[2022 National Audit] Public Home Shopping Broadcasts 1,203 Times for One Company... Measures Needed to Prevent Favoritism

1429 Companies Appeared Only Once on Air
Even Public Home Shopping, Serving as a Public Sales Channel, Shows 'The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer'
Assemblyman Hong Jeong-min: "It Must Fulfill Its Role as a Public Distribution Channel"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Public Home Shopping, established to expand sales channels for innovative products of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, has been criticized for concentrating broadcast scheduling on certain companies.

On the 13th, Hong Jeong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed the 'Broadcast Scheduling Status by Tenant Company' data submitted by Public Home Shopping and revealed that the difference in the number of broadcast schedules between companies was as much as 1,203 times.

Since its launch in 2015, a total of 3,880 companies have joined Public Home Shopping as of the end of August this year, and the cumulative number of broadcasts, including live and rebroadcasts, reached 62,823 times.

However, during this period, there was severe broadcast concentration on some tenant companies. In the food category, while a specific company conducted 1,203 broadcasts, 295 companies had only one broadcast. In the fashion underwear category, one company conducted 1,122 broadcasts, while 61 companies had only one broadcast opportunity.

Similar concentration phenomena appeared in other industry groups compared to a single broadcast. In furniture and bedding, a specific company broadcast 626 times, followed by 346 times in baby, children, and pet culture, 233 times in home appliances and digital, 209 times in daily living and kitchen, 120 times in sports and leisure, and 191 times in beauty and miscellaneous goods.

According to Representative Hong, among the tenant companies, 1,429 out of 3,880 companies had only one broadcast, accounting for 36.8%.

Additionally, it was analyzed that companies with more frequent broadcasts also had larger sales volumes.

Among the top 10 companies in the food category by broadcast frequency, 8 companies had sales exceeding 10 billion KRW, and their average number of broadcasts was 466. In the fashion underwear category, 7 out of the top 10 companies had sales over 10 billion KRW, with an average broadcast frequency of 356.

Representative Hong pointed out that even in Public Home Shopping, which functions as a public sales channel support, the phenomenon of "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is occurring.

Representative Hong said, "There is doubt whether Public Home Shopping is providing fair broadcast opportunities to tenant companies and realizing public interest to pioneer sales channels for small and medium-sized enterprises. Measures are needed to ensure it can fulfill its role as a public distribution channel." He added, "A two-track strategy is necessary to nurture star products with overseas expansion capabilities while discovering and growing excellent companies that have difficulty securing sales channels."

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