SBS won Korean viewers by airing the evening news an hour early
When SBS arrived in 1990 as South Korea's first new private broadcaster in a decade, it needed a way to stand out. One tactic was simply timing: its flagship bulletin went out at eight in the evening instead of the customary nine, under the slogan news an hour earlier. The upstart later exported hit dramas and Running Man across Asia.
Its birth followed the democratic reforms of 1987. In June 1990 the government announced it would again license private broadcasters after a ten-year pause, and it wanted a second commercial channel alongside MBC, a broad alternative for viewers. Some also saw it as a counterweight to Japan's NHK satellite channel, which could be picked up in Korea and stirred resentment rooted in the colonial occupation.
The launch attracted controversy. Taeyoung, a construction company, owned 30 percent of the new broadcaster, and one newspaper, the Hankook Ilbo, branded the arrangement the scandal of the Sixth Republic. SBS was founded in November 1990, began regular radio on AM in March 1991, and started official television broadcasts that December, choosing the day MBC turned 30. It still belongs to Taeyoung and is now the country's biggest private broadcaster.
At first SBS reached only Seoul and its surroundings. After the government invited bids for regional private stations, four new broadcasters in Busan, Daejeon, Daegu and Gwangju were licensed in 1994, and in May 1995 they joined SBS to form a national network airing its programmes alongside their own local shows. A music-focused FM station, Power FM, followed in 1996, and digital television arrived in 2001.
Programming made the brand. The drama Sandglass was its breakout success and drew some of the highest ratings in Korean television, and later series such as My Love from the Star rode the Korean wave abroad. Its investigative documentary strand Unanswered Questions has run since 1992. Even its mascot has a story: Komi, an abstract blue bear created in 2004, later gained friends including a know-it-all purple penguin.
Source: Seoul Broadcasting System
