Choi Ji-hye, Senior Research Fellow, Korea Press Foundation
It has been pointed out that online video services (OTT), YouTube, etc. earn enormous profits from advertising without any regulations, while broadcasting is blocked by regulations and is discriminated against. The argument is that various broadcasting-related regulations that remain at the level of 30 years ago should be relaxed.
Choi Ji-hye, a senior research fellow at the Korea Press Foundation, analyzed this, saying, “Without improvement in old regulations, the entire media industry is quickly moving to OTT or mobile media, creating a tilted playing field.” This was through a presentation on ‘Plans for improving regulations on broadcast advertising’ at the Korean Society of Broadcasting and Broadcasting held at Chung-Ang University last weekend.
According to the Korea Communications Commission‘s ‘2023 Fiscal Year Broadcasting Business Property Status’, last year’s broadcasting business sales were KRW 18.9734 trillion and broadcast advertising sales were KRW 2.4983 trillion, down 4.7% and 19.0%, respectively, from the previous year. Broadcast advertising expenses are one-third of the online advertising share (57.1%). Researcher Choi said, “Consumers’ content consumption behavior has changed significantly,” and added, “Digital platforms are a more attractive advertising channel for advertisers because they enable sophisticated targeting using viewer data.”
Researcher Choi believed that in order to improve this, broadcast advertising regulations should be improved to match the changed environment. He said, “We need to come up with a plan to secure financial resources stably and look at the ‘content’ industry and the media industry as a whole from a perspective of regulation that is limited to just the medium of TV.”
It was suggested that improving broadcasting regulations could help resolve the problem of lack of financial resources for paid broadcasting, which is considered the root cause of content usage fee disputes. Researcher Choi said, “In a situation where average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) is low, the broadcast channel usage business (PP) industry can be promoted by easing broadcast advertising regulations.”
Measures to improve regulations were also discussed. Researcher Choi proposed simplifying advertising types, easing restrictions on the total daily amount of broadcast advertising, and introducing ‘title sponsorship’, which attaches the advertiser’s name to the title of a broadcast program. The Korea Communications Commission has been discussing title sponsorship since August 2015, and announced its intention to introduce title sponsorship through its business plan in March of this year.
Researcher Choi emphasized, “Domestic government is adopting a positive regulation format that does not suit the rapid environmental changes in broadcasting media,” and added, “For a flexible negative regulation method, it is necessary to form a pan-ministerial consultative body and revise related laws.”
“Unlike the media environment that has changed rapidly over the past 10 years, the domestic broadcast advertising market has maintained a very conservative regulatory policy,” said Seon-ho, head of CJ ENM’s strategic support team, who attended the panel. “While the domestic broadcast advertising market has been confined by the entry barrier of regulations, YouTube “Global OTTs such as these are quickly encroaching on the video advertising market,” he said.
Team leader Seon said, “Policies such as the introduction of a daily cap system for broadcast advertising, conversion to negative regulations, and title sponsorship are the minimum self-rescue measures for the stagnant domestic broadcast advertising market to take a leap forward with competitiveness.” He added, “For the stagnant broadcasting industry to take a leap forward, broadcast advertising regulations must be implemented.” “It must be more proactive and fully relaxed,” he said.
Reporter Kwon Hye-mi hyeming@etnews.com
