By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is stepping in to settle the dispute between television stations over the broadcasting rights of major sporting events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.
The KCC, the country's converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, will call in the top executives of the three biggest national television networks ― KBS, MBC and SBS ― to a meeting of its commissioners Monday, looking to work out a truce before the World Cup tournament in June.
KBS and MBC jointly filed for arbitration with the KCC in January, questioning whether SBS's exclusive rights to broadcast the next few Olympic Games and World Cup tournaments is a violation of the country's broadcasting law.
However, despite KCC's peace-making efforts, SBS refused to cut a deal with its rival broadcasters over the reselling of its broadcasting rights and went on to provide sole coverage of the Vancouver Winter Games last month.
The KCC will summon another commissioners' meeting on Wednesday and could decide whether to force SBS to resell its broadcasting rights.
``Monday's meeting will be a time for the commissioners to grasp what each broadcaster has to say and what exactly are the issues of debate, to get enough information before discussing and agreeing on a conclusion,'' said a KCC spokesman.
In the complaint filed to the KCC, KBS and MBC claimed that SBS securing exclusive rights over the sporting events violates the broadcasting law that mandates television stations to provide universal access.
However, the law defines universal access as covering a minimum of 90 percent of all Korean households, a criterion that SBS claims it met.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded SBS the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games through 2016 following a bidding process in 2006.
This caught KBS and MBC off guard, as the three major terrestrial broadcasters had previously agreed to an alliance and a bid of $63 million. SBS, which decided to break off at the last minute, landed the four Games deal after bidding $72.5 million, much to the dismay of its rivals.
SBS also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights to the FIFA World Cup football tournaments through 2014.
KBS and MBC claim that SBS's shopping spree on broadcasting rights resulted in an unnecessary spending of more than 40 billion won of ``national wealth,'' compared to the price the broadcasters were willing to pay as a team.
However, in response, SBS accuses KBS and MBC for hypocrisy, saying that it too has been often squeezed out by its two rivals in covering popular sporting events over the years, including some World Cup regional qualifications rounds.
KCC officials say that the viewer complaints over SBS's exclusive coverage on the Vancouver Winter Games would also be discussed.
Although SBS enjoyed impressive ratings for its Olympic broadcasting, many viewers voiced their frustrations on the SBS Web site and Internet discussion boards over the network's supposedly weak commitment to live competition and breadth of coverage.