The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said on the 8th, "CJ ENM has been selected as the preferred bidder for the 2024-2026 KBO League wired and wireless (new media) broadcasting rights project," adding, "We will hold detailed negotiations with CJ ENM, which is the target of the negotiation." If the negotiations are finally completed, we plan to announce the size of the contract and major matters."
Companies selected as KBO league wired and wireless broadcasting rights operators will retain the business rights to live broadcast, highlight, VOD streaming rights, and resell 2024-2026 KBO League games and major events organized by KBO. The broadcasting area is limited to the territory of the Republic of Korea.
According to the baseball community, CJ ENM was highly evaluated not only for the bid amount but also for the scalability of the media platform.
As the number of people who watch professional baseball through various mobile platforms instead of traditional media such as TV and IPTV increases, the baseball community also gave a lot of points to consortiums that put openness ahead of platform closure.
For example, CJ ENM plans to allow full use of professional baseball videos. It will open all other services, including highlights and clips, in addition to live performances. Anyone can make new contents by re-editing baseball videos. It will also be possible to post such contents on social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram and YouTube.
The use of baseball videos has been actively carried out, but has been banned since 2021. This is because the communications and portal association, which was in charge of the wired and wireless broadcasting rights project for five years from 2019 to 2023, declared legal action against uploading game videos.
Ordinary people who made and shared content using baseball videos received messages such as "The video you posted infringes on the KBO's copyright. If all posts are not deleted immediately within two days, the law firm will file a complaint and accusation from May, and there will be no leniency." Professional baseball teams were also unable to write video clips of the game on their official YouTube. The camera was only directed to the dugout, not the ground.
If CJ ENM takes over the broadcasting rights business after final negotiations with KBO, the measure will be lifted, which could revitalize the content production market again.
If the game's main scenes, critical moments, fun scenes, and content about a specific player spread widely through SNS, it can attract the interest of not only existing baseball fans but also potential baseball fans. The influx of new fans is also a promising effect.
However, there are many views that such diversification of content will also be engulfed in positive or negative views depending on how CJ ENM's broadcasting fee is paid.
CJ ENM is expected to broadcast professional baseball through its OTT service "Tving." As a result, some are expressing concern that they should pay to watch professional baseball, which had been available for free through portal sites.
In fact, if CJ ENM focuses only on generating profits through TVing, the effects of diversifying new media baseball contents can be halved. From the perspective of KBO, "universal viewing rights" are also important. In other words, the demand for additional content can increase only when the threshold for broadcasting is lowered. Everyone should maintain a certain level of access to professional baseball, which was free and comfortable. Attention is focused on the results of negotiations between the two sides.