By Park Jin-hai
With its long-running reality show “Infinite Challenge” currently off the air for seven weeks, starting from Jan. 28, MBC is estimated to have lost over 2 billion won in lost commercial sales, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday.
Yonhap said commercial sales for a variety special that MBC is airing instead of “Infinite Challenge” have fallen 50 percent.
The three-part variety special, starring 40-year-old hallyu star Kwon Sang-woo and entertainer Jung Jun-ha, is suffering from a drop in viewers, which led to the poor commercial sales.
The new show’s viewership recorded 5 to 6 percent, a sharp drop from the 11 to 15 percent of “Infinite Challenge.”
“For the past two weeks, while Infinite Challenge took a break, more than half of MBC’s commercials aired during that time slot have gone,” said an advertizing industry insider. “Until Infinite Challenge resumes, we expect similar or worse losses.”
Following the replacement show “Best of Infinite Challenge” specials will hit the air waves in the next four weeks. Since these are reruns, they could post worse commercial sales.
The “Infinite Challenge” producer requested a break due to a lack of ideas and accumulated fatigue of the staff.
Each Infinite Challenge episode normally sells 40 15 second commercials worth 13.5 million won for a total of 540 million won in sales during the primetime weekend show. Over the seven week hiatus, the show could have pocketed 3.8 billion won in commercial sales and more from product placements.