Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
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Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation

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Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC; Korean주식회사 문화방송; lit. "Joint-stock company Cultural Broadcasting") is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters. Its flagship terrestrial television station MBC TV broadcasts as channel 11. MBC News Now broadcasts as channel 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 as its largest shareholder is a public organization, the Foundation of Broadcast Culture. 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 (DMC), Mapo District, Seoul 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.

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.

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 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 (daily newspaper company).

On 11 December 1980, the Korean Broadcasting System 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 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 in 1989.

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.

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