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Report: ESPN Inquired About Free Broadcast Rights To KBO Games

By Steve Adams | April 23, 2020 at 9:57am CDT

The Korea Baseball Organization’s preseason is in full swing, with a May 5 start to its regular season (sans fans in attendance) on the calendar. The resumption of play in the KBO has attracted some attention from ESPN, it seems, but Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports that the media powerhouse sought to acquire broadcast rights from Korean media counterpart Eclat free of charge. Unsurprisingly, that was a non-starter in negotiations.

ESPN also floated the proposal of paying Eclat once it had secured a profit from KBO broadcasts, per the Yonhap report, but they’ve only been interested in month-to-month contracts that would allow them to drop KBO programming once MLB and other major domestic sporting entities resume play. According to Yoo, Eclat and the KBO felt “disrespected” by ESPN throughout their talks.

That said, it seems that ESPN isn’t the only foreign broadcast company interested in picking up the rights to KBO play. Daniel Kim of South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) tweets that KBO official Jin Hyung Lee tells him other networks have expressed interest in acquiring KBO television rights — including at least one non-U.S. network. (Kim speculates that Canada would make sense, which indeed seems plausible.) Perhaps, then, it’s possible for North American baseball fans to eventually find themselves with easy access to KBO play in the absence of Major League Baseball.

The Eleven Sports Network in Taiwan has already been streaming some games from the Chinese Professional Baseball League free of charge and with an English commentary team in place (which The Athletic’s Marc Carig recently profiled at length). That’s one option for sports-starved fans around the globe, but it seems Korean-based Eclat is understandably not enamored of taking on increased production costs and giving away its coverage of the larger KBO without compensation. The Korean league is on board with that thinking, as Yoo quotes a KBO official indicating that Eclat shouldn’t have to incur losses simply to air KBO games on ESPN.

The KBO season opener is still 12 days away, and the league is hopeful of being able to play an full 144-game schedule with a dramatic reduction of off-days and a heavy dose of doubleheaders to make up for the month-plus of the season that has already been lost.

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View Comments (63)

Comments

  1. DarkSide830

    3 years ago

    if the games are on ESPN and i can get the app up I will absolutely watch if i remember when the games are.

    Reply
    • toycannon

      3 years ago

      App? Baseball should be watched on a tv. Preferably a large one.

      Reply
      • vtadave

        3 years ago

        (Insert old man yells at clouds GIF)

        Reply
        • gozurman1

          3 years ago

          Smart TV???

      • DarkSide830

        3 years ago

        I have the Amazon Fire. its an app on there. i agree though, watching sports in general on a phone is not my cup of tea.

        Reply
        • RunDMC

          3 years ago

          I have a jailbroken Amazon Firestick, that it should be available on there. Thanks for the info.

        • HalosHeavenJJ

          3 years ago

          I have a fire stick on the TV in my office. Would love to have games on.

        • toycannon

          3 years ago

          Don’t they make you log with a cable service provider before you can watch ESPN thru the App on Amazon Fire? That is the case with Roku.

        • bearsfan49055

          3 years ago

          Yes sir! I have one as well.

      • 13yearoldbaseballfanatic

        3 years ago

        My family doesn’t even have cable and radio works fine for me. It helps your brain activate as you imagine what’s going on instead of mindlessly watching a screen, not to mention you can listen to the radio and be productive at the same time. The radio broadcasters are still good even though there is no more Jerry 🙁
        #BringBackRadioHype

        Reply
        • bobtillman

          3 years ago

          Your family must have a lot of sex.

        • Vizionaire

          3 years ago

          lol, to a guy claiming to be a 13 y.o.

        • wild bill tetley

          3 years ago

          Where was the joke, Vizionaire? He’s 13 and that’s funny? Come up with a thought so I can laugh.

        • Dorothy_Mantooth

          3 years ago

          Maybe he lives in Alabama?

        • Vizionaire

          3 years ago

          are you his father or something?

        • nymetsking

          3 years ago

          his child bride

      • joeyo38

        3 years ago

        I watch TV two ways: Apps and Antennas. Why pay for anything else?

        Reply
      • Oxford Karma

        3 years ago

        MLB.tv is an app that many of us watch on our giant TV’s. Because, 2020.
        MLB.tv, & ESPN, and foxsports and many others have streamed onto TVs, from about 30 devices, for many years.

        Reply
  2. sjberke1

    3 years ago

    Here’s a question: if (heaven forbid) a decision is made in a month or two that baseball can’t resume in the US under any conditions in 2020 and the season must be cancelled, would some MLB players go to play in Korea or Taiwan or whatever country was playing. If so, ESPN or another network would be a lot more interested in paying for rights I would think.

    Reply
    • SEATown11

      3 years ago

      I doubt any team would allow their star players to play in another league with the possibility of getting hurt on big contracts. For players like Yasiel Puig, I’d be on the next flight to Seoul getting ready for the season.

      Reply
      • DarkSide830

        3 years ago

        id imagine the stars wouldnt, but you’d wonder if teams may loan guys to Korea. maybe given their foreign player caps they could even make a barnstorming team of these loaned players.

        Reply
        • antibelt

          3 years ago

          It’s not soccer, can’t just lend players out. Plus, most Asian leagues have lomits to how many foreigners can play on each team.

        • Vizionaire

          3 years ago

          most soccer leagues have limits on foreign players. for example, la liga has 3 non-eu players limit.that’s why a lot of players marry european models. some better than others.

        • Ejemp2006

          3 years ago

          Korea has a limit on the number of foreign players a team can field. The country is also much more conservative do they wouldn’t likely take a chance on a guy who has instigated on field brawls.

  3. astros2017

    3 years ago

    Hope they figure it out, I would certainly watch

    Reply
  4. SEATown11

    3 years ago

    When the season does start, what are these tv broadcasting rights going to do to our viewing? I don’t see MLB.TV having the same low yearly rate to watch all out of market games.

    Reply
  5. PhilsPhan

    3 years ago

    10/10 would watch Korean baseball if I can.

    Reply
  6. toycannon

    3 years ago

    Any ex-major leaguers in the league right now? Da-Ho Lee, who played for Mariners?

    Reply
    • nats3256

      3 years ago

      I believe Gerardo Parra is there.

      Reply
      • toycannon

        3 years ago

        That will do.

        Reply
      • dave009

        3 years ago

        He’s in Japan. I believe.

        Reply
    • DarkSide830

      3 years ago

      Byung-Ho Park jumps off the top of my head.

      Reply
    • adachi

      3 years ago

      Dan Straily will be playing for Lotte Giants. He is probably the most prominent one.

      Reply
      • DarkSide830

        3 years ago

        and there is also Aaron Altherr

        Reply
        • nymetsking

          3 years ago

          Straily’s probably the better hitter.

    • Senioreditor

      3 years ago

      Some guy named Ko is there.

      Reply
  7. kaehlaone

    3 years ago

    How much could it really cost to air KBO games? I would watch and I think many others would too. It’s not like ESPN isn’t paying to air cornhole day after day.

    Reply
  8. Vizionaire

    3 years ago

    korea broadcasters must pay millions to show mlb games and espn wants free rights to kbo games? thieves!

    Reply
    • AssumeFactsNotInEvidence

      3 years ago

      Getting on Espn would open up a new and larger American audience for the KBO even after ESPN nixed it from their programming!

      I’m sure that was ESPN’s sales pitch.

      Reply
      • Vizionaire

        3 years ago

        i doubt anyone would care to watch kbo games once mlb games come back on.

        Reply
        • AssumeFactsNotInEvidence

          3 years ago

          It’s not a strategy where you need a high percentage of watchers to continue once it’s off. If the KBO picked up a fraction of ESPN’s viewership as KBO fans that could possibly add 50k eyeballs to their league. That’s a really small % of baseball fans in America!

      • parx

        3 years ago

        ESPN is a terrible network that force feeds their stars and stories down peoples throats, I’m glad the KBO and broadcasting company said no

        Reply
  9. gozurman1

    3 years ago

    Imagine that, ESPN trying to go cheap on the KBO. The NHL would not cave to ESPN when they wanted to pay peanuts to air NHL games several years ago and ESPN has buried hockey ever since. Almost no coverage even during the cup run every year.

    Reply
  10. Moses Kim

    3 years ago

    As a Korean and a big MLB fan, KBO is difficult to watch if you’re looking for the normally top notch, excellent defense and strong arms of the MLB. But they play hard, lots of high scoring competitive games, and there are some real quality players. A big part of the fun is the cheerleading and the super passionate fans…but still the KBO should be a good temporary fix for our baseball hunger

    Reply
    • DarkSide830

      3 years ago

      wasn’t scoring down last year though?

      Reply
  11. geg42

    3 years ago

    Cancel your cable. ESPN has nothing to offer.

    Reply
    • RunDMC

      3 years ago

      Agreed, especially since there are no games on. I’d kill to have MLB Network only subscription.

      Reply
  12. Jeff Zanghi

    3 years ago

    I really hope ESPN or some other US broadcast company does end up working something out to carry some of these games. in general I’d like to be able to watch a few to some of the US guys over there and then also to see potential “prospects” who might eventually come stateside. But then on top of that — with the coronavirus wiping out all US sports for now… I would definitely watch live baseball if we’re to be on TV given that there are literally no other sports to watch!

    Reply
    • dynamite drop in monty

      3 years ago

      I agree. Also it’s lucrative and incremental advertising for their product to millions of folks who otherwise would never be exceedingly interested in the product. I know the money had to be a part of it, but having their games filling this chasm in the states for just a brief time may garner them some fans for life.

      Reply
  13. Strike Four

    3 years ago

    ESPN wanting the rights for free, what a scumbag freeloading corporation. It won’t happen but ESPN has not been good for sports in America and should be made to go out of business.

    Reply
    • DarkSide830

      3 years ago

      gosh man chill

      Reply
      • nymetsking

        3 years ago

        Cut him some slack. He’s just mad bc he can’t get “any” for free.

        Reply
  14. Web

    3 years ago

    This just goes to show it’s a business, not a sport anymore

    Reply
  15. citizen

    3 years ago

    I doubt they would get a lot of viewers on a live broadcast at 4am. Rebroadcasting it in primetime 7 in the states, while hiding the stats, would work.

    Reply
    • JD396

      3 years ago

      The Olympics get played live whenever they are, then get a prime time broadcast.

      Reply
    • nymetsking

      3 years ago

      Someone should invent a DVR.

      Reply
  16. goldenmisfit

    3 years ago

    Felt disrespected? KB oh is an organization that the average baseball fan could not pick out there’s biggest superstar in a police lineup. Several outlets have shown interest? Which means there’s one other shooter. Can we all need to get over themselves.

    Reply
  17. Michael Chaney

    3 years ago

    Greedy on the part of ESPN. Why would it benefit KBO to give away broadcast rights for free? They’re the only way to watch present day baseball at this point, and they have enough leverage to at least get something out of this.

    I think a month to month contract would be reasonable, but ESPN can’t expect to do that without some sort of compensation. Baseball fans would watch it, and it’s not like ESPN has been airing anything much better anyway (excluding the NFL Draft).

    Reply
  18. beetlejuice

    3 years ago

    I’d rather watch a chicken eat.

    Reply
  19. beetlejuice

    3 years ago

    I’d rather watch a chicken eat.

    Reply
    • Four4fore

      3 years ago

      You can say that again.

      Reply
  20. Sheep8

    3 years ago

    You can watch KBO games now for free, albeit in Korean. Download the Naver TV app or go to sports.naver.com games are at 6 pm korean time right now, or 6:30 during the season. Gotta wake up early to watch but what else do we have to do right now!

    Reply
  21. bjupton100

    3 years ago

    I’m sure they said we’ll get back to you.

    Reply

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