'Bangtongwi' Begins Regulation on Home Shopping Linked Programming... "Promoting Institutionalization of Sponsorship Disclosure"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] To reduce the linked scheduling between terrestrial or comprehensive programming channels' health information programs and home shopping, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has decided to improve the system to require disclosure of sponsorship and to monitor related content.

On the 7th, the KCC held its 44th committee meeting. They received a report on the status check of linked scheduling between terrestrial/comprehensive programming PP (broadcast channel operators) and home shopping.

Linked scheduling with home shopping refers to the act of introducing products such as health supplements in a broadcast program and then selling related products on adjacent channels like home shopping during a similar time slot.

In March, the KCC inspected the linked scheduling status for 5 terrestrial channels, 4 comprehensive programming channels, 7 TV home shopping channels, and 10 data home shopping channels.

Among these, it was found that 520 broadcasts from 45 health information programs on 2 terrestrial channels and 4 comprehensive programming channels were linked a total of 756 times on 17 home shopping channels.

This is an increase compared to last year, when 423 broadcasts from 24 health information programs were linked a total of 451 times.

For terrestrial channels, KBS1TV, KBS2TV, and EBS1 had no programs linked with home shopping products. In contrast, MBC scheduled linked programs 80 times across 3 programs, and SBS scheduled linked programs 59 times across 7 programs.

Additionally, for comprehensive programming channels, TV Chosun had 139 linked broadcasts across 14 programs, MBN had 108 across 8 programs, Channel A had 70 across 5 programs, and JTBC had 64 across 8 programs.

From this year, 10 data home shopping channels were included in the inspection targets. As home shopping companies increased broadcasts selling health functional foods, duplicate linked scheduling also increased.

The KCC plans to support legislation to mandate disclosure of sponsorship facts related to this matter.

The relevant bill, submitted as government legislation by the KCC in October last year, is currently referred to the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee (STIBC) bill subcommittee.

If the law passes, the KCC plans to specify the timing, duration, and frequency of sponsorship disclosure exposure.

Along with this, the KCC will also consider imposing conditions on license renewal and re-approval to reflect precautions when producing health information programs in broadcasters’ own production guidelines.

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