Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)

KBS is South Korea’s national public broadcaster, tracing its broadcasting origins to the Kyeongseong Broadcasting Station of 1927 and operating in its current form as a public corporation since 1973. It runs national television and radio networks alongside international and digital services. The governance reform enacted in August 2025, on which State Media Monitor’s return of KBS to the Independent Public Media category was based, remained incompletely implemented at the end of August 2026, but significant elements had begun operating: eight of 15 directors were in office, the statutory programming committee had begun meeting, and the board had formally opened the process for selecting a new president under the reformed system.

Media assets

Television and digital news: KBS 1TV, KBS 2TV, KBS NEWS 24 and the international television service KBS World TV

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

Ownership and governance

KBS is a statutory public corporation under the Broadcasting Act. Before the 2025 reform, its Board of Governors comprised 11 members recommended by the broadcasting regulator and appointed by the President of the Republic.

The amended Broadcasting Act, which took effect on 26 August 2025, expanded the board to 15 members and divided nomination among several bodies: six directors nominated by parliamentary groups in proportion to their representation in the National Assembly, two by the KBS viewer committee, three by KBS employees, two by broadcasting and media academic societies and two by bar associations. The regulator formally submits the nominees and the President appoints them.

The law also created a Public Recommendation Committee for KBS President comprising at least 100 citizens selected to reflect the country’s sex, age and regional distribution. The committee recommends up to three candidates to the board, which must approve the final nominee by a three-fifths majority before presidential appointment. A statutory programming committee was also introduced, comprising five representatives nominated by management and five by employee representatives. It deliberates and decides specified matters including KBS’s programming rules, compliance with those rules and safeguards for the independence and autonomy of reporting, production and programming.

Implementation substantially missed the statutory three-month timetable. An important cause was the prolonged paralysis of the new Korea Media and Communications Commission, which was launched in October 2025 but did not hold its first plenary meeting until 10 April 2026. Subsequent implementation was also affected by disputes inside KBS over the composition and legal status of employee representation in the programming committee.

The first four directors of KBS’s fourteenth board began their terms on 10 July 2026. Four additional directors nominated through the National Assembly were subsequently appointed, allowing the new board to hold its first meeting with eight of fifteen directors on 31 July. It elected Jeong Jae-gwon as chair on a temporary basis, agreeing to elect a chair again once all fifteen seats were filled or after 29 September. Seven positions remained vacant: two associated with the viewer committee, three with employee nominations and two parliamentary-group nominations.

The statutory programming committee held its first meeting on 14 August, almost one year after the amended Broadcasting Act came into force, and continued meeting during the month. Legal disputes nevertheless accompanied its formation. The KBS Labour Union and Gachi Union challenged aspects of the employee-representation arrangements, including through constitutional litigation. On 31 August, however, the Seoul Southern District Court rejected three injunction applications brought by the KBS Labour Union and recognised the National Union of Mediaworkers’ KBS branch as the majority union, strengthening the legal position of the employee-side representatives on the programming committee.

Park Jang-beom remains KBS president. President Yoon Suk Yeol approved his appointment on 23 November 2024 and his term began on 10 December that year amid union protest. The amended Broadcasting Act’s transitional provisions allow the incumbent president, vice-president and auditor to continue only until successors are appointed under the new system. Park and Vice-President Kim Woo-sung filed a constitutional complaint in September 2025 challenging that provision.

The replacement process had moved beyond preparation by the end of the review period. On 26 August 2026 the KBS board formally approved the procedure for selecting the broadcaster’s 28th president. Under the procedure, the board will shortlist applicants, the Public Recommendation Committee will reduce the list to three candidates, and the board will select the nominee to be submitted for presidential appointment following a National Assembly confirmation hearing. Park asked the board to defer the process on the grounds that only eight of its fifteen members had been appointed; the board proceeded.

Source of funding and budget

KBS’s principal single source of revenue is the television licence fee of KRW 2,500 per television-holding household per month. The fee was collected together with electricity bills from 1994 until a July 2023 regulatory change required separate collection, which KBS implemented from July 2024.

The financial effect was substantial. Licence-fee income fell to KRW 651.6 billion in 2024, approximately KRW 33.5 billion below the previous year. KBS recorded a KRW 88.1 billion operating loss and a KRW 73.5 billion net loss for 2024.

The deterioration continued in 2025. Licence-fee revenue fell by a further KRW 32 billion to KRW 619.6 billion, representing approximately 49.8 per cent of total income. Advertising revenue also declined sharply. KBS recorded a KRW 99.6 billion operating loss and a KRW 81.8 billion net loss, its fourth consecutive annual net loss.

The National Assembly reversed the separation policy through an amendment requiring combined collection. The provision was promulgated in April 2025 and integrated collection through electricity bills resumed from November 2025. The restoration improved the institutional security of the licence-fee mechanism but did not immediately resolve KBS’s broader financial problems: in July 2026 President Park said the broadcaster still expected a deficit in the KRW 10-billion-plus range for the year and placed the organisation in a company-wide crisis-management system.

Licence fees therefore account for roughly half of KBS income and remain its largest individual revenue source, with advertising, content sales and other commercial revenue providing much of the remainder. Direct state-budget support is comparatively small and there is no basis for treating KBS as predominantly financed through discretionary government appropriations.

Editorial independence

KBS has formal safeguards for editorial independence but has also experienced recurring political pressure linked particularly to its governance arrangements. Its Broadcasting Programming Rules, most recently comprehensively amended in 2019, state that KBS must protect broadcasting independence against improper external and internal interference and guarantee autonomy in reporting and production.

Those safeguards came under significant strain from 2023. The separation of the licence fee weakened the broadcaster’s financial position, while governance and senior-management changes generated serious disputes about editorial autonomy. On the first day of Park Min’s presidency in November 2023, KBS replaced multiple news and current-affairs presenters and removed the current-affairs programme The Live from the schedule. The KBS branch of the National Union of Mediaworkers argued that the measures breached the Broadcasting Act, the collective agreement and KBS’s own programming rules. State Media Monitor consequently reclassified KBS from Independent Public Media to Captured Public/State-Managed in 2024.

The August 2025 Broadcasting Act amendments substantially altered the structural conditions underlying that classification. Board nominations are now divided among political, audience, employee, academic and legal-professional constituencies; appointment of the KBS president involves a representative public recommendation committee and a three-fifths board majority; and the statutory programming committee gives management and employee representatives equal representation in decisions concerning programming rules and editorial autonomy. State Media Monitor restored KBS to the Independent Public Media category on the basis of those legally binding safeguards.

The 2026 review demonstrates both implementation and continuing transition. Eight of 15 directors were operating by the end of July; the programming committee began meeting in August; a court ruling on 31 August strengthened the legal status of the employee-side representatives; and the board formally began the process for selecting a new president under the reformed procedure. At the same time, seven board seats remained unfilled on 26 August, the chair remained temporary, Park Jang-beom continued as president under the transitional provision, and constitutional litigation concerning parts of the reform remained unresolved.

AI and digital policy

KBS has a publicly available artificial intelligence policy. Its KBS AI Guidelines, adopted on 18 August 2025, contain eight articles governing the use of AI across KBS services and content production.

The guidelines require continuous human oversight and final approval of AI-assisted output. For news and current-affairs content they require particular attention to fairness and accuracy and establish the principle that generative-AI output should not be used directly for reporting or article writing without verification. They also require users to be informed when AI-generated text, images, video or audio constitute a core element of KBS content, provide for source disclosure where appropriate and require records of AI use to be retained. Separate provisions cover privacy, image and voice rights and copyright.

KBS substantially expanded operational use of AI during the review period. On 1 July 2026 it launched KAIROS, an internal AI platform available to employees for production and other work. On 3 August it opened AI Production, a dedicated facility supporting generative-AI content planning, workflow development, quality control and training, with announced uses including visual effects in drama production and synthetic applications based on the voices of KBS announcers and reporters.

South Korea’s AI Basic Act has been in force since January 2026 and contains statutory transparency requirements for AI business operators providing generative-AI products and services, including labelling of generative-AI output. State Media Monitor did not identify a separate broadcaster-specific statutory rule requiring disclosure for every use of AI in journalistic or broadcasting production; KBS’s own guidelines nevertheless impose broader internal disclosure and verification requirements for its content.

Classification rationale

KBS remains classified Independent Public Media (IP), with the qualification that the governance reform underpinning the classification is still being implemented.

It is publicly established but not predominantly dependent on discretionary state-budget funding. KBS is a statutory public corporation, and the licence fee remains its largest individual revenue source, accounting for approximately half of total income. Commercial revenues provide much of the remainder. This funding structure does not support a finding of predominant direct government financing.

Its statutory governance framework now provides substantial structural protection against direct political control. The August 2025 reform diversified board nominations beyond political institutions, established a representative public recommendation process for the KBS presidency, requires a three-fifths board majority for the presidential nominee and created a statutory programming committee with equal management and employee representation and authority over specified editorial-independence safeguards.

Implementation remains incomplete but is demonstrably under way. The new board began operating in July 2026, the programming committee held its first meeting in August, the board formally initiated the new presidential-selection procedure on 26 August and the Seoul Southern District Court strengthened the legal position of the employee-side programming representatives on 31 August. Conversely, seven of fifteen board positions remained unfilled on 26 August, the chair remained temporary and the president appointed under the previous governance system remained in office under the transitional provisions.

State Media Monitor therefore retains the Independent Public Media classification because the statutory safeguards are in force and key elements of the new governance structure have begun functioning. The classification remains conditional on the reform becoming fully operational rather than merely remaining on the statute book.

The principal variables to watch are completion of the 15-member board; appointment of a KBS president through the new public recommendation and supermajority process; operation of the programming committee following the August court ruling; the outcome of outstanding constitutional litigation; and whether restored integrated licence-fee collection stabilises the broadcaster’s finances.

August 2026