You can watch it on TV for 5,500 won per month. Dissatisfaction is expressed in the Internet community.
Starting this year, you will have to pay to watch Korean professional baseball games on a smartphone, tablet PC, or laptop computer. This is because CJ ENM, which signed a contract with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for the rights to broadcast wired and wireless (online) professional baseball games, decided to 'pay for viewing.' The telecommunications and portal consortium (Naver, Kakao, KT, LG U+, SK Broadband), which had the rights to broadcast professional baseball online for five years until last year, made it possible to watch games for free.
KBO announced on the 4th, “We have signed a contract with CJ ENM for wired and wireless broadcasting rights for professional baseball games.” The contract period is 3 years (2024-2026). The contract size is 135 billion won (45 billion won per year), which is the largest ever for a domestic professional sports online broadcasting contract. In the case of the previous telecommunications and portal consortium, the total amount was 110 billion won (22 billion won per year) over 5 years, but the annual amount has more than doubled.
CJ ENM broadcasts professional baseball games through the online video service (OTT) ‘Tving.’ Only TVing subscribers can watch professional baseball games on smartphones, tablet PCs, or laptop computers. CJ ENM allows TVING members to watch professional baseball exhibition games starting on the 9th and regular league games starting on the 23rd for free until April 30th. However, starting May 1, TVing subscribers will also have to pay at least 5,500 won per month to watch professional baseball games.
There are also voices of dissatisfaction among fans, including the Internet baseball community, over having to pay to watch online professional baseball broadcasts. They are dissatisfied with the creation of a barrier to watching baseball, the most popular sport with more than 8 million people visiting the stadium each year. This broadcasting rights contract between KBO and CJ ENM is limited to online viewing, including smartphones, so professional baseball broadcasts through terrestrial and cable TV sports channels can be viewed as before.
KBO recently extended its professional baseball TV broadcasting rights contract with three terrestrial broadcasters for a total of 162 billion won (54 billion won per year) for three years until 2026. 온라인섯다