Paid Broadcasting Industry Demands Reassessment of Terrestrial Broadcasters' Content Value

Centered on the paid broadcasting industry, concerns were raised that terrestrial broadcasters are continuously increasing content prices despite the declining value of their content.

At the Korean Association for Journalism & Communication Studies academic conference held on the 19th at Jeju Shinhwa World, Professor Kim Yong-hee of Dongguk University announced, “As a result of examining advertising viewership elasticity and usage changes since 2013, the value of terrestrial broadcasters' content has decreased by 52.69%, and for terrestrial free video-on-demand (FOD), it has dropped by as much as 68.69%.”

On the 19th, Professor Kim Yong-hee of Dongguk University is presenting at the Korean Association for Journalism and Communication Studies conference held at Jeju Shinhwa World.

In his presentation, Professor Kim explained that the number of paid broadcasting platform subscribers has increased by 4.7% annually from 2013 to 2021, and the number of subscribers to System Operators (SO) has remained almost steady since 2016. However, the share of terrestrial broadcasters in viewership ratings and FOD (free VOD) has significantly declined.

Accordingly, he questioned whether terrestrial content is playing an intermediary role in enhancing the marketability of paid broadcasting platforms and argued that a reevaluation is necessary. Professor Kim stated, “Regarding the channel fee determination standards currently under review by the Ministry of Science and ICT, autonomous negotiations between operators are desirable. However, in a situation where revenue per subscriber is not increasing, excessive pressure to raise program usage fees is not appropriate,” adding, “There is a need for systems and standards to establish reasonable grounds.”

As improvement measures, he suggested policies for distributing program usage fees linked to channel performance, reassessment of the value and usage fees of FOD, creation of a fair trading environment reflecting changes in bargaining power among operators, and the establishment of a 'Terrestrial Channel Fee Adjustment Committee' through amendments to the Broadcasting Act.

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