For the thousands of baseball fans in South Korea who failed to get tickets to see superstar Shohei Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers debut this week, $3.75 was the price tag to watch the Seoul event live online. That may seem cheap in months ahead as companies bet that fans will follow the global trend of paying more to view their favorite sports events.
To watch the sold-out Dodgers season opener against the San Diego Padres, viewers needed to have an account with e-commerce giant Coupang, whose monthly membership fee is 4,990 South Korean won ($3.75). But to watch baseball for the rest of the season, South Korean viewers will need to use other streaming services whose monthly charges are more than double that.
That may not seem like an exorbitant price tag, but it’s still an added financial burden for South Korean sports fans who had gotten used to watching events on digital platforms for free in past seasons. Still, as demand grows worldwide to view sports online, paid services will become the norm and South Korean firms may face competition from some of the biggest technology and entertainment firms.