The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) made an important announcement on Tuesday. It has newly selected a candidate for negotiations over the right to broadcast wired and wireless communication in professional baseball. First of all, the person to be negotiated is CJ ENM. When detailed negotiations are completed, CJ ENM will take over the right to broadcast new media in professional baseball for three years until 2026.
Why is this important? The way fans encounter professional baseball may change completely. Fans have been able to watch baseball games through Naver, a portal site, in addition to TV broadcasts. Naver has immense market dominance, supplying broadcasting, video clips and even news. Fans could easily access baseball in their daily lives.
However, CJ ENM is far from Naver. It is prioritizing its subsidiary TVing. TVing is a representative online video service (OTT). To put it simply, one has to install the TVing application to watch baseball games on one’s mobile phone. Of course, it is not a big inconvenience. 카지노사이트 순위
The focus is money. OTT is a company that needs to make money by selling contents. It is also clear why CJ ENM jumped into the baseball league. It is for money. As its competitor Coupang Play invested heavily in soccer, CJ ENM turned to baseball. It promised to invest nearly 40 billion won a year to acquire broadcasting rights. Unless it is a charity project, more than this money should be recovered directly or indirectly.
What fans are worried about right now is whether they have to pay to watch baseball. It’s natural to pay for content, but professional baseball is different. Until now, it has been a strong public good character. Even if it’s not a large amount, interest can drop sharply if you suddenly have to pay.
KBO also paid most attention to this issue. First of all, universal viewing rights were important in the process of selecting a negotiation target. KBO’s selection of CJ ENM means that it has been promised this universal viewing right. To start with the conclusion, there is a very high probability that you will continue to watch baseball for free. That’s how it will go.
So, how does CJ ENM intend to make money? Everyone’s access is allowed, but a differential policy can be established. For example, it provides high-definition video to paid members or provides content that can be viewed independently other than broadcast. First, it is a method of gathering fans through free broadcasts and opening consumers’ wallets from the other side.
Therefore, fans will be able to access a wider variety of baseball contents. Other competitors of Naver were video platforms such as YouTube. Access to contents by other companies was very difficult. However, CJ ENM has room to open its contents to various media outlets. It is using a strategy to increase customer accessibility and pay conversion probability by throwing “bait” outright. The time may come when fans can upload some of their approved videos to their YouTube videos.