MBC `Wins` Commentary Competition for Korea-England Match

The MBC broadcasting team outran other broadcasters in terms of audience rating during the evaluation soccer match between Korea and England, which began at 7 p.m. on the 21st. This match did not only judge the Korean team’s strength before the World Cup, but also judged the three major broadcasters’ capability in delivering the scenes. Because KBS controlled all production and transmission on the day, the deciding factors for the audience rating were the announcers and the commentators.

As MBC assigned announcer Lim Ju-Wan and commentator Cha Bum-Keun on the day, it recorded 18.3 per cent of rating, overriding Song Jae-Il – Shin Mun-Seon of SBS (13.1%) and Seo Gi-Chul – Hur Jeong-Mu of KBS2 (9.5%) by 5.2 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively. MBC enjoyed an aftereffect that the program right after the match, `Newsdesk`, recorded 17.8 per cent of rating, which is 4-7 per cent higher than usual. Although KBS began broadcasting 5-7 minutes earlier than the others, it marked the lowest rating.

“Commentary in this match blew away all negative criticism. Long-experienced Cha Bum-Keun’s in-depth analysis was the major factor for high rating,” said production director Oh Chang-Sik of MBC Sports.

Meanwhile, caster Song Jae-Ik showed off flowery adlibs, including “heading shot like striking a gong (the Korean goal)”, “hero that broke down Mt. Fuji (Lee Min-Sung)”, “It looks like the referees didn’t bring the yellow cards today”. However, some critiques criticized that his over-exaggerated comments actually roused antipathy.

The total rating of the three broadcasters during the time slot on the day was 40.4 per cent. The number is twice bigger than the past 4 weeks’ rating, 23.9 per cent. In case of KBS1, which put out regular programs, `Love is like this` only marked 18.5 per cent of rating, despite its usual rating over 25 per cent.

Soo-Kyung Kim skkim@donga.com