A KCON concert held at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (image: CJ ENM)
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM said Thursday it is planning to launch an audition program in Latin America to create a K-pop style boy group.
The collaboration with HBO Max and Endemol Shine Boomdog will bring together K-pop artists and Hispanic acts to select potential members of a Latino group, which will debut through the program and train as K-pop groups do.
HBO Max is an over-the-top platform unit of U.S. media giant WarnerMedia, and Endemol Shine Boomdog is a global content production firm.
It will mark the first audition program by a Korean company targeting the South American market, according to CJ ENM.
The company said it will apply its capacity and experience in making audition shows to the project, expected to spearhead its advancement into the fast-booming Latin American market.
CJ ENM, which has entertainment channels like tvN and Mnet under its wing, has created a number of megahit audition programs, including the “Produce” and “Superstar K” series.
South America is seen as a high-potential market for the entertainment industry as most of its countries use Spanish, the second-most spoken language across the world. It also has a relatively young population, the leading consumer group of pop music.
According to an annual global music report by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry, Latin America was the fastest-growing region globally for the sixth consecutive year in 2020, with a growth rate of 15.9 percent in recorded music revenues.
The global recorded music market grew by 7.4 percent last year.
(Yonhap)
