JTBC and Three Terrestrial Broadcasters Trade Blame Over Lack of Olympic Buzz

Unlike in the past, public enthusiasm for the Olympics has been slow to build, and major broadcasters are now locked in a blame game. Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company (JTBC), which holds the exclusive broadcasting rights, argues that KBS, MBC and SBS are providing only minimal coverage of the Games. An MBC official countered, saying, "Under universal access rules, the only official Olympic footage that broadcasters without rights can use is the roughly four minutes per day that rights holder JTBC is obligated to provide."
Some observers say this dispute between broadcasters is infringing on viewers’ right to fully enjoy the Olympics as a national celebration.
According to the media industry on the 16th, conflict between JTBC and the three terrestrial broadcasters (KBS, MBC and SBS) over exclusive coverage of the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics has been intensifying. At a seminar titled "Crisis of Sports Broadcasting Rights and Media Sovereignty" held on the 12th at the FKI Conference Center in Yeouido, Seoul, academics and officials from the three terrestrial broadcasters pointed to exclusive broadcasting rights as the main reason for the public’s indifference toward the Winter Games.
At the seminar, Park Se-jin, a professor in the Department of Media and Social Informatics at Hanyang University, argued, "The deplorable situation in which the public’s shared viewing experience of this Olympics has collapsed is ultimately the result of policy failure."
Kang Dong-soo, head of the MBC Sports Planning and Business Team, also stated, "Granting exclusive rights not only to broadcasting but also to new media to a single operator, thereby blocking channels that could build momentum, is a major reason why the Olympic atmosphere has failed to take off."
On the same day the seminar was held, JTBC aired a report titled "After terrestrial broadcasters lost their monopoly on Olympic rights, their coverage plummeted... They even refused to buy news rights." In it, JTBC asserted, "It is hard to find any sign of Olympic fever in the news programs and on the websites of the terrestrial broadcasters," directly challenging the three broadcasters’ claims.
JTBC further reported, "Once the terrestrial broadcasters’ monopoly was broken, they refused JTBC’s proposal for news rights that would have allowed them to report on equal footing with the rights holder, and drastically reduced the number of reporters they dispatched," adding, "In effect, it was the terrestrial broadcasters that chose to provide only minimal coverage, yet they continue to insist that they should have priority negotiation rights."
JTBC went on to say, "They also rejected the offer to purchase news rights that JTBC proposed in order to guarantee 'universal access' as much as possible," and argued, "The terms were favorable: about half the price the terrestrial broadcasters charged JTBC for the Beijing Olympics in 2022, nearly double the amount of footage, and even AD accreditation cards that would have allowed on-site reporting on equal footing with the rights holder."
The dispute over Olympic broadcasting rights between JTBC and the three terrestrial broadcasters continued even over the Lunar New Year holidays. On the 15th, MBC issued a detailed rebuttal of JTBC’s news report.
Responding to JTBC’s claim of "minimal coverage," an MBC official explained, "For international sports events such as the Olympics, broadcasting rights typically come as a package that links live broadcasting rights, news rights, on-site reporting rights and new media rights," and added, "Accordingly, the only official Olympic footage that broadcasters without live rights can use is the roughly four minutes per day that rights holder JTBC is obligated to provide under universal access rules."
He continued, "The footage JTBC is providing this time can only be used in three news programs, with a limit of two minutes per program, and even that cannot be used once 48 hours have passed since the end of the event," adding, "Online replays are also prohibited."
He also said, "JTBC’s criticism on its February 12 JTBC Newsroom broadcast that the three terrestrial broadcasters are neglecting coverage—for example, by not creating special Olympic sections on their websites—is a self-contradiction that blames the outcome on conditions JTBC itself created."
Regarding JTBC’s claim that the terrestrial broadcasters refused to purchase news rights offered at "half price," the MBC side countered, "The amount JTBC proposed actually exceeded half of what was charged at the time, so that assertion is not true," and added, "In 2022, when the three broadcasters jointly held the Olympic broadcasting rights, they received news-rights fees from JTBC and split them three ways, whereas as the exclusive rights holder for this Winter Olympics, JTBC can sell news rights separately to all broadcasters, including the three terrestrial networks, and generate revenue."
MBC went on to argue, "In reality, JTBC is not selling news rights at half price; the structure actually allows it to earn several times more profit than the terrestrial broadcasters did in the past."
JTBC then issued an official statement responding to MBC’s claims and launched another counterattack.
JTBC stated, "All of the conditions JTBC has proposed are based on precedent, and those precedents were all established when the terrestrial broadcasters held the rights," adding, "It is hard to accept the argument that they will not purchase reasonably priced news rights, yet claim that the lack of Olympic buzz is because the terrestrial broadcasters are not airing the Games."
JTBC continued, "The conditions are the same as in the past, and on-site reporting ultimately depends on each news organization’s willingness to cover the event," and said that the structure in which news rights are "sold to individual broadcasters so that revenue can be generated" is exactly the same as the model previously used by the terrestrial networks.
JTBC added, "Our proposal to include AD accreditation cards was intended solely to make on-site reporting easier for broadcasters that purchase news rights," noting, "The terrestrial broadcasters also signed contracts with individual outlets and sold news rights; they did not sell them in a single block to all general programming cable channels."
Meanwhile, during the women’s snowboard halfpipe final at the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, when Choi Ga-on secured Korea’s first gold medal of the Games, JTBC only displayed the moment on-screen as a caption on its main channel. The event was broadcast live exclusively on the JTBC Sports channel, while the main JTBC channel was airing a short track event. As a result, news of Choi’s gold medal was delivered to main-channel viewers only via a breaking-news caption during the race.

mj@fnnews.com Park Moon-soo Reporter