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Sports in South Korea hold a special place. The interesting aspect about the South Korean sports landscape is that, same importance is given to both the traditional and the modern ones. The modern South Korean society enjoys Taekwondo as well as Baseball with equal enthusiasm. Their love of sports of any kind has made a huge base for sports broadcasting.
Sports Nationalism in South Korea
The evolution of modern sports in South Korea is dependent on multiples factors some of which are:
- Japanese Imperialism
- Cold War
- The Korean War
In the 1960s, the then president of South Korea Park Jung Hee, utilized sports as a tool for political propaganda against their Northern neighbor and invested heavily in top-class training and infrastructure. However, in present-day South Korea is more inclined towards harnessing real talent with the infra foundation laid by President Park in the 60s. Sports are no more weapons of politics but have become ethos and pathos of the population.
Sports Broadcasting as a Career in South Korea
The Sports Broadcasting market in South Korea is booming. It is the combination of the public’s mass interest and government-aided top-class sports infrastructure that makes sports of various kinds an engaging event in the country. Whether it is football or mountaineering, enthusiasts are brimming in the whole country.
As per a survey done by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in South Korea, about 115,303 sporting clubs were present in 2016 comprising almost 5,579,640 members, which accounted for about 10.8 percent of the population.
The fabric of South Korean sports is so dense, that it directly attracts Sport Broadcasting contracts thereby rolling quite a large sum of money in the industry. Major South Korean media houses like SBS, KBS, 먹튀검증 MBC, etc. earn handsome profit margins with sports broadcasting contracts. In addition, the collaboration with OTT Platforms has enhanced the turnover hugely.
As a result, a career in sports broadcasting and analysis has become lucrative to the eyes of the younger generation in the country. The government is not only investing in Sports training and infrastructure but also in introducing career opportunities in the area of sports broadcasting and analysis. There are special schools that provide degrees in sports broadcasting in South Korea. The training in sports broadcasting often starts as early as in high school.
The most interesting part about broadcasting training is that they not only provide sports technique training but also how to connect with the audience who are watching the matches. The advent of OTT platforms has also introduced the aspect of freelance broadcasting, where an individual can stream online and is not necessarily employed by any of the broadcasting media houses.
The most fascinating part of sports broadcasting is that the broadcaster should be entertaining to the audience but not at the cost of discriminating nationality, caste, creed, a religion of any team partaking in the sporting event, focusing only on the emotion and excitement associated with the game.
