Korea‘s broadcasting revenue declines for first time in 10 yrs in 2023

[Photo by MK DB]

The total revenue of South Korea’s broadcasting sector declined for the first time in 10 years in 2023, with advertising revenue also hitting its lowest point in 10 years.

According to data released by the Korea Communications Commission on Wednesday, the total broadcasting business revenue reached 18.97 trillion won ($13.7 billion) in 2023, down 4.7 percent from a year ago.

By operator category, internet protocol television (IPTV) sector revenue increased by 112.9 billion won from the previous year to 5 trillion won, but all other categories saw decreases.

The terrestrial broadcasting sector, in particular, saw a 10.2 percent decrease to 3.73 trillion won. Program provider (PP) sector recorded 7.11 trillion won, satellite broadcasting sector 492 billion won, content provider (CP) sector 898 billion won, and system operator (SO) sector 1.73 trillion won.

Compared to 2022, last year’s broadcasting business revenue share decreased for home shopping PPs to 18.4 percent from 18.6 percent, terrestrial broadcasting to 19.7 percent from 20.9 percent, and general PPs to 19.1 percent from 19.7 percent. The share for IPTV increased to 26.4 percent from 24.6 percent. SO remained unchanged at 9.1 percent.

Broadcast advertising revenue last year was 2.5 trillion won, down 19 percent from the previous year.

During this period, terrestrial broadcasting’s advertising revenue fell by 23.3 percent to 927.3 billion won, PP decreased by 16.9 percent to 1.36 trillion won, IPTV dropped by 24.7 percent to 72.4 billion won, and satellite broadcasting declined by 10.4 percent to 27.5 billion won.

SO saw a slight increase of 0.8 percent to 110.5 billion won. In the advertising market by media type, the share of terrestrial broadcasting decreased to 37.1 percent in 2023 from 57.4 percent in 2014, while PP increased to 54.4 percent from 37.1 percent.