Opposition lawmaker blasts KBS management, says actual deficit last year was W147.9b

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-ki, who represents Incheon's Namdong-gu B district and sits on the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, strongly criticized KBS President Park Jang-bum's management at a national audit of Korea Broadcasting System on Friday, saying the public broadcaster has continued to rack up large deficits despite recovering license fee revenue and cutting costs.

According to data submitted to Lee's office by KBS, the broadcaster cut production costs by 44.6 billion won ($33.1 million) and personnel costs by 21.5 billion won last year compared with the previous year. Despite reducing costs by a combined 66.1 billion won across the two categories, KBS still posted a net loss of 81.8 billion won.

Lee's office said that, all else being equal, the actual deficit would have reached 147.9 billion won had those cost cuts not been made.

Meanwhile, license fee revenue last year came in at 619.6 billion won, exceeding the original target of 612 billion won by 7.6 billion won. Lee's office said the results showed KBS had failed to secure its own revenue even as license fees surpassed their target. Advertising revenue fell 43.2 billion won short of its target, while content sales revenue missed by 36.5 billion won, bringing the combined shortfall in those two categories to 79.7 billion won.

The losses have continued this year. After the integrated collection of license fees resumed in November last year, license fee revenue from January through August totaled 448.18 billion won, up 36.15 billion won, or 8.8 percent, from the same period a year earlier. Yet the net loss over the same period reached 52.6 billion won.

KBS had originally drawn up a budget projecting revenue of 1.36 trillion won and costs of 1.36 trillion won for this year, targeting a surplus of 400 million won — billing it as a return to profit for the first time in five years. Through August, however, the broadcaster has posted a large deficit.

"Even as KBS license fee revenue increased and production and personnel costs were cut, the broadcaster still failed to prevent a deficit — and in fact posted a massive one. This clearly exposes the management failures of the Park Jang-bum administration," Lee said at the national audit. "Management must be held clearly accountable for worsening the public broadcaster's finances."