Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Information & Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Links at HealthHaven.com

Korean name
Hangul	문화방송
Hanja	文化放送
Revised Romanization	Munhwa Bangsong
McCune–Reischauer	Munhwa Pangsong

**Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation**
Type	Broadcast radio and; television
Country	South Korea
Availability	South Korea, United States (Satellite, certain metropolitan areas over-the-air)
Owner	The Foundation of Broadcast Culture; The Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation
Key people	Ohm Ki-young, CEO & President
Launch date	1961 (radio); 1969 (television); 2001 (digital); 2005 (DMB)
Official Website	www.imbc.com

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is one of four major national South Korean television and radio networks. Munhwa is the Korean word for "culture." Its flagship terrestrial television station is Channel 11 for VHF.

Twice government-owned, the network is owned by the Foundation of Broadcast Culture owns 70% of the company's stocks while the Jung-Su scholarship association owns 30%. MBC receives no government subsidies and derives its income almost entirely from regular commercial advertising. It has 19 local stations and several subsidiaries.

The network originated from Busan Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, the first private broadcasting corporation in the country. Since then, MBC operates 19 regional stations and 10 subsidiaries, with over 4,000 employees. It has provided terrestrial TV digital TV service in the ATSC standard from 2001 and T-DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) service from 2005.

[edit] History

MBC Headquarters(Building), Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea

The origin of MBC was Busan Munhwa Bangsong (Busan Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation; Busan MBC), the first private broadcasting corporation, established in 1959, Busan, South Korea. Busan MBC started its service with 1 kW AM radio and became known for broadcasting the first CM Song in South Korea.

Busan MBC launched MBC in Seoul in 1961, with a small AM radio broadcaster (Today, the best heavy stockholder of Busan MBC is MBC (in Seoul)). It began television broadcasting on August 8, 1969 and FM radio broadcasts in 1971. Partly to address such concerns in light of the country's 1987 democratic reforms, the National Assembly established the Foundation for Broadcast Culture on December 26, 1988, to insulate MBC from political influence.

In 2001, MBC launched satellite television and cable television broadcasting. As part of this expansion it created MBC America, a subsidiary based in Los Angeles, California, USA to distribute its programming throughout The Americas.

On August 1, 2008, MBC America launched MBC-D, a television service carried on the digital subchannels of KSCI-TV, KTSF-TV, and WMBC-TV. The service was to be launched in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. by the end of the year. ^[1]^[2] In northeast metro Atlanta it airs over the air on WKTB-LD channel 47.3.

[edit] MBC Channels

One Terrestrial TV, Three Radio(AM, FM, Standard FM),
Four Cable (Drama , Sports, Game, and Variety),
Four Satellite (Drama , Sports, Game, and Variety),
Three Terrestrial DMB (TV, Radio, Data),
Two Satellite DMB (Drama , Sports) channels

[edit] MBC programs

Further information: List of programmes broadcast by MBC TV

[edit] Program guide

[edit] Drama

MBC dramas have taken part in the Korean wave. MBC dramas are exported to 30 countries including those in Asia, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Dae Jang Geum has set the record high audience ratings in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and its popularity has continued in 50 countries including Japan. Other dramas that have enjoyed high viewership include Jumong, The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, and Yi San.

[edit] Entertainment

MBC’s hallmark reality program Infinite Challenge has held high viewership rating for three consecutive years. The comedians hosting Exclamation!, which ended its run in 2007, have promoted various interests such as reading, reuniting foreign workers in South Korea with their families, and providing medical help to the elderly.

[edit] Current affairs and documentaries

Main article: US beef imports in South Korea#MBC “PD Notebook” broadcast

MBC documentaries encompass a wide range of issues from foreign affairs to the environment. PD Notebook premiered in 1990 and has since earned notoriety for its investigations from producers’ perspectives. Episodes have included one that covered scientific fraud by the Korean geneticist Hwang Woo-Suk and another that contained several disputed claims against importing US beef.^[3] The latter episode, titled "Is American Beef Really Safe from Mad Cow Disease," contributed to three months of protest in Seoul against importing US beef. Since then, the accuracy of the episode and the program's method of obtaining information has been questioned.^[4]^[5]^[6]

MBC current affair and documentary programs have won recognitions from TV festivals as New York TV Festival, Banff TV Festival, ABU Prizes, Earth Vision, Asian TV Awards and Japan Wildlife Festival.

[edit] News & Sports

With 19 regional stations in Korea, 9 permanent overseas bureaus, and service arrangements with CNN, APTN, Reuters TV and NBC, MBC delivers the world into our homes. MBC also produces analysis programs such as News Magazine 2580, News Who, 100-Minute Debate, Economy Magazine, Global Report and North Korea Report, which cover political, economic, social and cultural issues of the day.

[edit] iMBC

iMBC is MBC's official website, providing users with various information on current and past programs and allowing users to download or stream programs to watch.

Established March 2000 as the internet subsidiary of MBC, iMBC uses the digital contents of MBC to provide various contents to internet, mobile and ISP users and foreign businesses. iMBC also plans projects for creating, developing, and circulating new contents.

The site offers free and paid VOD services for users to view various programs online. While the public service programs, News, Radio, and programs currently on air are free, dramas, entertainment, and current affairs programs are not.

For viewers in Korea and abroad, iMBC offers VOD streaming services. An episode typically costs around ₩500, and there is a fixed fee that allows users to watch as many videos as they want for ₩4,000 a day or ₩15,000 a month. For users that are abroad, iMBC offers VOD download and streaming services, available for ₩1000 (about $1 US) each.

[edit] Foreign partners

Foreign Partners^[7]
Partner	Country
ABC	Australia
ABS-CBN	Philippines
GMA Network	Philippines
BBC	UK
CBC	Canada
CBS	USA
NBC	USA
CNN	USA
France 2	France
SMG	China
CCTV	China
NHK	Japan
Fuji Television	Japan
ZDF	Germany

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ http://www.mbc24tv.com/html/dtv_en.asp
^ http://www.mbc24tv.com/html/dtv_faq.asp
^ Bad Marks All Round In Hwang Scandal Retrieved October 14, 2006
^ [http://www.koreaherald.co.kr Lee Jung-bock: POLITICAL CHANGES IN KOREA(33) Korea on path to mature liberal democracy, 2008/02/15]
^ MBC suspends producers for breaching ethics
^ Media ethics judged, found wanting
^ ZDF agrees cooperation with Chinese and Korean broadcasters, ZDF(press-release), Retrieved on June 9, 2004.

[edit] External links

MBC Overseas
MBC Global Media English language homepage
MBC America
MBC in Brief

[edit] Korean

[edit] English

Official Homepage

[edit] MBC subsidiaries

[0] ttp://www.mbc24tv.com/html/dtv_en.asp

[1] ttp://www.mbc24tv.com/html/dtv_faq.asp

[2] Bad Marks All Round In Hwang Scandal Retrieved October 14, 2006

[3] [http://www.koreaherald.co.kr Lee Jung-bock: POLITICAL CHANGES IN KOREA(33) Korea on path to mature liberal democracy, 2008/02/15]

[4] MBC suspends producers for breaching ethics

[5] Media ethics judged, found wanting

[6] ZDF agrees cooperation with Chinese and Korean broadcasters, ZDF(press-release), Retrieved on June 9, 2004.

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