North Koreans Watch World Cup, Thanks To ABU

It was interesting to read how many reporters in South Korea assumed the North Koreans were broadcasting illegally the World Cup matches when actually the free telecasts were courtesy of the Asian Broadcasting Union. It seems somewhat ironic to me that some South Korean broadcasting networks like KBS and MBC are planning to sue SBS for refusing to share broadcasting rights to the World Cup ( as apparently originally agreed upon) while those up north can watch for free.


Out of curiosity, I posed the following questions to John Barton, Sport Director of the Asian Broadcasting Union ( ABU). Many thanks once again, Mr Barton for responding so promptly!

1. Does the ABU have any idea how many N Koreans have TVs which would allow them to watch the World Cup matches?

J. Barton: "I don’t know precisely but I would imagine the penetration would be very high. Having been to Pyongyang and visited the national broadcaster KRT, I know that the vast majority of households have access to free to air television."

2. How much censorship is practised with regard to the games esp for last night's game with Portugal?

J. Barton: "Censorship is not the right word to use, though it is one that would come easily to reporters when discussing the DPRK. In contracts with major rights owners, such as Fifa and the International Olympic Committee, broadcasters are NOT told how to schedule. That is purely their own decision. So if a country wanted to run all games 24 hours later, they can. Naturally that is not a good strategy in most markets where, if you are not live, you are dead. What that means is by delaying your telecast the audience levels drop off dramatically and so, too, does revenue if you are a commercial broadcaster. In short it is very unwise to put games like these on a tape delayed basis."

3. Can you shed more light on the ABU decision to present this gift to NK?

J. Barton: "This is not a gift, as such. We have provided our signals for various events to territories free of charge for many years. Events such as the Olympics, Asian Games (15 countries will receive this year’s Asian Games free of charge), Fifa World Cup, and so on, where there is a proven inability to be able to pay for such a service. If we had to charge these countries would not get to see these events, hence the ‘gift’ as you put it. I prefer to say we are assisting in their development of television sports, and not penalising a population simply because they are poor!"

Pity,  though,  for the North Koreans that their team couldn't score against Portugal which played like a goal-making machine ( 7 -0 ) in its most recent match in South Africa. It would be interesting to hear what ordinary South Koreans think about the whole situation. I wondered if any  would be cheering for the North Korean team given the recent tensions over the Cheonan incident until I came across this article.

sources:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921629
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921302

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/06/16/2010061601309.html
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/05/26/2010052601308.html
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921954
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/06/16/2010061601191.html
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921964
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2010/06/136_67742.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2010-06-15-2233360639_x.htm