[Editor's Pick] Will this atmosphere continue for the next 7 years? "A bigger wave of Olympic indifference is coming"

The public's interest in the Winter Olympics is not what it used to be. [U Min-ji, Sinjeong-dong, Seoul: Because only one broadcasting company has exclusive rights. You can watch it while coming and going...

▶ Watch video

The national interest in the Winter Olympics is not what it used to be.

["Woo Minji / Seoul Sinjeong-dong: It's exclusive to one broadcasting company, so I could watch it by switching channels, but now even that is gone, so it's not very interesting." ]

For a long time, the three terrestrial broadcasters have formed 'Koreafull' to jointly purchase broadcasting rights, preventing the leakage of national assets and allowing everyone to enjoy international events for free.

However, the Central Group, which owns JTBC, secured the broadcasting rights for events such as the Olympics and World Cup from 2026 to 2032 at high prices, rejecting the Korea Full participation proposal.

At that time, the Central Group said, "There is absolutely no problem in securing universal viewership," and in its 2023 New Year's address, it officially announced the exclusive broadcasting of this Olympics.

However, once the broadcasting rights fees became a reality, they issued an unprecedented "package bidding notice" to shift costs to terrestrial broadcasters, and eventually filed a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission, accusing Korea Pool of "collusion."

Central Group is once again requesting participation from terrestrial broadcasters ahead of the World Cup in June.

Although the three terrestrial broadcasters are cooperating in the negotiations, if they accept the broadcasting rights fee proposed by the Central Group in a situation where broadcast advertising revenue has sharply declined, they will inevitably face a deficit of hundreds of billions of won.

Legal issues such as embezzlement and infringement of shareholders' interests are also a concern.

The broadcasting ecosystem is being practically forced to deal with the aftermath of excessive exclusive broadcasting rights.

The expansion of Korea was proposed as a solution.

[Sim Miseon, Professor, Department of Media Communication, Soonchunhyang University: ...creating an expanded Korea Pool at the national level, centered around regulatory authorities, with all business operators participating.]

[Lee Jong-sung, Professor at the Department of Sports Industry Science, Hanyang University: If a consortium like Korea Full encompasses all digital aspects, it could serve as a function to prevent problems.]

It has been pointed out that only if there are no free terrestrial broadcasters like Australia, the broadcasting rights fees can be reduced, even if they purchase the rights.

"Claiming to be the sole broadcaster, but shifting the burden?" ... "Expanding Korea Full" (8 News, 2026.02.12)

(Reporting: Jeon Byung-nam, Video Reporting: Lim Woo-sik · Kim Nam-seong, Video Editing: Jung Sung-hoon, Design: Lee Joon-ho, Production: Digital News Department)

Live popular news articles

" I want to live in Korea " - Died after working for a month as burned remains

[Subtitled News] "Putting your face into a boiling deep fryer" ... The Mystery of the Chef's Death

[Subtitled News] This is completely a Cambodian method... They lure poor young people with low prices, steal their passports, and send them to war zones.