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Photo = CJ on style |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Jisun] CJ OnStyle, a major home shopping company, has halted its broadcast on three cable TV providers—D-Live, Areum Broadcasting, and CCS Chungbuk Broadcasting—since 12:00 AM on December 5. Subscribers to these cable services who tuned into the CJ OnStyle channel were greeted with a black screen and a message notifying them of the broadcast suspension.
The dispute stems from a failure to reach an agreement over "transmission fees," which are paid by TV home shopping companies to cable operators in exchange for being allocated channel slots. This is the first time that one of Korea's top four home shopping companies—CJ, GS, Hyundai, and Lotte—has suspended its broadcasts over such a fee issue.
As TV viewership continues to decline, tensions between home shopping companies and cable TV operators have escalated. Last year, Hyundai Home Shopping suspended its broadcasts on LG HelloVision, and Lotte Home Shopping threatened to do the same with D-Live, although both companies eventually reached agreements. Experts predict that more home shopping companies could follow suit, suspending broadcasts on cable TV due to ongoing disputes over transmission fees.
The home shopping industry argues that due to the decreasing number of cable TV subscribers, there has been a decline in revenue from TV broadcasts, making it necessary to lower transmission fees. As a result, many home shopping companies are focusing more on live commerce through smartphones, as fewer consumers are making purchases via television broadcasts.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
