BTS' Label 'Big Hit Entertainment' Revenues Hit $250M In First Six Months, Thanks To Livestreams

BTS' V (Photo: Silvia Elizabeth Pangaro / Shutterstock)

SOUTH KOREA’s BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT -- home of K-Pop superstars BTS -- has generated revenues of $249 million during the first six months 2020 at current exchange rates, up 47% from last year's revenues of $166 million. BIG HIT’s operating profit in the first half of 2020 stood at $42 million up from a profit of $33 million during the same period in 2019.

CEO BANG SI-HYUK said the company "faced entirely unexpected turmoil” from the pandemic with “each moment [creating] a threat and a crisis."

A BTS world tour was scheduled to begin in SEOUL in APRIL, followed by 16 concerts in the U.S. and seven in EUROPE.

BIG HIT says a collapse in the company’s touring income was more than offset by a strong sales for albums, merchandise and tickets for "virtual concerts." Those virtual concerts included BTS’s BANG BANG CON THE LIVE event which took place on June 14, and generated around $20m in sales alone, breaking the record for the largest ever virtual concert audience, equal to 15 shows at a 50,000-capacity stadium.

BIG HIT revealed that BTS will be releasing a new album in the fourth quarter this year, in addition to performing  an “online and offline concert” on OCTOBER 10th and 11th called BTS MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E.

BIG HIT was recently accepted to list on the KOREA COMPOSITE STOCK PRICE Index (KOSPI), with the listing expected to take place later this year. BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT recently acquired a stake in SEOUL-based K-Pop label PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT and is now the company’s largest shareholder. The acquisition of the stake in the firm -- which is home to K-Pop groups such as NU’EST and SEVENTEEN -- came less than a year after BIG HIT’s acquisition of SOURCE MUSIC and SEOUL-based music game company, SUPERB

In 2019, BIG HIT’s annual revenues doubled from the previous year to $494.6 million, with yearly operating profits of $82 million.

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