지상파방송 재허가의 법적 성격과 현행제도의 한계에 대한 소고

KBS, MBC, and SBS were given ‘licence renewals with conditions’ for regular review of licence renewal of terrestrial broadcasters controlled by Korea Communications Commission in 2017, and three broadcasters have accordingly fulfilled the given conditions. Since then, the domestic media environment has undergone significant changes that could not be handled by terrestrial broadcasters, and the existence and role of terrestrial broadcasters, especially public broadcasters, are considered more significant in the flood of commercial media than before.
In this regard, it is necessary to check the current procedure for licence renewal of terrestrial broadcasters to improve the efficiency of terrestrial broadcasting related policies. The current procedure for licence renewal of terrestrial broadcasters, which is usually implemented every three years, is equally applied to all terrestrial broadcasters, regardless of the status of broadcaster, ie whether public or commercial, in terms of content and management. This article examines the meaning and legal nature of licence renewal, the state of domestic and foreign laws and regulations, current issues, and limitations of incumbent process. First of all, it offers as follows: implementing dual procedures for each categories of licence renewal based on the nature of terrestrial broadcasters, ie whether public or commercial, might be more efficient in assessing the goal of the policy than maintaining the actual licence renewal policy conditioning the only category of licence renewal for all terrestrial broadcasters. The article underlines that reviews for licence renewal of public terrestrial broadcasters should be focused on public interest and public value while reviews for licence renewal of commercial terrestrial broadcasters should scrutinize ownership, governance, and management. In addition, increasing audience participation in licence renewal is proposed with accepting audience opinions through building a system to receive diverse and in-depth audience opinions and to expand additional participation methods such as public hearings and public opinion polls. For licence renewals with conditions, is emphasized the prompt implementation of a policy to increase the effectiveness of follow-up measures making up for the absence of legal sanctions to enforce in the case that requirements of ‘licence renewals with conditions’ are not fulfilled.