'Flame Baseball' is once again igniting flames despite its conflict with JTBC.
'Flame Baseball' is a variety program led by PD Jang Si-won, who directed JTBC's flagship sports entertainment series 'Strong Baseball'. It features retired professional baseball legends competing against national baseball teams.
The team, Flame Fighters, consists of those who participated in the 'Strong Baseball' series. Notable figures such as coach Kim Seong-keun, Park Yong-taek, Song Seung-jun, Lee Taek-geun, Jung Seong-hoon, Nippert, Jung Geun-woo, Lee Dae-ho, Kim Jae-ho, Jeong Ui-yoon, Yoo Hee-kwan, Kim Moon-ho, Lee Dae-eun, Shin Jae-young, Park Jae-wook, Choi Soo-hyun, Sun Seong-gwon, Kim Kyung-mook, Kang Dong-woo, Park Jun-young, Park Chan-hyung, Lim Sang-woo, and Moon Kyo-won have come together to showcase high-quality matches once again.
'Flame Baseball' was originally planned as 'Strong Baseball' Season 4, but due to disputes with JTBC, Studio C1 became independent and launched a new program on YouTube.
There are many rumors about the path taken to choose YouTube. It has been rumored among insiders that 'Flame Baseball' sought a new broadcaster and OTT platforms after leaving JTBC, but faced difficulties in scheduling due to legal disputes.
'Flame Baseball' began its first live event last month. Approximately 110,000 people flocked to ticket sales, and all seats sold out within five minutes, proving its immense popularity.
Moreover, despite the platform changing from TV broadcasting to YouTube web entertainment, viewer support remains unchanged. The first episode, released on the 5th, recorded 130,000 simultaneous viewers, while the second episode reached 234,000 simultaneous viewers. The third episode, released on the 19th at 8 PM, surpassed 2.45 million views as of 1 PM on the 21st.
However, JTBC filed a copyright infringement report with YouTube, leading to the deletion of the first episode, which had over 3.37 million views on the 17th. The second episode was also deleted on the 21st.
Studio C1 strongly protested, stating, "This matter was unilaterally carried out through a simple copyright infringement report system, not through legal procedures like a 'provisional injunction'. This is a typical case of abusing the copyright system to block video viewing without a clear legal judgment."
The conflict between 'Flame Baseball' and JTBC came to light in February. During the preparation for 'Strong Baseball' Season 4, JTBC announced the cancellation of the tryouts. In response, PD Jang Si-won rebutted, "We will proceed as scheduled," but JTBC reiterated that "cancellation is correct," making the conflict visible.
Subsequently, JTBC raised suspicions of duplicate and excessive billing of production costs by Studio C1, claiming that "C1 excessively billed production costs by hundreds of millions to billions of won and is infringing on the IP rights of 'Strong Baseball' by proceeding with the production of Season 4."
In response, C1 stated, "The production costs are not subject to post-billing or actual cost settlement, so excessive billing is structurally impossible. JTBC's copyright is limited to the footage from Season 3," arguing that this is an attempt to seize intellectual property rights.
Legal disputes between the two parties are also ongoing. JTBC has filed a lawsuit claiming that C1 unlawfully deleted files related to 'Strong Baseball' stored on JTBC's server after the program production contract ended, citing destruction of electronic records and obstruction of business.
In this regard, PD Jang stated, "In the past two months, JTBC has committed various illegal obstruction acts, directly involving everyone from the top management to the staff. Interference with venue reservations, covert threats to other channels, attempts to coerce key cast and crew members, unauthorized entry into the editing room, and destruction of property are all serious illegal acts."
He added, "They are not paying the agreed-upon revenue from the live event and are concealing the scale of profits while absurdly claiming embezzlement of labor costs agreed upon during the planning of the season's filming. This goes beyond the level of 'abuse of power' by the channel and undermines the foundation of video content businesses, as well as infringing on the rights of fans and viewers to enjoy the content," indicating that legal action is being prepared.
Public opinion among netizens generally leans towards 'Flame Baseball'. There are many supportive comments such as, "JTBC should not be greedy," "If they took the title of 'Strong Baseball', they should leave 'Flame Baseball' alone," and "They are infringing on the rights of viewers."
Additionally, there is a sentiment of disappointment regarding the quick removal of videos, with comments like, "It's a shame that the videos are taken down quickly," "The format of baseball does not belong to JTBC," "I want to pay for the viewing fee," "I want to keep watching," and "It's disappointing that videos I want to keep watching are being taken down."
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
