SBS and Naver Sign AI-Driven Partnership to Integrate Content, IP and Commerce
SBS and Naver signed a comprehensive partnership agreement this morning at Naver’s Seongnam campus known as Naver 1784, with SBS president and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon among the top executives in attendance. The ceremony formalized a strategic collaboration aimed at accelerating joint initiatives across media, technology, and IP.
The memorandum centers on AI-driven media technology development and applying those advances to video content creation. It also discusses joint production using SBS’s original production capabilities alongside Naver’s Webtoon and Web novel IP to explore new formats and storytelling opportunities.
A key element of the agreement is to explore linking SBS’s content with Naver’s commerce ecosystem. By aligning content, platforms, IP, and commerce, the partners aim to build a broader ecosystem that supports new pathways for distribution and monetization.
Officials emphasize that the collaboration seeks to connect video content, platforms, IP, and commerce into a single ecosystem to create new growth drivers for the domestic industry. The goal is to accelerate innovation within Korea’s media sector amid the AI era and to bolster global competitiveness.
Beyond content and technology, SBS and Naver also plan to strengthen their social-contribution efforts. SBS, which bears public-service obligations as a terrestrial broadcaster, and Naver, via its “Naver Impact” program that supports small merchants, intend to combine strengths to expand social value and collaborative ecosystems.
SBS’s visiting president framed the alliance as a partnership between two companies with a shared DNA of challenging and innovating through digital transformation. He said the agreement could serve as a compass to maximize synergies in the AI transition era.
Choi Soo-yeon of Naver expressed confidence that combining Naver’s platform scale and AI capabilities with SBS’s content assets would produce unprecedented synergies. She added that the deal could lay a foundation for new growth in the media industry and help more creators achieve global competitiveness.
Moving forward, SBS and Naver will operate regular working-level bodies to refine the collaboration’s details and develop a phased execution roadmap. The parties plan to specify joint projects and milestones in the coming months.
Industry observers note the significance of a major terrestrial broadcaster and Korea’s leading AI/ICT firm joining forces to respond to the AI-centric shifts in the global media landscape. For U.S. readers, the partnership signals how Korean media companies are integrating AI, IP pipelines like webtoons, and commerce to compete on a global scale and potentially shape cross-border licensing, co-productions, and international content strategies. The deal also highlights a growing trend of tying digital platforms and e-commerce to content in ways that could affect global supply chains, advertising markets, and opportunities for American creators and studios seeking Korean IP and collaboration.