BTS concert in South Korea to herald stream of live events, Netflix says

BTS Netflix Arirang livestream. (Netflix)

SEOUL - U.S. streaming platform Netflix anticipates more opportunities for live events in South Korea, a company official said on Friday, as it prepares for its biggest livestream this year, a highly anticipated BTS comeback concert in Seoul.

The one-hour event, to be streamed live to 190 countries in the company’s first global broadcast of a music concert, marks the ​release of the supergroup’s first new album in more than three ​years, and the start of a global tour in April.

Netflix hopes Saturday’s BTS event in Seoul’s historic Gwanghwamun Square will be “a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Brandon Riegg, its vice president of nonfiction series and sports.

“I would imagine that with our commitment to partnering with our producers in Korea, there will be many other opportunities for other live events,” he told a press conference.

“We have some things perhaps in the works I can’t speak to right now.”

The company’s investment in South Korea will continue growing, Riegg said, as it boosts infrastructure to enable more live events. “Korean culture, Korean entertainment, which is so beloved, clearly just makes it an obvious choice to continue deepening that partnership.”

A group of journalists said Netflix’s guidelines on coverage were excessive, however.

“The organizers should respect the public nature of the symbolic space of Gwanghwamun and the right of the media to record it,” the Korea Video Journalist Association said in a statement on Friday.

Garrett English, the executive producer of Saturday’s show, said its location and designs would feel modern in keeping with the band’s vision while staying respectful to the space and in harmony with it.

Guidelines set by Netflix and HYBE, the agency managing BTS, bar the media from livestreaming the entire concert and limit posts of video footage to clips of up to five performances, each for a maximum of one minute.

Netflix and HYBE did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the Korea Video Journalist Association’s statement.

RM, the leader of the band, hurt his ankle while rehearsing on Thursday, but the concert will still go on, with RM minimizing his moves on the stage, his agency said in a statement on Friday.

The free concert is expected to draw up to 260,000 spectators, including 22,000 ticket holders, making it one of the area’s largest public gatherings since the 2002 World Cup, officials have said.

As of Wednesday, a total of 1.1 million foreigners had visited the country so far this month, up 33 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to Korea Immigration Service data.

K-pop identity

Barricades and temporary toilets were being installed around Gwanghwamun Square on Friday, as workers covered the stage with screens with wire cameras aloft, amid throngs of fans checking out the preparations.

Officials were making safety checks on aspects from stage setups to expected crowd movements, with widened monitoring of the entire capital, the safety ministry said in a statement.

The concert site symbolizes the Korean identity of the seven-member band, said Brandon You, the Asia Pacific representative of HYBE.

“It really, truly relates to the identity of BTS,” You said. “It is also going to be one that signals what is to be expected of the band in the future.”

It is also reflected in “Arirang,” the title of the boyband’s new album taken from a Korean folk song and released on Friday, said Nicole Kim, vice president of HYBE label Big Hit Music.

“As you can tell from the word Arirang, this is a concept that really started all from the BTS members’ identity and also from their roots.”

Some trace the origin of the term “arirang” to ancient phrases referring to the “beloved” or “heartbroken,” for lack of a fixed definition.

Netflix plans a “KPop Demon Hunters” world tour, ​as it looks to capitalize on its most popular ‌movie, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a source.

“We are obviously incredibly proud of the partnership on Kpop Demon Hunters,” Riegg said in a separate interview with Reuters later in the day. He added Maggie Kang, the director of the film, would also be at Saturday’s BTS concert, but did not elaborate further on the world tour plan.

“We have high expectations with this inaugural concert, but it certainly should signal a greater appetite that we have to work with other artists and labels throughout Korea and Asia in general,” Riegg said.

Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Minwoo Park, Additional Reporting by Joyce Lee and Dogyun Kim, Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Clarence Fernandez, Kate Mayberry and Louise Heavens.