The Associated Press and North Korean state broadcaster KRT have struck an exclusive deal that will enable AP to source high-definition news video from North Korea for delivery to broadcasters worldwide.
Along with its geo-political significance, the venture accompanies AP’s US$30m-plus inventement in its video business – an 18-month plan will see its infrastructure completely upgraded to support HD broadcast.
Associated Press President and Chief Executive, Tom Curley, signed the three-year agreement with KRT and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Tokyo: ‘Today’s announcement means that AP will be the only news agency to transmit broadcast-quality HD video of key events in North Korea,’ he said.
The arrangement also gives Associated Press Television News exclusive rights to deliver HD video feeds for individual broadcasters want their own reports broadcast worldwide from North Korea. It also builds on AP’s push into North Korea, giving it a clear lead over other Western news organisations.
This follows the June announcement of agreements with the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), including one to open a comprehensive news bureau in Pyongyang.
Broadcasting is expected to begin in early 2012, and will give AP the first permanent text and photo bureau operated by a Western news organisation in the North Korean capital. It builds upon the AP’s existing video news bureau, which opened in Pyongyang in 2006.
In addition, the two agencies have signed a further contract that makes AP exclusive international distributor of contemporary and historical video from KCNA’s archive.
