The Democratic Party of Korea aired the first broadcast of "Democratic Party TV," an expanded and revamped version of its existing YouTube channel. Kim Min-seok, the Democratic Party of Korea leader, appeared as the first guest on the debut show. Kim likened Democratic Party TV to a "textbook" and other programs to "workbooks." The idea is to check the party's official line on Democratic Party TV.
Democratic Party TV began its first broadcast at about 7:02 a.m. on the 1st. The program's name was set as "Minty07," meaning it starts at 7 a.m. The day's broadcast, under the theme "How the Democratic Party and people's livelihoods change with Megaten," ran for about 37 minutes across parts 1 and 2. The peak concurrent viewership for Democratic Party TV was about 54,000.
On the broadcast, Kim said about the launch of Democratic Party TV, "Shouldn't we start by responsibly and officially presenting our line?" and added, "There are many good programs, but various interpretations can be confusing. It's a basic duty to organize our position and deliver new information or updates."
Kim went on, "Each day, we should carefully choose and say at least one thing about the Democratic Party's line at that moment. In that sense, I hope this program becomes a 'line program,'" adding, "The first success would be to give viewers the feeling that a massive aircraft carrier is starting to run, and it will give the impression that 'the Democratic Party has changed' and 'it's running like a ruling party.'"
In political circles, some observed that the launch of Democratic Party TV was "Kim trying to keep other programs in check and block various interpretations about the party." They argued it was not unrelated to the swirl of interpretations over the confrontation structure between the pro-Lee Jae-myung faction and the pro-Jeong Cheong-rae faction at the Aug. 17 party convention. In fact, on the 30th of last month, Kim wrote on Facebook, "Minty (Democratic Party TV) is a textbook; other media are workbooks."
However, viewership for the program hosted by Kim Ou-joon, a "big speaker" in the progressive camp, actually increased that day. Airing in the same time slot as Democratic Party TV, Kim's program reached a peak concurrent audience of 200,000. The broadcast on Tuesday of the previous week, on the 25th of last month, had a peak concurrent audience of about 161,000.