KBS Also Faces Crisis Following JTBC

Following JTBC, KBS has also taken steps to address its management crisis. KBS recorded a deficit of about ₩10.0 billion KRW (about $6.67 million USD) in the first half of this year and plans to fully focus on cost reduction and business normalization by activating a crisis management system.

On July 14th, Park Jang Beom, KBS’s president, pointed out at the 2026 Q3 Affiliate Cooperation Meeting, “The entire broadcasting industry is facing a very difficult situation due to recent changes in the media environment, but maybe because we almost exclusively use license fees as resources, there is no sense of crisis at all.”

Park also said, “Although the deficit has decreased compared to last year, this is not a situation to be complacent about,” and emphasized, “Just as KBS has overcome critical circumstances such as the IMF crisis and the ‘separate collection of license fees’ through constant structural reforms, we must establish a new survival strategy and turn to profitability this time as well.”

KBS has posted deficits for the past four years, with about ₩80.0 billion KRW (about $53.4 million USD) last year and ₩70.0 billion KRW (about $46.7 million USD) the year before. It expects a deficit in the ₩10.0 billion KRW (about $6.67 million USD) range this year and announced that the headquarters as well as its affiliates will enter the crisis management system.

Once the crisis management system is activated, KBS will undertake company-wide “financial risk management” to tighten budgets and expand revenues.

Park particularly highlighted recent achievements in KBS content competitiveness and stressed that turning a profit is fully possible through AI innovation. He also urged active utilization of “KAIROS,” KBS’s recently developed proprietary AI model.

This year, KBS News 9 maintained first place in national viewership ratings in the news sector during the first half, and its YouTube channel was also ranked number one in views for six consecutive months, making it the overall number one for the first half.

The Q3 Affiliate Cooperation Meeting held today was attended by Park and other headquarters executives, along with representatives from nine KBS affiliates including KBS Media and KBS N, where management performance was presented and growth strategies for the second half were discussed.

Meanwhile, Seoul Rehabilitation Court has approved JTBC’s application for the Autonomous Restructuring Support (ARS) program, but the decision on whether to initiate rehabilitation procedures is on hold until the 30th of this month.