KBO tenders international media rights for 2020-23

The Korea Baseball Organization has launched a tender for the distribution of its media rights in territories outside Korea, covering the 2020 to 2023 seasons.

The league has also launched a tender for a partner to help protect its intellectual property, by investigating rights license violations.

Bids for the international media rights must be physically submitted to the KBO by 5pm on March 19, at the organisation’s headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul.

The KBO said that its intention with the tender was to promote “industrialisation through the internationalisation and expansion of the KBO League, and the expansion of marketing business profits.”

The winners of the tender, which was issued last week, will be able to distribute rights to television broadcasters, digital platforms and agencies. The tender covers exhibition games, regular season games, postseason/Korean Series games, and All-Star games. Games from the second-tier KBO Futures League are not covered. Video feeds will be provided by Korean broadcasters, and all expenses for the production of an international feed – if deemed necessary – and overseas transmission must be borne by the winner of the tender.

The KBO will judge bids using a scoring system that awards 50 per cent of points based on a technical evaluation and 50 per cent based on the rights fee bid. Bidders must score more than 40 points on the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will be based on 30-minute presentations by the bidding companies.

“Broadcasting companies, portals, telecommunication companies, OTT operators, and agencies” are invited to bid, and consortia of bidders are welcome.

Also last week, the KBO launched a tender to appoint a partner “to protect the league’s license rights by investigating and responding to the ongoing infringement of license rights of KBO leagues and KBO teams”.

Bids are due by 5pm on March 17 and must also be physically submitted at the organisation’s headquarters.

The KBO said: “Businesses selected through the bidding will conduct investigations, warnings and crackdowns on license rights violations”.

The KBO is being assisted with the bidding process by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.