After two months, it may still be too early to make a correct assessment, but again we are obliged to ask if it was the right decision for the government to license four new “general programming” cable channels and a news-only network at the same time last December. As of last week, all the four new cable broadcasters providing news and entertainment programs were struggling with average viewer shares below 0.4 percent.
According to the AGB Nielson Media Research report, MBN came top with 0.385 percent on the sample day of Feb. 3, trailed by Channel A with 0.380 percent, JTBC with 0.339 percent and TV Chosun with 0.313 percent. Overall, it can be said that just 3-4 of every 1,000 televisions in Korea were showing a program provided by each of the four new general cable channels at any given time.
Considering that all these channels are enthusiastically promoted by their respective owners ― the Maeil, Dong-A, JoongAng and Chosun newspapers ― and that some viewers must still be pressing their remote on them simply out of curiosity, the ratings indicate that the new entrants have long, hard days ahead of them. Initial business analyses had predicted that the new broadcasters would be able to stay afloat if they each achieved average ratings of 2 percent or higher.
We will be seeing a game of chicken game among the broadcasters for some time, with the four larger newspapers making unlimited competition to remain in the market as long as their capital can support them. What is feared is that they could now be tempted to turn to sensationalism, sex and violence, the poisons in commercial broadcasting, in order to raise their ratings.
Some day the law of natural selection will prevail and one, two or three of them will be forced to make an exit. Yet, one can survive if it finds the right combination of public service broadcasting and entertainment, perhaps ironically by giving up on general programming and specializing in news, investigative reporting, documentaries, sports or public education.
Competing against the existing terrestrial broadcasters in the areas of pop culture may be too costly and hardly rewarding. In the meantime, they are advised not to abandon the principles of sound broadcasting, which the newspapers that now operate the cable channels have been preaching about to the existing networks.
