Going out on a whimper
Ineptitude, ill-grace may cost KCC its regulatory powers
By Cho Mu-hyun
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) may lose its power to make and revise broadcasting laws, according to industry sources Sunday.
The nation’s converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications is under fire for its recent revision of the broadcasting law that many speculate unduly favors CJ Group, which has affiliates with considerable power both in content and services in the media market.
The regulator’s laws are signed off on by the National Assembly Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications. This is made up of 30 lawmakers that judge whether law proposed by the KCC are fair and reasonable. The meetings are overseen by the Minister of Culture, Sport and Tourism.
“The committee is considering totally stripping the KCC’s rights to make and revise broadcasting law in the near future or during the next administration,” said a source knowledgeable on committee issues.
Some ruling Saenuri Party members of the committee were especially harsh on the revised law proposed by the KCC, as they fear the wrath of Samsung Group, said an industry official who requested anonymity. Samsung and CJ are bitter rivals due to a feud over the inheritance of their respective chairmen brothers Lee Kun-hee and Lee Maeng-hee. “Politicos want to keep Samsung, which will not like CJ winning more administrative advantage to expand its business, happy.”
“In principle, we plan to proceed with the proposed revision and are in the process of initiating related work,” said a KCC representative. “However, as there are strong protests, especially from the Assembly, we plan to convince them of the necessity of the revision.”
The representative said that it was not the regulator’s intention to favor a specific business over others. It plans more efforts in explaining the new law more thoroughly to Assembly members.
The current law sets a revenue cap on a single program provider in the interest of fair competition.
The KCC sets the total annual revenue by program providers at 2.1 trillion won, and no single company may invest or promote its business that will result in earning more than 33 percent of that figure. The revised law increases the cap to 49 percent.
The new law also revises requirements concerning service operators, such as cable, satellite and digital broadcasters.
The current law designates a maximum subscriber cap for each business with a set boundary. For example, a single cable business can acquire up to 33 percent of a total of 14.86 million households which the KCC deems their limit. The revision will do away with parceling out the market for respective businesses, instead setting the limit at 33 percent for 21.34 million households.
CJ Group has powerful affiliates in both service operations and program providers in CJ Hellovision and CJ E&M respectively. Industry officials think the new law will allow the conglomerate to monopolize the domestic broadcasting business.
This is not the first time the KCC has been criticized over its decision on the broadcasting laws. It recently judged a digital transmission service without an antenna launched by KT SkyLife to be illegal though there were no related laws to govern the technology. The agency has vowed to make revisions to cope with the situation.