Business Approval Permission for Gangwon Television Broadcasting Denied

The Korean Broadcasting Committee (chairman: Roh Seong-dae) yesterday decided to hold back its recommendation for resumption-of-business approval for MBC (Seoul headquarters) and SBS while refusing a recommendation for Gangwon Television Broadcasting (GTB), and it decided to open a hearing for these broadcasting companies.

The same day, the committee said at its general meeting that MBC is suspected of speculative real estate purchases in the metropolitan areas, and that SBS did not carry out its promise to return 15 percent of its net profits before taxes to society. Therefore, the committee is deferring its recommendations in order to listen to the broadcasting companies’ explanation in these cases.

The committee also said that resumption-of-business approval for GTB would not be recommended because GTB owns more than 30 percent of GTB stock shares, violating shareholding limits, which are 30 percent per shareholder.

It will be the first hearing held regarding resumption-of–business approval of broadcasting companies. The committee plans to wrap up the issue by the end of November.

Jung-Bo Suh suhchoi@donga.com