KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) announced on the 4th that it has signed a contract with CJ ENM for wired and wireless broadcasting rights in the KBO League from 2024 to 2026. It will broadcast wired and wirelessly through TVING, Korea's leading OTT (Online Video Service), for three years from 2024, when this season begins.

Through this contract, CJ ENM will have the exclusive right to resell broadcasting rights as well as domestic wired and wireless broadcasting rights for all 2024-2026 KBO league games.

KBO conducted a competitive bid to select preferred negotiators from December 4th last year to January 3rd this year to select fair and objective operators. The criteria for selecting preferred negotiators were divided into technical evaluation (50%) consisting of various evaluation item indicators such as business performance capabilities, business strategy and operation plans, system and infrastructure construction, content activation plans, coverage security measures, and related business performance results, and price evaluation (50%) scores evaluating bid offer prices.

After the deadline for receiving bids, CJ ENM, which acquired the highest score in the comprehensive evaluation, was selected as the preferred bidder at an evaluation meeting on January 5 involving KBO's marketing subsidiary board members (head of marketing for each team), and KBO and CJ ENM reached a final agreement on the 16th of last month after about 40 days of preferential negotiations from January 8th.

Through this contract, any baseball fan will be able to freely use the game shorts video, which is less than 40 seconds long, on all social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. For the past five years, KBO league game videos have been restricted from using social media platforms by baseball fans. However, starting this season, baseball fans will be allowed to actively produce various videos. Through this, KBO and each club expect to increase the accessibility of new baseball fans and expand the base of fans through the use of various videos.

In addition, KBO and 10 clubs will also produce a wider range of content, including KBO league games, through official social media channels to provide baseball fans with entertainment that has not been seen before.

KBO held priority negotiations with CJ ENM on broadcasting rights contracts and discussed ways to cooperate in various services to improve the KBO league viewing experience and broadcast quality, and to help baseball fans enjoy the KBO league more diversely.

CJ ENM will officially provide additional functions such as highlights of all games, replay of the entire game provided by the existing wired and wireless broadcasting service provider, running 10 clubs' driving channels, a time machine function to replay missed scenes, and a chatting function, from the 23rd, the opening day of the regular season.

In particular, during the regular season, a game will be selected once a week to introduce "TVING SUPER MATCH," which will produce and broadcast differentiated baseball broadcasts that have not been seen before, including special preview shows, in-depth interviews with coaches and players, and review shows after the game.

CJ ENM will hold a special event to watch the KBO League for free from March 9 to April 30, when the exhibition game opens. During this period, all users who sign up for the TVing service can watch the KBO League live broadcast for free.

In addition, CJ ENM will directly produce exhibition games that are not broadcasted on TV and broadcast them on TV so that baseball fans can watch all the exhibition games of the cheering team.

If you purchase a TVing ticket after the free event period, you can watch all games of the KBO League regular season and postseason. In particular, the "Advertising Standard" plan, which will be released on the 4th, will allow you to enjoy all KBO league games in high definition (more than 1080P) with the lowest price of 5,500 won per month, as well as watch more than 160,000 contents including various entertainment, dramas and movies together. In addition, in the case of the KBO League live broadcast service, it will not operate pre-roll advertisements, and increase the viewing experience by allowing baseball fans to watch the games faster. Except for the live broadcasting service, all services such as replaying the entire game, highlighting the entire game, VOD, and text graphic broadcasting will be provided free of charge through TVing.

In addition, even on the smart TV platform, where it was previously difficult to access KBO league content, installing the TVing smart TV app will provide a service to enjoy the KBO league comfortably through a large screen.

"With independent content production know-how and differentiated sports broadcasting capabilities, we will provide stable broadcasting services and contain sincere content that can satisfy baseball fandom," a TVing official said. "We will do our best to help the KBO League face a spectacular revival with the Korea Baseball Organization."

A KBO official said, "We believe that the KBO League, which has joined hands with Korea's representative OTT, will receive more attention and love through active investment and support from TVing," adding, "Based on this partnership, clubs and fans will create new video contents to enhance pleasure and satisfaction and improve the quality of baseball broadcasting."  토토사이트먹튀

This contract for wired and wireless broadcasting rights is a total of 135 billion won (annual average of 45 billion won) for three years, the largest amount of wired and wireless broadcasting rights in Korean professional sports history. It is a super-large contract, which has more than doubled the annual average from a total of 110 billion won (annual average of 22 billion won) over five years, which is the size of existing wired and wireless broadcasting rights contracts.   

KBO has taken a big step forward in industrialization of the KBO league by signing a total of 162 billion won (54 billion won per year) in TV broadcasting rights contracts with three terrestrial broadcasting companies for three years and signing the largest wired and wireless broadcasting rights contract ever.