K-pop giant SM Entertainment partners with UK-based Moon&Back to launch global search for new boy band

SM Leisure, the Okay-pop company behind NCT Dream, aespa and SuperM, has teamed up with UK tv manufacturing firm Moon&Again Media for a brand new challenge to create and launch a UK boy band to a worldwide viewers.

In what the businesses described as a “first-of-its-kind partnership” between South Korea and the UK, the pair will launch a TV present, produced by Moon&Again, bringing collectively Okay-Pop and worldwide TV manufacturing to find “the following worldwide boy band sensation.”

SM Leisure has launched over a dozen globally profitable pop teams like NCT, aespa, SuperM, Pink Velvet, RIIZE, and extra, whereas Moon&Again is the brainchild of multi-BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Corridor (Britain’s Received Expertise, The X Issue, One Path), British media government Daybreak Airey (C4, C5, ITV, Sky, Getty Photos), and expertise supervisor Russ Lindsay (Ant & Dec, Simon Cowell).

Moon&Again’s founders have been launching expertise, creating IP and producing and commissioning tv reveals globally for greater than three many years. Earlier this 12 months, Moon&Again secured an funding from Los Angeles-based Asylum Leisure Group.

The sequence can be led by an government staff that includes trade executives reminiscent of Ben Karter (recognized for his work with The Script, Westlife and Taylor Swift), James McKinlay (famend producer and Emmy-nominated showrunner of X Issue and America’s Received Expertise), and BAFTA-winning government producer David Corridor (behind reveals like Deal or No Deal, The Chase, and The Biggest Dancer).

The TV sequence will doc the journey of an rising boy band over six months, commencing their journey from London in early 2024. Pre-production has begun, and the sequence is ready to be shot within the UK and South Korea.

“This collaboration signifies our first footprint in Europe. Our growth blueprint will proceed to span throughout North and South America, Europe, and different pivotal markets, leveraging SM Leisure’s huge artist roster and in depth networks for unprecedented synergies forward.”

Joseph Chang, SM & Kakao Leisure America

The event comes as SM Leisure plans to increase its attain into world markets together with Europe after launching an built-in North America division with its shareholder Kakao Corp. earlier this 12 months.

Commenting on their UK challenge, Joseph Chang, CEO of SM & Kakao Leisure America, mentioned: “This collaboration signifies our first footprint in Europe.”

Chang added: “Our growth blueprint will proceed to span throughout North and South America, Europe, and different pivotal markets, leveraging SM Leisure’s huge artist roster and in depth networks for unprecedented synergies forward. We’re thrilled to associate with energy gamers who have been vital within the creation and success of One Path, and collectively we’re aiming to search out that subsequent world sensation.”

Daybreak Airey, Co-Founding father of Moon&Again, commented: “Take one of many world’s finest leisure producers and mix it with the world’s finest Okay-Pop producer and watch the magic unfold. It is a world first, making a British boy band and exposing them to the wonders and rigors of the premier Okay-Pop course of with SM Leisure. This alchemy will create compelling tv and a boy band that may entertain the world.”

It is a world first, making a British boy band and exposing them to the wonders and rigors of the premier Okay-Pop course of with SM Leisure. This alchemy will create compelling tv and a boy band that may entertain the world.”

Daybreak Airey, Moon&Again

As the businesses put together for filming, discussions with main broadcasters, document labels and music publishers are already in movement.

The formation of Okay-Pop teams by TV reveals is a standard follow within the South Korean music trade. Also known as “idol survival reveals,” these reveals comply with a format the place people, usually aspiring singers or trainees, compete towards one another by varied challenges to earn a spot in a brand new idol group.

Teams shaped by these reveals have gained vital reputation in South Korea and internationally, amongst them NCT Dream, Pentagon, TWICE, SEVENTEEN, Momoland and Monsta X.

SM rival HYBE has partnered with Geffen/Universal Music Group to globalize the “K-pop methodology” with the launch of the “Global Girl Group” auditions. 

Elsewhere, SM Leisure not too long ago disclosed plans to expand its seek for songwriting expertise worldwide, after reserving its highest-ever quarterly income and revenue within the third quarter.

“We’re pursuing varied collaborations with home and overseas publishers… Globally, we plan to actively recruit overseas writers who want to advance into Okay-pop by establishing abroad subsidiaries,” CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk mentioned through the firm’s current investor name.

“As well as, we plan to internalize royalties and promote music to exterior labels and companies sooner or later, which can function one other new income stream for SM Leisure.”

Music Enterprise Worldwide