LG is betting that the fastest way to move more smart TVs in the UAE isn’t a brighter panel — it’s free Korean television.
The company has expanded LG Channels, its free ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, with a dedicated slate of Korean programming for UAE viewers, pulling in broadcasters including NEW ID, YTN, MBC C&I, K20 and The Pinkfong Company. The pitch is refreshingly blunt: open the app from the webOS home screen and get reality shows, K-pop and kids’ content without paying a dirham or signing up for anything.
The lineup leans into K-content that already travels. There’s unscripted reality in Love After Divorce and I Am Solo, two of Korea’s stickiest dating formats; round-the-clock K-pop from SMTOWN, complete with performance stages and behind-the-scenes footage; and, for families, the Pinkfong Company’s ad-supported channel serving up Baby Shark and Pinkfong — less a content coup than an acknowledgment that those songs are already unavoidable.
Why ‘free’ TV matters
FAST is having a moment. As subscription fatigue sets in, TV makers have worked out that the software layer — not just the hardware — is where the margins and the lock-in live. LG says LG Channels now spans more than 4,500 channels across 36 countries, and every free viewer is both an ad impression and a data point. Aiming webOS squarely at a specific, fast-growing audience — K-content fans in the Gulf — is a sharper play than competing on catalog size alone with the likes of Samsung TV Plus.
There’s a hardware hook in the fine print, too. The channels work on LG smart TVs from 2016 onward, a reminder that FAST is one of the few ways to keep older sets feeling current — and to keep their owners inside LG’s ecosystem when they eventually upgrade.
The skeptical read: “premium” is doing a lot of work in LG’s messaging. FAST catalogs are ad-heavy by design, channel lineups reshuffle without notice, and “free” still means viewers are the product being sold to advertisers. LG also frames this as a UAE-first move, even though most of the catalog reflects the broader global K-wave rather than anything commissioned locally.
Even so, for the region’s sizable community of Korean-culture fans, an always-on, no-cost hub built directly into the TV is a genuinely useful addition — and a clear signal of where LG sees its living-room strategy heading. More Korean entertainment and lifestyle channels, the company says, will land in the coming months.
