North Korea Pirated 130 EPL Matches... Except Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan Games

Chosun Central TV Illegally Broadcasts Recorded Portions of Games
Expert: "Compensation or Punishment May Not Be Easy"

North Korea is reported to have illegally broadcast approximately 130 English Premier League (EPL) matches. However, matches featuring Korean players were excluded.

On the 4th, the Voice of America (VOA) reported this fact, quoting an EPL official who said, “The EPL and North Korea have not signed a media rights contract for this season.” The official added, “Currently, the Korean broadcaster ‘SPOTV,’ which holds EPL broadcasting rights in South Korea, does not have broadcasting rights for North Korea either.”

According to VOA, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central TV recorded and broadcast some matches from the EPL 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 seasons, and recently has been airing matches from the 2023-2024 season. The broadcasts mainly consist of recorded live coverage of entire matches, and sometimes two matches are edited into one match-length broadcast or highlight goal scenes are compiled and aired separately.

Son Heung-min Photo by Yonhap News

EPL broadcasting rights are contracted domestically and internationally in three-year cycles. The EPL’s broadcasting rights fees exceed $10 million per match, making it the second most expensive sports league in the world for broadcasting rights after the U.S. National Football League (NFL). VOA explained, “It is generally known that the fee is set at about 10 million pounds per match, approximately 12.38 million U.S. dollars.”

North Korea has broadcast EPL matches 129 times from April 2022 to October this year. However, matches involving Son Heung-min’s team Tottenham Hotspur and Hwang Hee-chan’s team Wolverhampton Wanderers were not broadcast. Almost all teams, including lower-ranked ones, had their matches introduced at least once, but all matches of Tottenham and Wolverhampton were excluded.

VOA analyzed, “The exclusion of Tottenham, currently leading the league, from the broadcasts appears to be intentional.”

The EPL is known for taking a tough stance against similar cases, having previously filed copyright infringement lawsuits against YouTube and Google. However, experts predict, “Since North Korea does not cooperate with international judicial procedures, it is difficult to obtain compensation through actual legal measures or to punish related North Korean parties.”

Meanwhile, North Korea’s Korean Central TV also illegally broadcast the 2023 Australia Women’s World Cup matches last July. FIFA, which holds the broadcasting rights, stated last month, “We take this issue very seriously,” and added, “If there is evidence of copyright infringement, we may potentially investigate.”

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