After several decisions of Korean Court, the trend of carriage disputes of terrestrial broadcasts (hereafter only focused on KBS2, MBC, SBS except KBS1 and EBS, which are subject to the ‘Must Carry Regulation’ in Article 78 of the Korean Broadcast...
After several decisions of Korean Court, the trend of carriage disputes of terrestrial broadcasts (hereafter only focused on KBS2, MBC, SBS except KBS1 and EBS, which are subject to the ‘Must Carry Regulation’ in Article 78 of the Korean Broadcasting Act) in Korea shifts from deciding whether it needs to be charged on retransmission itself into how many retransmission fees have to be paid. Under the current retransmission regime, terrestrial broadcasters have full contractual power and property rights, which are protected under so called ‘property rule’ in terms of Law and Economy, to engage autonomically a retransmission contract. All pay TV operators have carriage right to terrestrial broadcasts only with prior approvement of terrestrial broadcasters and payment of retransmission fees. Bargaining power of terrestrial broadcasters would result in retransmission consent negotiations in which pay TV operators must either agree to the significantly higher fees requested by broadcasters or lose access to programming. It’s irrational to leave this regime alone, because terrestrial broadcasts have dominant power to the audience, it’s essential for all pay TV operators, and 89% of households in Korea watch that terrestrial broadcasts through pay TV services. In respect for a autonomical retransmission negotiation, it’s a best way in order to resolve this pending status that abuses of terrestrial broadcasters’ dominant power in the way of demanding excessive rates of retransmission fees are regulated ex-post. In this paper the author first explains the nature of retransmission fees(loyalty for neighbouring rights), and next explores the necessities to regulate the retransmission fees and lastly suggests reasonable methods to improve or change major shortcomings of the current system.