Channel A Loses Lawsuit Against KCC Over Cancellation of Corrective Order... Court Rules "Implementation Order Justified"

Channel A Headquarters, Jongno-gu, Seoul./Yonhap [Image source=Yonhap]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The court has ruled that the corrective order issued by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) to Channel A, requiring the fulfillment of re-approval conditions related to investment performance, is justified.

According to the legal community on the 2nd, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 11 (Presiding Judge Park Hyung-soon) ruled against Channel A in the lawsuit filed against the KCC seeking cancellation of the corrective order.

The court stated, "In business re-approval, 'the feasibility of realizing the public responsibility, fairness, and public interest of broadcasting' and 'the appropriateness of planning, scheduling, and production plans of broadcasting programs' are key requirements to be considered," adding, "The business plan submitted by the plaintiff is a core criterion for judging whether these requirements are met, so its fulfillment is very important."

It further explained, "The total amount presented by Channel A as the production cost investment plan for 2017 is interpreted as an investment planned 'going forward' within the scope of the '2017 broadcasting program supply and demand plan,' and cannot be considered to include production cost investments made prior to 2017."

The court also added, "Personnel expenses for executives and employees, building and other facility maintenance costs, which do not necessarily involve the creation or expansion of specific content, are fixed monthly expenses regardless of program scheduling and are difficult to regard as 'direct production costs' in content investment performance."

Since Channel A is deemed to have failed to execute the content production investment as planned under the re-approval conditions, the court found no issue with the KCC’s disposition.

Channel A submitted a business plan to the KCC stating it would spend 84.396 billion KRW on production costs in 2017 and received re-approval for its broadcasting channel usage business.

However, the following year, after auditing Channel A’s investment performance, the KCC determined that 1.963 billion KRW was short of the initially proposed investment amount in the business plan and issued a corrective order to fulfill this amount by the end of 2019.

The amount pointed out by the KCC as unfulfilled included Channel A’s settlement payment for copyright infringement damages to terrestrial broadcasters and costs for repair and maintenance of production and broadcasting facilities.

In response, Channel A filed a lawsuit seeking cancellation of the corrective order, arguing that the investment performance deducted by the KCC should also be included in the fulfillment performance, and simultaneously filed for suspension of execution.

Earlier, in December of last year, the court accepted Channel A’s request for suspension of execution. However, in the current main lawsuit, the court ruled that there is no problem with the KCC’s corrective order.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.