KBSN Sports commentator Park Yong-taek (45), whose number 33 is permanently absent from the LG Twins and was also selected as the KBO League’s 40-man legend, attended the 2024 KBO Rookie Orientation Team Soyang Training as a lecturer at the Daejeon Convention Center on the 9th and reiterated the importance of fan service to 132 new players as the attitude they should have as professional players.
Park, who is famous for his special fan service since he was an active player, said, “The most important thing as a professional baseball player is the fan. I went to the All-Star Game in women’s professional basketball two days ago, and it was amazing, and I reflected a lot,” he said, expressing his thoughts on visiting the site of the WKBL All-Star Game held in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, on the 7th.
“I was introduced to each player, and they danced on a round stage as if they had practiced a lot with the music. Some players were embarrassed and had a hard time, but all of them did it. It was fan service that they could do for the fans in order to vitalize the women’s professional basketball league,” Park said. “Even the coaches came out in uniform and joined the players. When the (invitation singer) Dynamic Duo sang, I was appalled by how they created a festive mood together. The more I watched it, the more I reflected on myself.” 메이저 토토사이트
The KBO League, which surpassed 8 million spectators (8.10 million,326) last year for the first time in five years, reaffirmed that it is the most popular sport in Korea. Despite a flurry of negative developments, the solid KBO League fan base did not collapse easily. While the number of younger generation fans enjoying baseball stadium cheering culture has increased considerably, their popularity will not last long unless new fans continue to flow in.
Park said, “You may have heard KBO President Huh Gu-yeon say that Korean baseball is not a good thing right now, and it is a crisis. It is actually a crisis. The influx of new baseball fans is not going well. There are many fans who used to like baseball, but they are older. It is quite slow when new fans continue to flow in,” adding, “It is a program that elders watch, not a program that young people watch recently. You are the ones who can change those things,” ordering rookie players to have a greater professional consciousness and start more active fan service.
As the KBO League is about to pay for online broadcasting, the roles and responsibilities of the players have also become enormous. KBO announced on the 9th that it selected CJ ENM as the preferred bidder for the KBO League’s wired and wireless (new media) broadcasting rights project from 2024 to 2026. CJ ENM is known to have offered more than 40 billion won per year. It is a large amount that is double the total amount of 110 billion won (annual average of 22 billion won) signed with the telecommunications and portal consortium in February 2019.
If the negotiations are finalized and resale of broadcasting rights is not carried out, fans should watch the KBO League only through CJ ENM’s online video service (OTT) platform “TVING” on their PCs and mobiles. As it is a paid subscription service, fans should open their wallets. Until now, baseball fans have become accustomed to enjoying free live streaming of the KBO League through major online portal sites and telecom service providers.
It is a consumption trend these days to enjoy contents by paying reasonable amount of money, but sudden change could spark resistance and backlash from fans. Although KBO can induce free broadcasting in the final negotiations by banking on its “universal viewing rights,” chances are high that the KBO will make a difference between free and paid subscribers in terms of service provision such as image quality and contents. It is expected that fans’ viewing rights will be restricted in any way.
CJ ENM was highly praised for its scalability, allowing all videos except live broadcasting to be used on other platforms. It is expected to have a great effect in attracting the interest and interest of the younger generation through the popular “shorts” videos or secondary creations. However, since the life of sports is “live,” the barrier to entry of paid broadcasting is not easy. An increasing number of single-person households without TVs have increased, and the inconvenience of existing elderly fans has increased. Starting with new media, the possibility of switching TV broadcasting rights to be paid in the future cannot be ruled out.
Now, we need to pay to watch baseball at home even if we don’t have to go to a baseball stadium. To do so, we need to raise the quality and value of the league far higher than the current level. To fans’ eyes, the team should display baseball capabilities that are worth a lot of money. As such, players’ sense of responsibility has increased. The team should not only improve its capabilities but also display the best performance possible through active fan service and an exemplary attitude in order to make the team known to its fans.