Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC; ) is one of the leading

South Korean television In South Korea, there are a number of national television networks, the three largest of which are Korean Broadcasting System, KBS, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, MBC, and Seoul Broadcasting System, SBS. Most of the major television studios ...

and radio broadcasters. Its flagship

terrestrial television Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is signal transmission, transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV rece ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

MBC TV MBC TV (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Television) is a South Korean free-to-air television channel launched on 8 August 1969 and owned by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. History The Seoul Private Broadcasting Corporation was establish ...

broadcasts as

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...

11.

MBC News Now MBC News Now is an over-the-air news channel owned by the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. The channel broadcasts on MBC TV's multiplex. History The origin of the channel lies on a 2007 plan by MBC to launch a dedicated news channel on digita ...

broadcasts as

12. Established on 2 December 1961, MBC's terrestrial operations have a nationwide network of 17 regional stations. Although it operates on advertising, MBC is classified as a

public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

as its largest shareholder is a public organization,

the Foundation of Broadcast Culture The Foundation for Broadcast Culture () is the only institution dedicated to the promotion of broadcasting in South Korea. Partly to address concerns following the country's 1987 democratic reforms, the National Assembly established the Foundation ...

. MBC consists of a multimedia group with one terrestrial TV channel, three radio channels, five cable channels, five satellite channels and four DMB channels. MBC is headquartered in

Digital Media City Digital Media City (DMC; ) is a high-tech complex for Digital data, digital technologies, housing Ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous Computer networking, networked offices, apartments, exhibitions, conference halls, television network headquarters ...

(DMC),

Mapo District Mapo District () is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. Mapo has a population of 381,330 (2015) and has a geographic area of 23.87 km2 (9.22 sq mi), and is divided into 24 '' dong'' (administrative neighborhoods). Mapo is located in ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

and has the largest broadcast production facilities in Korea including digital production centre Dream Center in Ilsan, indoor and outdoor sets in

Yongin Daejanggeum Park Yongin Daejanggeum Park (; ), previously known as MBC Dramia (), is an outdoor film set owned by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation in the city of Yongin in Gyeonggi province, South Korea. It is the largest open set in Korea. Through meticulous r ...

History

Radio era (1961–1968)

Launching the first radio broadcast signal (call sign: HLKV, frequency: 900 kHz, output: 10 kW) from Seoul, MBC started as the first non-governmental commercial broadcaster in Korea. On 12 April 1963, it obtained a license from the government for operating regional stations in major cities (Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, Jeonju) in Korea, and established a broadcast network which connects six cities including Seoul and Busan.

Black and white TV era (1969–1979)

MBC launched TV broadcasting on 8 August 1969 (call sign: HLAC-TV, output: 2 kW), and started to broadcast its main news program

MBC Newsdesk ''MBC Newsdesk'' is a Television in South Korea, South Korean television news broadcasting show broadcast by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, MBC. Originally anchored by Park Geun-sook, it aired from October 5, 1970 to present. The newscast aired ...

on 5 October 1970. It reached an affiliation deal with 7 commercial stations (in Ulsan, Jinju, Gangnueng, Chuncheon, Mokpo, Jeju, Masan) between 1968 and 1969, and started nationwide TV broadcasting through its 13 affiliated or regional stations. In 1974, FM radio was launched, and MBC took over the

Kyunghyang Shinmun The ''Kyunghyang Shinmun'' () is a major daily newspaper published in South Korea. It is based in Seoul. The name literally means '' Urbi et Orbi Daily News''.Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

acquired 65% of the shares. The first colour TV broadcasting was started on 22 December 1980. MBC was separated from the Kyunghyang Shinmun according to the 1981 Basic Press Act. In 1982, it moved into the Yeouido headquarters. That same year, the network founded its baseball team, MBC Cheong-ryong (Blue Dragon), which entered the

KBO League The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...

as a charter team, in addition to the network being the first home of the league's TV broadcasts. With the live coverage of the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, MBC made a great advancement in scale and technology. Ownership of the Blue Dragon was passed to

LG Corporation LG Corporation (or LG Group), formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi in 1947 and managed by successive generations of his family. It is the fourth-largest company in South Korea ...

in 1989.

Multimedia era (1990–1999)

After rapidly growing into a large corporation, covering major international events, MBC established specialized companies for each value chain (MBC Production, MBC Media Tech, MBC Broadcast Culture Center, MBC Arts Company, MBC Arts Center) and spined them off as subsidiaries to become a more efficient corporation amid fiercer competition in the multimedia era. ※ MBC Production and MBC Media Tech were merged into MBC C&I in August 2011.

Digital era (2000–present)

In 2000, MBC made its subsidiary iMBC (internet MBC) an independent corporation to pursue various internet-related business. Furthermore, it started cable TV (MBC Plus Media,) satellite TV, new DMB broadcasting and full daytime broadcasting on terrestrial television. In 2007, MBC established digital production centre Ilsan Dream Center, which is equipped with high-tech production facilities. In September 2014, it completed the construction of a new headquarters building and moved from Yeouido to Sangam-dong, opening a new era of Sangam MBC. In 2001, MBC launched

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

and

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

broadcasting. As part of this expansion, it created MBC America, a subsidiary based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, United States, to distribute its programming throughout

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

. On 1 August 2008, MBC America launched MBC-D, a

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

carried on the

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s of

KSCI-TV KSCI (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Long Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from home shopping network Shop LC. KSCI's studios are locat ...

, KTSF-TV, and

WMBC-TV WMBC-TV (channel 63) is a television station licensed to Newton, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York metropolitan area as an affiliate of Merit TV. The station is owned by the Mountain Broadcasting Corporation, and maintains studi ...

. The service was planned to be launched in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. by the end of the year. In northeast

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

, it aired on

WKTB-CD WKTB-CD (channel 47) is a Low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power, Class A television station licensed to Norcross, Georgia, United States, serving the Atlanta area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned by lo ...

channel 47.3 (now a

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

affiliate), but as of 2011 is on WSKC-CD channel 22.1. In March 2013, computer shutdowns hit South Korean television stations, including MBC. The South Korean government asserted a North Korean link in the March cyberattacks, which has been denied by Pyongyang.

International relations

MBC is an active member of international organizations such as ABU (

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 288 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 b ...

), IATAS (International Academy of Television Arts & Science) and INPUT (

International Public Television Screening Conference International Public Television Screening Conference (INPUT) is an international public television organization. History Since 1977, INPUT annually holds an international television screening conference. Held in a different country each year, th ...

), and is affiliated with 21 broadcasters in 13 countries. It is engaged in various global business through overseas corporations in Los Angeles and Shanghai, and bureaus in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East as well as Asia, in close cooperation with major global media groups. MBC is devoted to entering foreign markets and expanding the business area. It maintains a close relationship with foreign buyers by participating in major content markets every year such as MIP-TV, MIPCOM, NATPE, BCWW and ATF. It operates an English website that introduces various MBC content to overseas buyers and viewers so that they can easily access its content. MBC drama ''What on Earth Is Love?'' is the first

Korean Wave The Korean Wave, or ''hallyu'' (; ), is a cultural phenomenon in which the global popularity of South Korean popular culture has dramatically risen since the 1990s. Worldwide interest in Korean culture has been led primarily by the spread of K-p ...

drama which sparked the K-drama boom across China, when it was aired on CCTV in 1997. Since then, numerous MBC dramas, entertainment shows, and documentaries have been exported to different countries. The drama ''

Dae Jang Geum ''Jewel in the Palace'' () is a 2003 South Korean historical drama television series directed by Lee Byung-hoon. It first aired on MBC from September 15, 2003, to March 23, 2004, where it was the top program with an average viewership rati ...

'' was shown in as many as 91 countries around the world. More recently, MBC is widening its content business area by exporting show formats such as ''I Am a Singer'', ''

We Got Married ''We Got Married'' () was a South Korean reality variety show that aired on MBC from 2008 to 2017. The show paired up celebrities who pretended to be married couples and completed various challenges together. The show ran for four seasons and i ...

'' and ''

Dad! Where Are We Going? ''Dad! Where Are We Going?'' () was a South Korean reality show featuring five celebrity fathers and their children as they travel to rural places and go on camping missions. The show debuted on MBC on January 6, 2013, as part of the '' Sunday N ...

'' to other countries.

CEOs

Channels

* One terrestrial TV (

— channel 11ㆍ

— channel 12) * Three radio stations: * Five cable/satellite (MBC Drama,

MBC Sports+ MBC Sports+ (MBC 스포츠+, 엠비씨 스포츠 플러스) is a South Korean pay television network, which is well known for its sports broadcasting. Contents This is one of the Korean pay television channels that specialise in broadcasting sp ...

MBC M MBC M (formerly MBC Music) () is a South Korean specialty television channel owned by MBC Plus Media. The cable channel primarily broadcasts programming related to music. It was first announced in July 2011, with the announcement of the shutdo ...

MBC every1 MBC Everyl () is a South Korean pay television network, specialising in entertainment-related variety programming. It is a subsidiary of MBC Plus. History MBC every1 started in October 15, 2007 to air dramas and variety shows and replace the cha ...

and MBC ON) * Three terrestrial DMB (TV, radio,

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

) * Two satellite DMB (MBC Drama, MBC Sports+) * MBC Voice Acting Division (), a

voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-sc ...

company known for its work on movies,

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

, among other media.

Logos

File:MBC logo 1961.svg, First logo (used 1961 to 1969) File:MBC logo 1969.svg, Second MBC logo (used 1969 to November 1981) File:MBC logo 1974.svg, Third MBC logo (1974 to November 1981) File:MBC logo 1980.svg, Fourth MBC logo (used April 1980 to November 1981) File:MBC logo 1981.svg, Fifth MBC logo (December 1981 to 1985) File:MBC logo January 1986.svg, Sixth MBC logo (1 January 1986 to 2 January 2005) File:MBC logo 2005.svg, Seventh MBC logo (3 January 2005 to 31 December 2011) File:Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.svg, Eighth MBC logo (1 January 2012)

Flag

File:Flag of MBC (2005-2011).svg, 2005–2012 File:Flag of MBC.svg, 2012–present

Headquarters

File:MBC Sangam Center.jpg, Current MBC headquarters located in

Sangam-dong Sangam-dong () is a legal '' dong'' (neighborhood) of Mapo District, Seoul, South Korea. In the wake of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, a large apartment complex and DMC business district have been created and developed into the center of western Seoul. ...

(4 August 2014 – present). File:MBC Ilsan Dream Center.JPG, MBC Dream Center located in

Goyang Goyang (; ) is a city in Gyeonggi Province in the north of South Korea. It is part of the Seoul Metropolitan Area, making Goyang one of Seoul's Satellite city, satellite cities. It is one of the largest cities in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, w ...

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

(30 November 2007 – present). File:MBC headquarter buld.jpg, Old MBC headquarters located in

Yeouido Yeouido (), also Yohido, is a river island on the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. It is Seoul's main finance, media, and investment banking district. It is large and has a population of 32,674 . The island is located in the Yeongdeungpo Dis ...

(17 February 1982 – 3 August 2014). File:1970~1980's MBC Government building.jpg, Old MBC building located in

Jeong-dong Jeong-dong () is a legal '' dong'' (neighbourhood) of Jung District, Seoul, South Korea. It is governed by its administrative dong, Sogong-dong. It is an historical area with Deoksugung from the Joseon period and some of Korea's first modern sc ...

(8 August 1969 – 16 February 1982; now used by

Kyunghyang Shinmun The ''Kyunghyang Shinmun'' () is a major daily newspaper published in South Korea. It is based in Seoul. The name literally means '' Urbi et Orbi Daily News''.List of programs broadcast by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation *

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

Seoul Broadcasting System Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS; ) is one of the leading Television in South Korea, South Korean television and radio broadcasters. The broadcaster legally became known as SBS in March 2000, changing its corporate name from Seoul Broadcasting ...

Educational Broadcasting System Korean Educational Broadcasting System () or EBS is a South Korean educational public radio and television network covering South Korean territory, and the only major South Korean radio and television network joint venture Ministry of Science a ...

List of South Korean broadcasting networks In South Korea, there are a number of national television networks, the three largest of which are KBS, MBC, and SBS. Most of the major television studios are located on Yeouido and Sangam-dong, Seoul. South Korea became the fourth adopter ...

Contemporary culture of South Korea The Contemporary history, contemporary culture of South Korea developed from the traditional culture of Korea which was prevalent in the early Korean nomadic tribes. By maintaining thousands of years of ancient Korean culture, with influence from ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Television networks in South Korea Korean-language television stations Mass media companies of South Korea Mass media companies established in 1961 Television channels and stations established in 1969 South Korean companies established in 1961 Publicly funded broadcasters Mapo District