‘Infinite Challenge’ Break Costs MBC TV Around 2 Billion Won In Lost Sales; Experts Says It Could Go Worst Until Show Resumes

Popular TV program "Infinite Challenge" is taking a seven-week break from airing since the last week of January. According to a source from one of the advertising companies of the show, the hiatus of Infinite Challenge caused an approximately 2 billion won or $1.7 million in lost sales from its network MBC TV.

According to the report, the advertising revenue of MBC TV for the time slot of Infinite Challenge dropped 50 percent after the program took a break. Experts say that situation could go worse or remain the same way until the show resumes.

Infinite Challenge features popular stars including Yoo Jae-suk and Mark Myeong-soo. The show attracted around 40 commercials in every episode worth 540 million won in advertising revenues. However, since the airing of the new program that took place of Infinite Challenge's timeslot, the number of advertisements dropped to 20. During its seven-week break, MBC TV would have gathered a total revenue of 3.8 billion won or $3.3 million from advertising.

The new comedy show entitled "Forty's Spring" starring Kwon Sang-woo and Jung Jun-ha is only able to bring 5-6 percent of viewers rating. This statistic is very far apart from Infinite Challenge's 11-15 percent rating. Forty's Spring will continue to air its two last episodes until February 11. MBC TV will then air a rerun of the most popular episodes of Infinite Challenge for four weeks.

Meanwhile, the head of Infinite Challenge, Kim Tae-ho, previously said that they need time to "normalize" the process necessary for production, thus causing the continuity of the variety program. "It usually takes two weeks to prepare for a project, but we have to air the show each week. ... I just wish to take enough time to provide fun and worthwhile experiences (for the viewers)."