News of an alleged sponsorship payment received by SBS program, 'Baek Jong Won's Alley Restaurant', has come to light as the show recently switched its airing time slot from Friday evenings to Wednesday evenings.
Approximately a week ago, one news outlet reported that "'Alley Restaurant' received a sponsorship payment of 200,000,000 KRW (~ $180,000 USD) from the Incheon central district office."
The response that the Incheon central district office gave to this news report was, "There were aspects of the show which aligned with the district office's improvement policies, so we formed an agreement."
However, one citizen group claimed that other restaurants featured on the show in the past did not pay a sponsorship fee from the local district office, as well as that the SBS staff should have declined the sponsorship offer.
Since the end of last month, the 'Alley Restaurant' team has been aiding the revitalization of a shopping district located in an area known as Incheon's youth mall. When contacted about the controversy, a rep from SBS stated, "We believed that the request to revitalize the youth mall aligned with the program's direction. It was a lawful sponsorship abiding by broadcast regulations. There are no problems."
Meanwhile, 'Baek Jong Won's Alley Restaurant' has been moved from its former Friday time slot to Wednesdays at 11:10 PM KST.
