Last Friday night, there was a game between Korea and Japan in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). High preview broadcasts from several days ago continued, and this time, without exception, all three terrestrial broadcasters were broadcasting simultaneous relays. As always, it was a broadcast full of patriotic fervor, confident of victory regardless of the objective military power. The level of Korean professional baseball and the national team was already clearly checked in the Olympics the year before last, and it is hard to say that it has improved significantly since then.
In fact, it’s never too much to say that the content of the game is beyond disappointing and ‘exploding’. When they lost to Australia, which was considered inferior but didn’t even have a very professional league, it can be said that the massive loss in the game between Korea and Japan was already predicted. It was like a game between a professional team and a high school team. From Japan’s point of view, it was really the ‘Battle of Tokyo’. Among the comments posted on the Internet during the relay, there were comments expressing regret and support, but most of them said to stop the relay because they were embarrassed and couldn’t see it. There were even a few articles cheering the Japanese team.
Among the comments, several criticisms said, “Is it right that the three broadcasting companies are broadcasting together to show how badly they are losing?” A comment also said that he would prefer to broadcast ‘Exemplary Taxi 2’, which is regularly scheduled. However, as the combined viewer rating of the three broadcasters was 11.7%, it is difficult to say that it was more commercially successful than ‘Exemplary Taxi 2’, which had an average viewer rating of around 15%. In particular, the KBS2 channel accounted for only 3.5%, the lowest among the three companies.
Nevertheless, the three broadcasting companies still ignore the right of viewers to choose a program and broadcast the matches of the Korean team at the same time. Of course, even in the Olympics or the World Cup, the three terrestrial broadcasters were responsible for the games of the Korean team as if they had promised. Perhaps, for the Korean people, the Olympics or the World Cup can be seen as ‘national competitions between Korea and other countries’.
As such, a ‘comfortable monopoly structure’ has practically been formed among the three terrestrial broadcasting companies. It reminds one of the old saying in the world of media, “You don’t have to be a scoop, but a result is not forgiven.” There is a passive perception that it is not a qualitative competition with differentiated programs, but that it is necessary not to lose much. This is the reason why the three broadcasters share the broadcasting fee, which is by no means small, and organize at the same time.
Of course, it may be excused by citing ‘universal access’ that all citizens should be able to see important national events or international matches. However, universal access does not mean that all terrestrial broadcasters with national networks must broadcast. The purpose is to prevent inequality of access that can occur when a particular paid broadcaster monopolizes national interests. Furthermore, it is not in line with the aim of public broadcasting to guarantee viewers the right to choose with differentiated programs that commercial broadcasting cannot provide.
Such a symbiosis system without competition is also a critical factor that has weakened the competitiveness of our broadcasting. Following ‘Mr. Sunshine’, ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Pachinko’, and recently ‘Casino’ and ‘The Glory’, domestic broadcasting is losing momentum due to the onslaught of global OTTs. Wave, which launched grandly claiming to be the national OTT, is also on the verge of sinking. It can be said that this is also the result of a comfortable symbiosis system without competition.
This WBC relay once again exposes the critical problems of our broadcasting. Not only does it fail to play the role of a public broadcaster that provides a variety of program choices to the people, but it also shows what causes our broadcasting to be completely helpless against the offensive of the global media- wide It seems that the cause of the downfall of Korean baseball and broadcasting can be found in the common cause of a comfortable oligopoly system without competition.
Guest Columnist Hwang Geun (Professor, Department of Communication, Sunmoon University)
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