KBS is pushing to increase the TV license fee, which has been frozen for 45 years.
According to the broadcasting industry on the 23rd, Park Jang-beom, president of KBS, emphasized the need for license fee normalization during a management review meeting and announced the plan to push for an increase. The license fee increase proposal is scheduled to be first revealed at the nationwide viewer committee meeting on the 24th. It will then go through the KBS board of directors and the approval procedures of the Korea Communications Commission and the National Assembly.
While the license fee is one of KBS's core revenue sources, it has not been increased since it was set at 2,500 won per month in 1981. There have been several attempts to increase the fee in 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2021, but all were rejected by the National Assembly.
KBS stated, "The license fee has been frozen since 1981, and I would rather refer to it as normalization rather than an increase."
The structure of license fee distribution is also gaining attention in this discussion. KBS noted during the 2021 increase proposal that it would allocate 5% of the increase to EBS, but EBS argued that at least 15-25% should be allocated.