable,” “ultrahigh-definition” and “giga Internet” as three keywords that indicate the direction the cable TV industry is going.

It predicted that program providers would continue to evolve as viewers increasingly use smartphones to watch programs. The industry introduced smart set-top boxes last year.

It also said the cable TV platform would grow and that integration with other industries would be propelled by content.

Major channels are teaming up to develop app stores that run on HTML5 to vitalize related services. The association invited app developers and asked them to develop customized applications for program providers.

Korea began cable TV services in 1995. Most Korean cable TV channels operate based on a two-track system, composed of the system operator and program provider.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)