Korean Women’s Pro Basketball Gaining Viewers

The television share for women’s professional basketball surpassed the share for the men for the first time yesterday.

Television share, unlike television ratings, is the percentage of channels tuned in to a telecast among all other channels during the same period of time.

According to the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL) yesterday, the WKBL had a 2.56% television share among standard cable TV viewers from the season’s opening day on October 27 to November 7. The men’s Korean Basketball League (KBL) had a share 0.04% lower from October 18 to November 7.

This is the first time the WKBL has beaten the KBL in TV share, and a WKBL official said “We believe the games are now much more fun without non-Korean

players.”

On the other hand, a KBL official said, “It is unreasonable to compare the TV shares when the two games do not even overlap,” and added “the KBL’s television ratings are still higher.”

hic@donga.com