Korean Broadcasting System

Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)
한국방송공사
Type Broadcast radio and
television
Country South Korea
Availability National
International
Launch date 1927 (radio); 1961 (television); 1996 (satellite); 1998 (digital); 2005 (DMB)
Official website www.kbs.co.kr
Korean name
Hangul 한국방송공사
Hanja 韓國放送公社
Revised Romanization Han-guk Bangsong Gongsa
McCune–Reischauer Han'guk Pangsong Kongsa

Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) (Korean: 한국 방송 공사, Hanguk Bangsong Gongsa) is the biggest of four major Korean television networks.

Contents

Structure

KBS is a 'public organization' that, by law, receives public funding from the Korean Government but is independently managed. As mentioned on the Korean Constitution, the president of KBS is recommended by its board of directors to the President of Korea. Political parties in Korea have the right to name members of the board of directors of KBS. Since the President of South Korea usually has leadership over the members of the ruling party, KBS's president is considered to be designated by the president of Korea. This procedure has incurred worries of political intervention in KBS' governance and has led to many thinking that the current system of recruiting needs to be revised.

Around 37.8% of its revenue comes from a mandatory Television Licence Fee, while 47.6% of the revenue comes from commercial advertisement sales.[1] For national or governmental programs such as International Radio service (KBS World Radio) and the Radio service for physically handicapped people, KBS receives public funds from the Korean government.

Channels

Terrestrial television

Cable and Satellite television (KBS N)

These four channels are carried by Cable and Satellite operators in Korea. There are 100+ Cable operators in Korea and Skylife is the sole satellite television service provider. These channels are managed and operated by KBS N, a subsidiary company of KBS.

Radio

List of KBS programs

Dramas

Awards

Documentaries

News and Current Affairs

Entertainment

Children's

Other

KBS World

KBS World is the international television and radio service of KBS. It officially launched on July 1, 2003. It is broadcasted on a 24hr schedule with programs ranging from news, sports, dramas, entertainment, and children's. KBS World television is broadcasted locally and around the world. As of July 2007, around 65% of its programs are broadcast with English Subtitles, it is available in 32 countries, and reportedly more than 40 million households around the world can access KBS World. It has two overseas subsidiaries: KBS America and KBS Japan. KBS Japan is independently operated by a KBS' subsidiary in Japan, and most programs are provided with Japanese subtitles.

KBS World television is a television channel that runs mostly programs commissioned for KBS' 2 terrestrial networks: KBS1 and KBS2. KBS World television is distributed over several international communication and broadcasting satellites such as IS-8, IS-9, IS-10, Measat 3, Asiasat 5, Hotbird 6, Galaxy 18, Badr 6. Local cable and/or satellite operators receive the signal from one of these satellite and carry the signal to end subscribers of their own networks. KBS doesn't allow individual viewer to receive the signal from IS-8, IS-9, IS-10, Measat 3, Asiasat 5, and Galaxy 18. The signal from Badr 6 is Free-to-Air service while viewers using Hotbird 6 are required to pay monthly subscription fee.

Foreign partners

Network(s) Country
ABC Australia
RTB Brunei
CBC Canada
CCTV China
TF1 France
ARD Germany
TVB Hong Kong,China
RCTI Indonesia
TV3 Malaysia
TCS Singapore
NHK, TBS Japan
NPB Netherlands
RTP Portugal
TTV Taiwan
ABS-CBN Philippines
VGTRK Russia
TVE Spain
Thai PBS Thailand
BBC United Kingdom
NBC United States
SBT Brazil

See also

References

  1. ^ KBS Annual Report 2006-2007, KBS, 2007.(As mentioned on page 30)

External links

Commercial networks
Public television
KBS Entertainment Shows
Airing
Ended
Special