AFKN will no longer be broadcast by local cable companies in Korea in the near future. I guess getting a dish is a priority now.
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24 Comments
Just as well…the “rump AFN Korea” the powers that be left to go out over the airwaves after spinning off their sports and entertainment programming basically sucked.
I wonder if AFN Korea as carried by Korean MSOs was considered an English-language broadcaster for purposes of the limiting quota and if so, whether they will replace AFN Korea with another English-language station.
A sad day for “American Cultural Imperialism”, now Koreans are free of those crappy US melodramas being forced upon them. With AFN now replaced by a new re-run channel, we can finally get enough Noh Hong Chul.
I lost AFN when I moved from Yongsan-gu to Bucheon a few years back. I can’t say that I’ve really missed “Judge Judy” and “Wheel of Fortune” - and live sports coverage had already been reduced to almost nothing by then - but I definitely preferred the military’s version of public service announcements to the painfully annoying commercials one has to endure on Korean TV. There were some real classics!
On the bright side those commercials were quite embarrassing for the USFK. Most of them were dumbed down to such a grade school level as to make service members come across as mentally deficient. Added to that, without fail every season has some shrill warning explaining how THAT season was a time of increased risk: Winter: driving; Summer: dehydration; all other times: MONSOON! Wear your raincoat! One wonders what the benchmark season would be to have a net increase in risk over.
It’s bad enough that when soldiers are having their extremities blown off by road side bombs in Iraq some farcical jackass is concluding a PSA about wearing a friggin raincoat with “Stay safe stay alive!”
The TV shows that AFKN sponsors are so bad that I will not miss it since I do not watch it. Because local cable providers gouge so much for poor content with too much advertising, I will get a satellite dish before I get any more awful cable.
Honestly the only thing I might miss is the nightly news at 6pm… Now that’s ABC news.
Other than that the sitcoms are really not that good.
You can get better shows on Korean TV and up to date seasons.
It’s pretty strange that for the 14 years I have lived here it was never an issue and now all of a sudden see ya AFN.
It’s really ridiculous that the original philanthropic reason AFN exists is as a sort of thank you to those serving overseas. Now there are questions of copyright infringement? How’s that? No advertisers except for the Armed Forces non-profit blurbs. Nobody’s making any money off their stuff. Oh no, someone might learn some English on some broadcasting companies dime. What a load of bleep!
And for the love of Pete between AFN and OCN how many freaking variations of CSI are there? You know, with programming like that if you hadn’t announced the end I wonder how many people would have noticed?
AFN is all about greed and selling their cable packages. It used to be they operated as a non-profit entity for the morale of soldiers/civilians working in Korea. That all changed a few years ago when they partnered with Aafes and began selling cable packages. Now they are profit driven just like any other business. It was just a matter of time before this move. The “copyright infringement” excuse is just a smokescreen to hide their true agenda which is to sell more cable packages. And what a coincidence that on Jan 1, 2008 the AFN cable packages are increasing their subscription prices by $3 a month.
I guess they have to make up for all those thousands of missing cases of beer and wine somehow.
Per Maddlew’s comment, the commission decided there was a copyright issue if Korean cable owners broadcast shows without paying a royalty to do so. The programming content is largely donated to the soldiers serving overseas by the US broadcasting companies. Someone has pressed the USFK to approach the KBC over the copyright issue.
As a footnote, one may produce and copyright dung but I certainly will not pay for it.
I know it’s lame-boomer-gen, but I’m gonna miss having Jay to smile at every 10:30… Have missed for a month now, already.
In the pre-internet days, AFKN really helped provide a connection to home. But those public service announcements… There have been some pretty lame ones. Remember the one where the guy gets out of bed at night and bangs into something… His wife says… “Honey — did you forget to turn on the light again?” It wouldn’t surprise me if they’d made one about not walking and chewing gum at the same time.
The copyright infringement claim seems strange, considering the lack of commercials, but it does make sense that American broadcasters might not like donating programming that they otherwise could sell on the Korean market. I can understand why they would like to restrict free recipients to the those serving in the military, rather than the whole Seoul market.
The issue of copyright infringement in Korea is interesting, considering all the “Yale Hakwons” “University of Washington Institutes” and “UCLA clothing shops,” not to mention all the TV ads which use American pop or rock songs in the background - I really wonder if all those places are paying royalties. I guess being half way around the world has advantages when it comes to using others copyrights.
or ‘others copyright protected property.’
It’s pretty obvious that when they dropped SNL and football, they wanted military viewers to buy AFN satellite systems.
The article says:
“Under the plan, Korean TV viewers will not be able to watch AFN-K starting early next year or in the second half of next year.”
Does this mean us waygooks will be excepted? Although there’s not a lot of stuff I watch on AFKN, it’s still better than butkis.
As some who has worked in AFN for a while let me explain a few things to hopefully expand some horizons as to what and why these things happen.
Copyright is huge, for a long AFN Korea had a different schedule than the rest of AFN networks around the world simply because in Korea anyone had access to the channel, so if a network wanted to sell a series to Korea we couldn’t air it because they would not have a chance to make money off of the show to the Korean market as it’s already on and people can already watch it, even not being dubbed and with sub titles it’s still a big deal. So copyright isn’t about AFN making money, we don’t it’s about the net wirk (rightly) making money off the Korean market buying their program.
“AFN is all about greed and selling their cable packages”
We don’t sell cable packages, nor can you be denied access to AFN simply because you don’t choose to by a cable package. Cable packages are usually sold by third party companies working out of AAFES facilities. To say we’re all about greed is just ignorant, there are people working at all levels to ensure most of the people whinging on this board have access to the newest programs the same season they play in the states, we also expanded to 8 channels (most available on base only) from one which I am sure many like myself can remember.
The ads, AFKN ads will always be AFKN ads or AFN ads in general, we work(ed) with what we have and what guidelines are given at the local level. We never expected to make a Coppola production, nor something as sweeping as Dr Zhivago. They are basic and they fill a need since once again we don’t advertise and that’s how we get our programming for free or low low cost.
“It’s really ridiculous that the original philanthropic reason AFN exists is as a sort of thank you to those serving overseas”
It’s not a thank you, it’s a service we provide to give those serving overseas a chance to watch English language programming from their home country. There is nothing ridiculous about that, what is ridiculous is people who shouldn’t have access to this channel, but do for whatever reason bitching about what we provide, you’re known as our shadow audience and you should remain there.
The truth is this, like most things no one is ever happy, give them the Super Bowl but they bitch because they don’t get the Super Bowl Commericals, give them American Idol but bitch because they hear who wins on the news a few hours before we broadcast it at a normal hour. If things are that bad, imagine what you would have if we packed up and shut it all down.
Well, it’s not the end of AFN-K broadcasts in Korea. If you have a UHF TV antenna, you can still pick it up on channel 34. I mean there’s nothing in the Joongang article that suggests that USFK will take down the AFN-K transmitter on Mt. Namsan. Although I have to admit the move to Pyongtaek makes one wonder whether this might lead to the end of broadcasts in Seoul, but that’s something for an another day.
As for content, yeah AFN-K has gotten a bit boring lately. I remember the good old days of AFKN when it was a viable alternative to the crappy dramas and make celebrities suffer and embrass them shows on Korean TV. Now, with a few exceptions, I rarely turn on AFN-K.
“And for the love of Pete between AFN and OCN how many freaking variations of CSI are there?”
A shitload. With Skylife (and possibly some cable systems) you can also watch CSI - Las Vegas, Miami, and NY - on AXN. (Three straight episodes on Sunday morning, repeated again in the evening!)
“Oh no, someone might learn some English on some broadcasting companies dime.”
Though it seemed to be losing popularity when I got here in ‘96, I know a number of Koreans who were regular watchers and listeners of AFKN TV and radio respectively, and their main motivation was improving their English. My wife still listens to 102.7 FM in the car, at least in part to brush up on vernacular English listening. It is/was a good service available to interested Koreans, in addition to Americans and other expats.
I think you’re confusing trademark law with copyright law here… Heck, you could probably open a language school here in the States named after any of the Korean universities (I doubt they’re registered trademarks, or else famous enough to qualify for famous mark protection) without violating trademark law. Then again, you’d probably be violating one or more consumer protection/deceptive trade practice statutes by doing so, but that’s a different issue altogether.
They finally got it right. It was never supposed to have been
broadcast in Korea. The new satellite service is very good.
Thirteen bucks a month for excellent sports coverage.
You keep saying that here and there on the Internet. Why do you care?
I care because I love you.
Then give me my AFN Korea!
“They finally got it right. It was never supposed to have been broadcast in Korea.”
It never really was just for soldiers, actually. It was also a way to promote the American way of life and advertise American cultural products to the Korean public.