[Reporter’s Notebook] Who Is Next After JTBC?

A Collapsing Broadcast Advertising Market Presents Its Bill
Government Stood By for a Decade Amid Rapid Market Shifts

JoongAng Group overreached. Trusting in a shrinking broadcast advertising market, it poured astronomical sums into production costs. It even sold off future revenue sources, such as intellectual property (IP). Ultimately, the group was unable to cover 20.6 billion won in securitized borrowings and turned to the court for relief. If this were the end, it would simply be recorded as the failure of a single company. However, this situation exposes a crisis affecting the entire Korean broadcasting industry.

JTBC has been operating at a loss since 2019. For seven consecutive years, it has failed to escape this downward spiral. Some attribute this to the withdrawal of specific advertisers or political variables, but the core issue lies elsewhere. The year 2019 marks the point when the domestic broadcast advertising market began to structurally falter. The decline has only accelerated since then.

The broadcast advertising market shrank by 5% year-on-year to 3.2191 trillion won in 2024. It is estimated that last year, the market contracted further to around 2.7744 trillion won. In contrast, the online advertising market is projected to grow by 7.9% to 10.1011 trillion won in 2024, and it likely expanded to 10.7204 trillion won last year as well.

Advertising budgets have shifted from TV to digital platforms and are not returning. Assemblyman Han Minsu of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee recently pointed out, “Broadcast advertising spending has been declining for a decade, rapidly eroding the industry’s foundation.” Kang Singyu, Senior Research Fellow at Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation, also emphasized that phased deregulation of advertising could attract new advertisers. In other words, the issue is not unique to JTBC—the very structure of the industry is shaking.

Broadcasters have each sought their own survival strategies. They filled their schedules with relatively low-cost programs, such as trot audition shows, observational entertainment, and senior-focused variety shows. This was effective in the short term but had clear limitations, as cost reduction alone cannot sustain operations in a continuously shrinking advertising market.

Meanwhile, YouTube and Netflix rapidly absorbed both viewers and advertisers. While domestic broadcasters contended with a host of regulations—including caps on total advertising volume, restrictions on mid-program commercials, and product placement reviews—these global platforms expanded their market share virtually unhindered. The government allowed this structural shift to persist for years.

The Korea Communications Commission recently announced plans to increase the cap on total broadcast advertising and to relax mid-program commercial standards. However, the reason advertisers are turning away from TV is not simply a lack of available ad time. Without fundamental changes—such as innovation in in-program advertising formats and the development of new advertising products linked to YouTube and OTT platforms—the crisis will inevitably repeat itself.

It would be a mistake for other broadcasters to view this situation as someone else’s problem. While trot audition shows and low-budget variety programs might slow the market’s contraction, they cannot prevent it. The broadcast advertising market will continue to shrink, while global platforms draw in even more viewers and advertisers. The real question now is not “Why did JoongAng Group collapse?” but rather, “Who’s next—and what must change?”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.