9th Tie Game but "The Match Has Ended"... TVING Broadcast Glitch

Pro Baseball Live Broadcast Suspended Just Two Days After Opening
Fans' Fierce Criticism... "Seems Like a Businessperson Who Doesn't Understand Baseball"

The online video streaming service (OTT) platform TVING, which holds exclusive broadcasting rights for this year's professional baseball league, experienced a broadcast accident just two days after the regular season opener, causing a live broadcast interruption.

On the 24th, TVING suddenly stopped the live broadcast during the top of the 9th inning of the 2024 Shinhan Solbank KBO League game between the Lotte Giants and SSG Landers held at Incheon SSG Landers Field. The broadcast was cut off abruptly while the two teams were tied at 6-6, and the phrase "The game has ended" appeared on the screen.

The screen was reconnected about a minute later, and the game concluded with Lotte failing to score additional runs and SSG winning with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

TVING stated, "During the top of the 9th inning between Lotte and SSG, a broadcast interruption of about one minute occurred due to an operational error in the transmission system. We sincerely apologize to the KBO, team officials, and viewers for the inconvenience caused. We will thoroughly re-examine the entire broadcasting system to ensure that such incidents do not recur."

On the afternoon of the 24th at Incheon SSG Landers Field, during the 2024 Shinhan Sol Bank KBO League game between the Lotte Giants and SSG Landers, Lotte's starting pitcher Park Se-woong is pitching in the bottom of the 1st inning.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, fans unleashed fierce criticism through online communities and social media (SNS). Since Lotte, who was trailing 0-6 until the bottom of the 8th inning and facing imminent defeat, scored 6 runs in the top of the 9th to tie the game, the fans' anger was inevitably greater. Related forums were flooded with posts such as "How many times will TVING cause accidents this season?" and "They seem like a company that knows nothing about baseball."

TVING secured the rights to broadcast the KBO League on wired and wireless platforms for the next three years with a total contract amount of 135 billion KRW (an average of 45 billion KRW per year) on the 4th of this month. This is the highest amount ever paid for domestic professional sports wired and wireless broadcasting rights, surpassing the previous contract of 110 billion KRW over five years (an average of 22 billion KRW per year).

However, TVING has faced criticism since the preseason for repeatedly making mistakes such as incorrectly labeling basic baseball terms and producing unstructured highlight videos. On the 12th, a briefing session was held attended by CEO Choi Ju-hee and others, where they apologized for the issues so far and promised to prevent recurrence.

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