[Column] Home Shopping Broadcast Fee Conflict, How to Share Generously from the Storehouse

Hyundai Home Shopping's announcement to halt broadcast transmission on KT Skylife has been postponed by one month, from the 20th of this month to the 20th of next month. This came as both companies agreed to continue fee negotiations following the recommendation of the Ministry of Science and ICT. Not only these two companies but also LG Uplus, NS Home Shopping, D'Live Gangnam, and Lotte Home Shopping recently reached a dramatic agreement on similar negotiations. At first glance, it seems the spark of conflict has died down, but the core issue remains unresolved.

Home shopping companies insist they cannot continue to pay excessively high transmission fees. On the other hand, pay-TV providers argue that home shopping companies do not accurately disclose product sales generated on mobile platforms and challenge whether the transmission fees are truly expensive. It is not easy to determine which side's claim is more reasonable. In fact, there is no need to ascertain this. The problem lies elsewhere. If the market continues to grow, significantly raising fees every year would not be an issue for either side. The fundamental cause is the structural change in the industry: home shopping companies struggling to pay even a penny more, and pay-TV providers losing growth momentum to the point they cannot offer discounts.

Photo by Suyeon Oh, Industrial IT Department

Consumers have long left their TVs and moved to mobile-based platforms. They cancel pay-TV subscriptions and subscribe to Netflix. Instead of TV home shopping, they watch Naver Live Commerce and order products from Coupang. Since consumer behavior has completely changed in recent years, it seems difficult to get people back in front of the TV. In the past, TV was the dominant player, and mobile-based platform operators were the underdogs. However, now platform operators overwhelm broadcasters in every aspect, including capital and influence.

Yet, outdated regulations created during TV's golden era still constrain operators today. Like the asymmetric regulations between pay-TV and global online video services (OTT), TV home shopping is hampered by regulations that do not apply to e-commerce or live commerce operators. For example, TV home shopping must allocate more than half of its programming to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Times have changed. If the intention is to support SMEs, it would be more realistic to apply such regulations to e-commerce and live commerce companies.

Generosity comes from abundance. When life is comfortable, there is capacity to share with neighbors. The immediate task is to resolve the transmission fee conflict to avoid the worst-case scenario of a blackout in one month. However, without fundamental institutional changes aligned with shifts in industry structure and consumer trends, there is no way to prevent these conflicts from recurring. Everyone must consider ways to survive together.

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