Korean streaming service Tving lambasted for litany of errors as baseball coverage begins

The start of preseason baseball in Korea was marred by technical issues with streaming service Tving, including low-quality broadcasts, naming errors, soundless games and incorrect use of baseball terminology

A graphic on the Tving broadcast of a game between the Samsung Lions and Hanwha Eagles incorrectly labels a Hanwha player as ″save″ not ″safe″ at third base in an image posted on social media on Sunday. The English term ″safe″ is used in Korean baseball. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Baseball returned to Korea over the weekend as the two-week preseason schedule began with a lot of excitement, especially down in Daejeon where the Hanwha Eagles sold out on Saturday and Sunday as fans clamored to get a peek of Ryu Hyun-jin sitting in the dugout.

But for some fans watching at home, the experience was a lot more confusing. As well as the return of Ryu — who is yet to actually pitch for the Eagles — the weekend also marked the debut of CJ ENM’s streaming service Tving as the new digital home of Korean baseball.

And it’s fair to say there were some teething problems.

Tving, which paid a record 135 billion won ($101 million) for KBO’s wired and wireless broadcasting rights for the next three seasons, faced significant criticism from fans over the weekend for a long list of sins including patchy and low-quality broadcasts, a game shown without any sound, naming players incorrectly, covering league sponsor Shinhan Bank’s logo, failing to upload timely highlight videos and, the biggest sin of all, errors in graphics that suggest the powers that be might not actually understand the game.

One such mistake that immediately went viral was an error in the graphics that saw Tving mark “safe” as “save,” apparently not understanding the English term that is also used in Korean baseball.

Other rookie errors included using players’ jersey numbers as their batting numbers — in baseball, batters are referred to by their place in the batting lineup, not by their jersey number — and, in one particularly confusing instance, reportedly using the names of NC Dinos’ players during a game between the Kiwoom Heroes and Doosan Bears.

A graphic on the Tving broadcast of a game between the Samsung Lions and Hanwha Eagles incorrectly labels Chae Eun-seong as the No. 22 batter in an image posted on social media on Saturday. He was actually batting fifth. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The list goes on. Sunday’s game between the Samsung Lions and Hanwha Eagles was reportedly broadcast at least in part without any sound, and fans had to wait about four hours for highlights reels to be uploaded after the games, a process that was handled within 30 minutes by a Naver AI system under the former contract.

The very nature of the Tving contract also proved controversial over the weekend, when some television rights holders opted not to broadcast the exhibition games.

Under the previous digital rights contract, operated by a consortium of portal websites Naver and Kakao alongside telecom companies KT, LG U+ and SK Broadband, games could be broadcast for free on the Naver website while Tving requires a membership to the paid streaming service.

Hanwha Eagles fans fill Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon for a preseason exhibition game against the Samsung Lions on Saturday. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Tving will hold a press conference at its office in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Tuesday to discuss its plans to improve baseball coverage throughout the season.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]