‘Butter’ becomes BTS’ second song to surpass a billion streams on Spotify

We are shocked — SHOCKED we tell you — to hear Kid Rock might not be such an upstanding guy!

Barunson E&A, the production company behind Oscar-winner Parasite, is set to officially launch its new international ventures at the upcoming American Film Market as it looks to expand into co-production, financing and sales.

Netflix is staying in the Yeon Sang-ho business, confirming production on his latest creation, The Bequeathed. A suspense drama, it weaves an intricate family history into a subject matter deeply rooted in Korean tradition: family burial grounds. 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Amara Walker, the CNN correspondent newly assigned to co-anchor weekend mornings, will be represented by CAA. Walker, who joined CNN in 2012, works alongside co-anchor Boris Sanchez. The two also anchor CNN’s 10 a.m. hour on Saturdays. She is based in CNN’s Atlanta studio, and continues to also serve as a correspondent. The current “New Day” airs Saturdays between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and Sundays between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. CNN has announced plans to relaunch morning programming later this year and the weekend show’s name would, presumably, change as part of that move. Walker has reported on such events as the 2021 Atlanta spa massacre and co-hosted a primetime special with Anderson Cooper, Victor Blackwell, and Ana Cabrera, called “Afraid: Fear in America’s Communities of Color.” During the 2020 presidential election and the Georgia Senate runoff, Walker was part of an election night team reporting on President Trump’s repeated attacks against the Georgia Secretary of State, baselessly claiming fraud. Walker began her career at CNN as an anchor for CNN International, where she anchored during the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela, and during large-scale demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong in June 2019, among other events. She was live on the air as a fire ripped through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April 2019. Walker graduated magna cum laude with a dual degree in political science and broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California, and speaks conversational Korean and Spanish.

Jin, of South Korean supergroup BTS, is due to drop his first solo single on October 28, agency Big Hit Music said today. Titled “The Astronaut,” the song will see Jin become the second member of the K-pop sensation to release solo material following J-Hope whose debut album landed last July.

BTS‘ Jin has dropped new teasers for his forthcoming debut solo single ‘The Astronaut’, out later this month.On October 19 at midnight KST, the Korean idol announced the impending release of his debut solo single album ‘The Astronaut’, alongside its release date of October 28 at 1pm KST.Simultaneously, a logo trailer for the new project was also shared via the HYBE Labels’ YouTube channel. The two-minute clip begins with an A-shaped spaceship orbiting around Earth.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Following a quarter that saw Netflix release several of its most popular titles of all time — per the streamer’s self-reported internal measurements — and subscriber growth after two straight quarters of losses, co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos is feeling “better and better” about the company’s $17 billion content spend budget. “Both the scope and scale, as well as the range and cadence of hits is improving,” Sarandos said during Netflix’s prerecorded Q3 earnings interview with his fellow execs, which was released Tuesday afternoon following the announcement of the third-quarter results. “So I feel better and better about that $17 billion of content spend because what we have to do is be better and better at getting more impact per billion dollar spent than anyone else. And that’s how we’re focusing on it. So I think we’re spending at about the right level. And as we re-accelerate revenue, we’ll revisit that number, of course. But we’re a pretty disciplined bunch about that.”

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BTS's label BigHit has announced that the K-pop group's members are "taking steps" to fulfill their mandatory military service obligations in South Korea. The country has been debating whether or not the pop superstars should receive exemptions from the law, which dictates that all able-bodied men serve 18-21 months in the country's military.

After much speculation about whether they’d be exempt or not, BTS is enlisting in the military!

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Nearly a decade after acquiring the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer is finally realizing his dream to build a bigger and better TV platform for his beloved basketball franchise. The Clippers today are launching ClipperVision, a regional subscription streaming service that offers six channel options for watching the vast majority of the team’s home and away games – more than 70 out of 84 regular season games. The service will cost $199 per season and is available largely in Southern California. The service’s first live stream bows Oct. 22. with an away-game against the Sacramento Kings. One of the six channel feeds will be dedicated to the team’s traditional linear cable TV coverage via Bally Sports. Two more are dedicated to Spanish-language and Korean-language coverage of live games – with the Korean team anchoring from a studio in Seoul.

BTS is switching gears and preparing to fulfill their duty to their country. The band's record label, BIGHIT MUSIC, has announced that the members of BTS are on their way to fulfilling their mandatory military service requirements for the South Korean government. The group's eldest member, Jin, 29, will be the first to enlist. Under South Korean law, all able-bodied men are required to perform 18-21 months of military service. NBC News notes that the band has already been granted a two-year extension on their government-mandated military service, with top-performing athletes and musicians occasionally granted exemptions.

The members of South Korean supergroup BTS will fulfill their mandatory military service before reconvening “around” 2025, agency Big Hit Music announced on Monday. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief BTS, the biggest names in K-Pop, announced Monday that they will sign up for Korea’s mandatory military service, with Jin initiating the process at the end of October. The move means that the septet will become temporarily inactive as a group. But, “both the company and the members of BTS are looking forward to reconvening as a group again around 2025 following their service commitment,” said label Bighit Music. “The members of BTS are currently moving forward with plans to fulfill their military service. Group member Jin will initiate the process as soon as his schedule for his solo release is concluded at the end of October. He will then follow the enlistment procedure of the Korean government. Other members of the group plan to carry out their military service based on their own individual plans,” Bighit said in a statement. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The free concert by K-pop sensation BTS in Busan, Korea, was viewed by upwards of 49 million people on Saturday. The free-of-charge “BTS ‘Yet to Come’ in Busan” concert was held in support of Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo and represented an attempt to introduce the city and Korean culture to global audience. After a change of venue, the physical component was held at the city’s Asiad Main Stadium and attracted some 50,000 in-person guests. An additional 10,000 people in the city watched a live retransmission at the Busan Port, and a further 2,000 gathered in Haeundae, the tourist area that recently played host to the Busan International Film Festival.

BLACKPINK have become the first K-pop act to receive a nomination for Best Video at this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards.The MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) announced its list of nominations for its 2022 edition on October 12, which included a nomination for BLACKPINK in the Best Video category for their ‘Pink Venom’ music video. This makes them the first-ever K-pop act to receive a nomination in this category.Aside from their Best Video nomination, BLACKPINK have also been nominated in three other categories at the awards: Biggest Fans, Best Metaverse Performance (for their PUBG Mobile in-game concert ‘The Virtual’) as well as Best K-pop.

Big Hit Music has issued a new statement addressing the “unauthorised use” of BTS‘ trademark ahead of the band’s forthcoming ‘Yet To Come’ concert in Busan, where the label says it will crack down on “counterfeit” merchandise.The statement, written in both Korean and English, was shared on Big Hit Music’s official social media channels yesterday (October 11). The label revealed that it has been taking “strict measures against companies that have been repeatedly producing, selling and distributing products that infringe on BTS’ portrait and trademark rights (‘rights violating products’)”.The label also announced plans to “conduct on-site inspection[s] and investigation[s] of counterfeit products” at and around the venue of BTS’ forthcoming ‘Yet To Come’ concert in Busan, slated to take place this weekend on October 15 at the Busan Asiad Main Stadium.

NCT 127 made their first-ever appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show with a performance of ‘2 Baddies’, making them the first K-pop act to do so.The boyband appeared on the October 11 broadcast of the American talk show, hosted by singer-actress Jennifer Hudson. NCT 127 performed their latest single ‘2 Baddies’, which first dropped in September as the title track for their fourth full-length album of the same name. Their appearance and performance on The Jennifer Hudson Show mark the first time a Korean pop act has guest-starred on the show.The nine-piece are currently in the US for ‘Neo City – The Link’ concerts in Los Angeles and New Jersey, the latter of which will take place tomorrow (October 13).Their appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show also comes hot on the heels of their Good Morning America performance of the same song, which was broadcast just a day prior.

HYBE’s request to trademark V from BTS‘ popular ‘Borahae’ phrase.The phrase, now synonymous with BTS, was first coined by V during a BTS fanmeet event in 2016. The term, a portmanteau of the Korean words saranghae (I love you) and borasaek (purple), was created with the following message in mind to be used between BTS and their fanbase, per Soompi: “Just as purple is the last colour of the rainbow, I will trust and love you until the very end.”A report from Sports Kyunghangclaims that the South Korean entertainment giant’s request to trademark the ‘Borahae’ phrase was rejected as it went against the “principles of good faith”, as translated by Soompi.KIPO noted in their statement that the term was first coined by V – referred to in the report by his birth name, Kim Tae-hyung – during a BTS fanmeet on November 13, 2016, and that the entity entitled to the trademark is V himself.