Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) – State Media Monitor

The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) serves as South Korea’s national public broadcaster, tracing its roots back to the Kyeongseong (Keijō) Broadcasting Station in 1927. Over the decades, it has grown into a multimedia institution, today operating seven radio networks, ten television channels, including international service KBS World, and a bevy of digital platforms.

Media assets

Television: KBS 1TV, KBS 2TV, KBS News D, KBS World

Radio: KBS 1Radio, KBS 2Radio, KBS 3Radio, KBS Classic FM, KBS Cool FM, KBS Hanminjok, KBS World Radio

State Media Matrix Typology

Ownership and governance

KBS functions as a statutory public corporation under the framework of the Korean Broadcasting Act. Its leadership is structured around a Board of Governors, which until August 2025 comprised 11 members who were recommended by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and appointed by the President of the Republic.

A significant reform arrived in 2018: a Public Advisory Group, made up of independent professionals, was created to evaluate presidential/CEO candidates for KBS. Following their assessment—through interviews and strategic presentations—the Board submits recommendations to the President, who makes the formal appointment. This process underscores a commitment to merit-based governance.

CEO Park Jang‑beom officially took the helm of KBS on December 10, 2024, amid union protests against his appointment. In March 2025, Park unveiled plans to reduce approximately 1,000 employees—about 20% of the workforce—to streamline operations. He also introduced a Future Growth Committee aimed at performance optimization and new revenue generation channels.

Under President Lee Jae‑myung’s administration installed after the June 2025 elections, existing legislation was swiftly amended in August 2025. According to the new provisions, the proportion of KBS board members recommended by the National Assembly has been reduced from 100% to 40%. A new programming committee has been instituted, comprising five members each from labor and management, and empowered with genuine decision‑making authority over programming matters. The law mandates that KBS must reconstitute its board within three months of the amendment’s passage. Under the revised Broadcasting Act, the KBS board was expanded to 15 members, nominated as follows: the National Assembly (6 members), the viewer committee (2 members), employees (3 members), academic societies (2 members), and bar associations (2 members).

Source of funding and budget

KBS is primarily funded through a license fee, currently 2,500 KRW (US$ 1.90) per household per month, collected via electricity bills (a practice in place since 1994).

In July 2023, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration pushed through a change to the KBS funding system that removed the TV licence fee from the bundled Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) electricity bill. Up to that point, every household’s power bill automatically included the 2,500 KRW monthly broadcasting fee, which KEPCO collected and transferred to KBS. After the reform, households received separate bills—one from KEPCO for electricity, and a stand-alone invoice from KBS (or its designated collection agent) for the licence fee.

Critics, including the Global Task Force for Public Media, warned that without the automatic, bundled collection mechanism, payment compliance would drop sharply, creating serious cash-flow problems for KBS. KBS itself declared a “financial emergency,” estimating it would lose hundreds of billions of won in revenue and would need to spend at least KRW 200 billion (about US $148 million) to set up the infrastructure for independent fee collection.

In April 2025, Parliament passed a bill to restore the licence fee’s collection via electricity bills, reuniting the fee with the electricity charge after its 2023 separation.

In June 2025, President and CEO Park Jang‑beom proposed raising the licence fee by KRW 500 (to KRW 3,000/month), the broadcaster’s first increase in 45 years, as KBS faces an estimated deficit of KRW, amid shrinking advertising revenue and growing competition from OTT platforms.

In the 2019 fiscal year, the broadcaster operated with a budget of KRW 1.36 trillion (about US$ 1.25 billion at the 2019 exchange rate). License fees accounted for 49% of revenues, while ad sales accounted for 19%. The government allocated approximately 2% of the broadcaster’s total budget. In the 2020 fiscal year, KBS had a similar budget, with the license fee accounting for approximately 40% and ad sales for roughly 17%.

In the following two fiscal years, KBS had a total budget of KRW 1.46 trillion (about US$ 1.20 billion) in 2021, and KRW 1.48 trillion (about US $1.03 billion) in 2022. The license fee continued to represent the primary source of revenue, accounting for over 46% of KBS’ total revenue in the 2022 fiscal year. In 2023, KBS reported total income of KWR 1.42 trillion (about US$ 1.06 billion), with the license fee generating around KRW 685 billion (about US$ 511 million).

In 2024, KBS had a total budget of KRW 1.33 trillion (almost US$ 986 million), nearly 49% of which represented revenue from license fees, with the rest being self-generated income (such as advertising, content sales, syndication and other commercial revenues).

Editorial independence

For decades, there was no evidence to suggest that KBS had been subject to censorship or manipulation of its editorial content. While the broadcaster has previously faced political pressure, its journalists have demonstrated a robust commitment to maintaining editorial independence, resisting such external influences.

In 2018, KBS implemented an amendment to the Broadcast Planning Regulation for the first time in 16 years. Under the revised regulation, Planning Committee meetings became mandatory, and a new stipulation was incorporated to safeguard editorial autonomy.

However, since 2023, the broadcaster has faced significant government pressure. In consequence of the legal provisions adopted in summer 2023 that threatened KBS’s financial stability (see Source of funding and budget), the broadcaster’s editorial independence has gradually eroded, as government influence over appointees has led to decisions detrimental to its autonomy. For example, on his first day as KBS president, Park Min abruptly canceled a current affairs program criticized by the ruling party as “biased” and replaced several newscasters, actions that prompted controversy over infringements on production autonomy and the rationale behind staffing changes.

In light of these developments, in 2024, KBS has been reclassified from the Independent Public Media (IP) category, representing the highest standard of autonomy, to the Captured Public or State-Managed/Owned Media (CaPu) category, which denotes significantly lower independence.

In June 2025, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party was elected President of South Korea, succeeding the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. His victory followed a campaign in which public broadcasting reform and independence were recurring themes, with both supporters and critics expecting shifts in the media–government relationship. Shortly after the change in administration, debates in the National Assembly intensified over new governance reforms for KBS. These include diversifying the composition of the Board of Governors, introducing citizen participation in CEO selection, and increasing transparency in editorial decision-making, measures aimed at reducing political influence.

These reforms moved from proposal to implementation with the August 2025 amendment of the Broadcast Act (see Ownership and governance above). In light of these legally binding changes, which strengthen structural safeguards for editorial autonomy, we have reclassified KBS back into the Independent Public Media (IP) category.

August 2025