‘Infinite Challenge’off air after 5 years as strike continues
As the union members of the two major public broadcasters KBS and MBC are on strike at the same time, both union and management have shown no signs of dialogue in the past week. The broadcasters’ all-out strike and production boycott are expected to continue.
With no apparent party to mediate between both sides, the unions uphold their claim that they will come to the dialogue table on the premise that their CEOs step down, while management insists so on the condition that union members stop the production boycott and return to work first.
Due to the strike and production boycott, MBC has suffered the most. With 1,800 union members including reporters, photojournalists and producers who have joined the strike,many of its TV and radio shows have been canceled and the broadcaster is getting by with reruns of many programs.
MBC’s long running popular show “Infinite Challenge” was canceled and aired an edited rerun Saturday. It is the first time the show’s production has been stopped since 2012, when it ceased airing for 24 weeks as part of a 170-day strike as a protest against the Lee Myung-bak administration’s attempts to control the media. Many other popular programs such as “King of Mask Singer,” “I Live Alone” and “Radio Star” have been replaced with reruns and have seen their viewership reduced to half. The “Infinite Challenge” rerun broadcast on Saturday posted a 4.6 percent rating from the previous episode’s 9.2 percent, while the “I Live Alone” rerun aired Friday posted 4.8 percent, from 11 percent of the previous week.
The confrontation between MBC’s union and its management has worsened lately, as MBC chief Kim Jang-gyeom was arrested and questioned by the labor ministry on Sept. 5 over allegations he violated labor laws and unfairly exerted influence over personnel affairs at the company based on political inclinations.
Public broadcaster KBS, whose viewership ratings haven’t reflected the strike yet as aired shows it shot in advance of the strike, has seen viewership gains this weekend. The viewership of its popular shows “The Return of Superman” and “2 Days & 1 Night” posted double digits.
However, things will soon change, as 2,000 KBS union members have joined the strike calling for CEO Ko Dae-young to resign for allegedly exerting undue influence on political angles in news broadcasting. The KBS board of directors held an emergency meeting to discuss measures for the strike, but Ko didn’t appear and no countermeasure has been reached to bridge the wide gap between the union and management.
Chung Jun-hee, a professor at Chung-Ang University, says a third party may need to prevent the strike from dragging on. “Under the cur- rent conditions, it is hard to come to a solution. Some claim the revision of the broadcasting amendment, which is pending in the National Assembly, should be approved immediately. It might be a tall order since it is suspected lawmakers have an earnest intention to push with it,” he said. “If the deadlock continues, the Korea Communications Commission may have to carry out an ex officio investigation to find what has gone wrong at those broadcasting companies.”