Naver, Daum not a destination to watch Russia World Cup

Russia's Fyodor Smolov, left, is in action with Saudi Arabia's goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf during the Russia 2018 World Cup Group A football match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on June 14. / Reuters-Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Hyun, a 36-year-old office worker living in Seoul, accessed Naver, Korea's largest portal site on Thursday midnight to watch the opening game of the FIFA Russia World Cup between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

But after a few minutes, he realized there was no way to watch the preliminary match through Naver and visited the live streaming and video-on-demand service provider “pooq.”

“I have watched prominent sporting events through Naver as it is the portal site I visit the most. Because Naver has a dedicated World Cup section, I thought I could watch the game through it. It is inconvenient that I had to try to find another way to watch the World Cup games,” Hyun said.

Like Hyun, a lot of people in Korea were inconvenienced Thursday night, but football fans are expected to watch the World Cup matches through major broadcasters and other mobile media platforms.

This is because Naver and Daum, the country's major portal sites, failed to reach a broadcasting rights agreement with the three major broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS as of Thursday.

The three broadcasters have reportedly invested in 120 billion ($110 million) to secure media rights for the Russia World Cup from FIFA. This is roughly a 30 percent increase compared with the previous 2014 Brazil World Cup.

Other than major broadcasters, viewers in Korea can watch the World Cup games through mobile media platforms including “oksusu,” “pooq” or “Uplus video portal.”

Industry watchers presume the portal sites couldn't narrow the price difference with the broadcasters. However, it remains to be seen whether the two sides reach an agreement at the last minute before Monday when the Korean national football team plays its first World Cup Group F preliminary match against Sweden.

According to a recent survey conducted by local market researcher DMC Media, football fans said they would visit Naver as their most favorite mobile channel for watching World Cup matches.

The market researcher's survey of 300 people between the ages of 19 and 49 showed that 78.2 percent chose Naver to watch the World Cup matches or to check the match results. Naver is followed by YouTube at 37.8 percent, Kakao TV at 19.7 percent and Facebook at 13 percent.

The respondents also said they would rather choose mobile (64 percent) instead of TV (58.3 percent) for watching the World Cup.