The KBO Secretariat announced that CJ ENM has been selected as the preferred bidder for the wired and wireless broadcasting rights of professional baseball.
If there is no unusual change in detailed negotiations, CJ ENM will get the “New Media Broadcasting Rights” of professional baseball for three years from this year.
The bidding also included portal and telecommunications associations centered on Naver, which broadcasted professional baseball for 18 years from 2006 to last year, and sports marketing company “Akla,” which operates “Spot TV,” and CJ ENM, which offered an average annual broadcasting fee of about 45 billion won, reportedly overwhelmed its competitors.
In 2019, the portal and telecommunications association won broadcasting rights for five years, nearly double the highest amount of professional sports in Korea, the annual average of 22 billion won.
In addition, CJ reportedly received positive reviews during the bidding process by announcing its plan to allow professional baseball videos to be uploaded to other platforms such as YouTube, excluding live broadcasts.
Now, the fans’ keen interest is whether or not to broadcast the first-ever professional baseball “paid.”
CJ is planning to broadcast professional baseball in real time through its OTT, TVing, which is likely to be paid in any form, and a CJ official said he would find the best way to satisfy fans through consultation with KBO.