KBO broadcast, now you can watch it on ‘TVING’? Acceleration of OTT sports broadcasting market penetration

KBO Secretariat selects TVING parent company CJ ENM as preferred negotiation partner for broadcasting rights
The industry predicts the possibility of KBO paid broadcasting through TVING, but TVING is ‘silent’
Another tectonic shift brought about by OTT, continued confusion among existing operators and viewers

Native OTT’s strategy of targeting ‘sports broadcasting’ has caught fire. On the 8th, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Secretariat announced that CJ ENM was selected as the preferred negotiating partner for the wired and wireless (new media) broadcasting rights business for the 8-2024 season. Detailed negotiations are scheduled to be held later, and if the negotiations are concluded smoothly, OTT TVING, a subsidiary of CJ ENM, will have the exclusive right to broadcast professional baseball wired and wireless for the next three years.

With KBO’s broadcasting rights ‘TVING’, there are concerns about paying a fee

The KBO Secretariat has been conducting bidding to select candidates for the wired and wireless broadcasting rights project since the 4th of last month. Three companies participated in the bidding, including the Telecommunications and Portal Alliance (SK Telecom, LG U+, Naver, Afreeca TV), CJ ENM, and Acla, a specialized TV broadcasting rights operator. It is said that the KBO secretariat highly evaluated CJ ENM in terms of the bid amount and the expandability of the media platform and selected it as the preferred negotiating partner.

If the negotiations between CJ ENM and the secretariat are completed, changes that cannot be ignored are expected to occur in the future sports broadcasting market. Until now, professional baseball broadcasts were available for free on TV on the sports channels of the three broadcasting companies and on SPOTV, a media outlet under Acla, and online on various portal sites, including Naver. However, if CJ ENM puts its own OTT, TVING, at the forefront as its exclusive online broadcasting platform, there is a possibility that KBO broadcasting itself will be converted to a paid service.

The industry is analyzing that considering the amount of broadcasting rights presented by CJ ENM, free service will actually be difficult. The amount proposed by CJ ENM to win wired and wireless broadcasting rights is known to be approximately 1,200 billion won. Although Tving has not yet clearly stated its position regarding paid broadcasting, the industry believes that there is a high possibility that Tving will only provide general quality broadcasting including advertisements for free in the future or resell broadcasting rights.

Changes that will be brought about by TVING’s KBO broadcasting

Existing KBO game broadcasting platform operators, such as Naver, LG U+ Spokey, SK Telecom A., and Afreeca TV, are paying close attention to changes in the situation. This is because if negotiations for the resale of broadcasting rights with CJ ENM fail, we may find ourselves in an awkward situation where we have to stop broadcasting services. Sports fans who were watching KBO broadcasts for free on various online platforms also could not hide their bewilderment.

Some are concerned that if the barrier to watching KBO broadcasts increases, a ‘second Nunu TV’ specialized in sports broadcasts may emerge in the future. The opinion is that viewers who are dissatisfied with having to pay for content that was previously free will look for expedients. Nunu TV is synonymous with an ‘illegal site’ that provides content from major domestic and international OTT services for free. It was shut down once after being caught causing huge copyright losses in the OTT industry.

Meanwhile, some say that paid broadcasting through OTT is a ‘natural trend.’ The trend of broadcasting sports games is moving from TV to streaming platforms. In fact, Amazon Prime Video has secured exclusive broadcasting rights to many sports games, including the NFL, an American football game. Apple TV has been exclusively broadcasting all American professional soccer games starting in 2023. In the domestic OTT industry, competition for broadcasting rights is in full swing, centered around Coupang Play, which focuses on sports broadcasting services. As OTT operators have emerged as a new axis in the sports broadcasting market, what changes will CJ ENM bring to the market?