SM Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as SM) is aiming for the European market.
SM has joined hands with the British entertainment company MOON&BACK (hereinafter referred to as M&B) to debut a new boy group that will be active in the global market.
On the 16th of November, SM announced that they held a strategic partnership signing ceremony with M&B at their headquarters in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. This agreement was reached through close consultation between the two companies.
The ceremony was attended by Jang Cheol-hyuk, CEO of SM, Jang Yoon-joong, CBO (Chief Business Officer) of SM, Lee Sung-soo, CAO (Chief A&R Officer) of SM, and Kangta, Creative Director, among others. Nine representatives from M&B attended, including joint CEOs Nigel Hall and Russ Lindsay, Dawn Airey, and Ben Karter, who is in charge of music.
This partnership is significant as it signifies SM’s full-scale development and investment in global music and artist intellectual property (IP). With SM, the leader in K-pop, teaming up with M&B, a specialist in TV reality show production, it is expected that a boy group will be born that will conquer the global market. In particular, the debut of this joint boy group, which will be the first collaboration between Korea and the “home of pop” the UK, is expected to attract attention from the global market.
M&B is an entertainment and TV program production company based in London, UK. It was founded by Nigel Hall, who produced the internationally renowned boy group “One Direction” through “The X Factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent,” Russ Lindsay, the designer of the James Grant Media Group, and Dawn Airey, an expert in broadcasting content who previously served as Yahoo’s Senior Vice President and Getty Images CEO.
M&B will directly cast members for the boy group’s debut in the UK. SM will provide expertise in music, music videos, and choreography in K-pop. The songs performed by these groups will be overseen by KMR (Kreation Music Rights), SM’s music publishing subsidiary.
M&B plans to document the growth process of the boy group in a six-part TV series, which will be broadcasted in various countries including Korea, the UK, and the US from the second half of next year. As the first UK boy group incorporating K-pop, they plan to showcase their growth as musicians in an energetic and vibrant manner.
Source: (A)
