Arirang TV () is a South Korean international broadcaster owned and operated by Korea International Broadcasting Foundation. It broadcasts current news and programs offering political, economic, and cultural content from a Korean perspective to a global audience in 134 countries around the world.

History

Launched locally by the government in 1996, with the motto "Korea for the World, the World for Korea," the Korea International Broadcasting Foundation, began broadcasting as Arirang TV in 1997. The foundation started broadcasting overseas in 1999 within the Asia region. The name of the broadcast comes from the traditional Korean folk song ''

Arirang ''Arirang'' ( ) is a Korean folk song. There are about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions of the song, all of which include a refrain similar to "arirang, arirang, arariyo" (""). It is estimated that the song is more than 600 years old ...

''. In January 2010, the network split its programming into two categories, news and non-news, with additional news bulletins and current affairs programs being added to the schedule, as well as more cultural programming. The Vietnamese drama series ' premiered on 4 January, with subtitles in both Korean and English. In 2011, after the Korean government was embroiled in an embezzlement scandal, suggestions had emerged for the merger of Arirang TV and

KBS World KBS World () is the international broadcasting division of the South Korean broadcast television network Korean Broadcasting System. The division operates KBS World TV, KBS World Radio, and . History The foreign-language radio broadcast from ...

, considering that Arirang, like many other English-language media outlets in South Korea, was suffering from lack of budget, manpower and content. The network recouped from its losses. In September 2016, Arirang TV began airing 24 hours a day on the United Kingdom television services like

Sky UK Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), Trade name, trading as Sky, is a British broadcasting, broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone ...

and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

, becoming the first South Korean channel to do so, while also expanding to the United States via

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

's In-house Network. In January 2018, due to budget cuts, Arirang TV sacked 190 staff members and cut its number of programs in half from 36 to 18.

Programming

Current affair programming

* ''Arirang News'' * ''The GeoVista'' (since 2024) * ''The Globalists'' (since 2022) * ''Peace Insight'' (since 2016)

Culture and entertainment programming

* '' Simply K-Pop'' (since 2011) * ''We Are Diplomats'' (since 2024)

Education

* ''K-Chat: Conversing in Korean'' (since 2023)

References

External links

* {{South Korea television networks Companies based in Seoul Television channels and stations established in 1997 Television networks in South Korea International broadcasters 24-hour television news channels in South Korea Korean-language television stations Mass media in Seoul English-language television stations