JoongAng Group vice chair apologizes, calls decision ‘inevitable’ amid scrutiny over World Cup, Olympic rights deal (JTBC) JoongAng Group's flagship broadcaster JTBC has filed for court-supervised corporate rehabilitation, following four other affiliates of the Korean media conglomerate that have sought the same protection. The filings come after the group made a costly bet in 2019 on exclusive FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games broadcasting rights.The Seoul Bankruptcy Court will review whether the five companies — JTBC, JoongAng Holdings, JoongAng P&I, Megabox JoongAng and ContentreeJoongAng — have sufficient prospects to continue operating and decide whether to formally commence rehabilitation proceedings.Hong Jeong-do, vice chairman of JoongAng Group, apologized in a televised news conference on Monday afternoon, saying that he was “deeply sorry for causing public concern over today’s situation.”He said the company had done its best to maintain management stability, but worsening external economic conditions and a credit rating downgrade led to a liquidity crunch and other factors that made “today's inevitable decision” unavoidable.The filings follow mounting financial pressure across the group. On Friday, credit-rating agency NICE Investors Service downgraded JoongAng Group broadcaster JTBC's unsecured bond rating from BBB Negative to CCC after the network failed to repay 20.6 billion won ($13.6 million) in securitized loans. It also cut the company's short-term credit ratings for commercial paper and electronic short-term debt from A3 to C.In a statement released on Friday, JTBC said the company has utilized every available means to overcome its liquidity crisis, adding it has already undertaken extensive efforts to improve operational efficiency, including implementing an emergency management framework."However, as the media landscape has rapidly shifted toward digital platforms and streaming services, the television advertising market has contracted significantly," the company said. "The deterioration in external business conditions ultimately resulted in a default on certain debt obligations."JTBC added that it would "take full responsibility" for the situation and mobilize all available internal and external resources to stabilize operations. The broadcaster emphasized that content production and programming, including its news division and major sports broadcasts, would continue without disruption.The financial strain comes as in 2019, JTBC expanded its investment in sports broadcasting rights. Breaking from the long-standing Korea Pool system, under which the country's three major terrestrial broadcasters KBS, SBS and MBC jointly acquired major sports rights, the network pursued a stand-alone strategy centered on exclusive acquisitions.As part of that push, in 2019, JTBC secured broadcasting rights to the 2026-2032 Olympic Games and the 2026-2030 FIFA World Cup. Local media reports estimate the combined value of the deals at approximately $5 million.