”There are no customers wanting to broadcast the Olympics”...Self-employed people in tears without special demand = South Korea

"There are far more customers who want to watch baseball games than watch the Olympics," said a man in his 50s who has been running a beer parlor in Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, for over 10 years on the evening of the 30th of last month.
Instead of the Paris Olympics, Lee showed a live broadcast of a professional baseball game on the large screen at the beer hall. During previous Olympic seasons, customers had asked if he would show live broadcasts of the games.
Lee explained that there had been a flurry of inquiries in the past, but this year there were no such inquiries at all, and interest in the Olympics had waned.
"I waited and waited, but there was no change at all," he said. "I wanted even regular customers to come, so I turned on the baseball broadcast." The 2024 Paris Olympics will open on July 24, but self-employed people are not doing as they used to.
Japan has not been able to enjoy the "Olympic boom" that it has enjoyed. This is due to the fact that Japan lost in popular ball games such as soccer, and the time difference with Paris means that most games are played in the early hours of the morning.
Another reason cited for this is the shift in media consumption patterns, with people watching videos on their smartphones rather than watching TV.
I couldn't feel the Olympic atmosphere at all. It was hard to find the boards with "Olympic Broadcast" written on them, which I had seen frequently in the past. In fact, there were no large screens or
Of the two beer halls equipped with televisions, one seemed to be showing professional baseball games, music videos, and music programs, rather than Olympic events.
"In the past, putting up advertising boards on the street used to liven up the atmosphere, but that's no longer the case," said Park, who runs a beer hall in Gangnam-gu.
The loss of popular sports such as soccer and baseball is one of the reasons why the special demand for the Olympics has disappeared.
In this Olympics, South Korea was eliminated from the qualifying rounds for popular ball sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball.
For office workers who have to arrive to work on weekdays due to the seven-hour time difference with Paris, watching the game is
Another reason is that it is difficult to schedule a match. Most of the highly anticipated finals are held in the early hours of the morning in South Korea.
However, the games people want to see are often held late at night, so they tend to watch them at home."