Korea has seen exports of broadcast content slow to single digits while imports of programming increased sharply.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency on Wednesday, content exports rose only 1.9 percent last year to US$183.58 million, but imports increased three-fold compared to 2008 to $65.94 million.

Since 2001, exports of Korean programs, especially soap operas, had been rising between 20 to 30 percent a year, but that slowed to the 10 percent range in 2006 and finally to single digits last year. The price per program also fell from $2,808 to $2,685.

As for imports, cable TV stations led the increase by importing $62.64 million worth of programs, up from $17.03 million in 2008. U.S. programs accounted for 90.8 percent of the imports, followed by Japanese (3.3 percent) and English programs (2.1 percent).