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The unexpected success enjoyed by Korea's national baseball team has spawned a conflict among the nation¡¯s three major TV networks. They had originally agreed to take turns in broadcasting the World Baseball Classic games in which Korea appeared and that the Korea Broadcasting System would broadcast the semifinal and final games. But now that the other networks of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and Seoul Broadcasting System broadcast their own coverage of the games and began airing promos for the event, a deep rift has sprung up between them.
It is KBS which purchased the rights to broadcast the games from the WBC organizing committee in the first place. The company, however, in negotiations with MBC and SBS before concluding the broadcasting contract, reached a "gentlemen's agreement" where each of the three networks would broadcast two games of the 6 where the national team took the field during the 1st and 2nd rounds, and split the contract money three ways. Such a decision was based on the expectation that ¡°the national team would not make it into the semifinal game¡±.
Currently, it is KBS that holds all the cards, being that they concluded the contract and thus have the rights to broadcast the games. MBC and SBS, however, are insisting that ¡°We had not considered a scenario in which the Korean team made it into the final four and therefore additional negotiations need to be held, like there is precedent for these circumstances. We too cannot simply fail to cover these events¡±.
¡±We have thought hard about what to do regarding letting the other networks broadcast the events after the national baseball team secured their advancement to the semifinals, but it was absurd that MBC and SBS ran their own promos for broadcasts of the semifinal game on Thursday night and Friday morning respectively, without first consulting with us,¡± KBS said. ¡°We have already suffered severe infringement on our rights to broadcast the WBC games and will not allow these two networks to air the games as they insisted,¡± the company added.
KBS has sent an official document to the WBC organizing committee, asking the body to warn MBC and SBS not to broadcast the semifinal game. ¡°According to what MBC and SBS say, they will broadcast the games by directly receiving satellite signals sent from ESPN, the designated broadcaster of the WBC, without passing through KBS, but if they actually do so, the WBC organizing committee will sue them,¡± an official familiar with the matter said. MBC and SBS have yet to make clear their position on broadcasting the WBC games directly through ESPN.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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