Korea’s CJ ENM unveils music content slate and plans to boost K-pop platform Mnet Plus

South Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM has announced a slate of music-related content and revealed plans to strengthen its K-pop culture platform Mnet Plus.

Kim Jiwon

The company celebrated the 30th birthday of music channel Mnet and outlined its vision for the future at an event in Seoul, where executives revealed details of upcoming programming, for K-pop fans and broader audiences, often in collaboration with international partners.

The slate includes World of Street Woman Fighter, which sees female dance crews from around the world compete against each other, and the recently announced Boys II Planet, said to be the world’s first K-pop global twin project to form groups singing in Korean and Chinese languages.

Kpopped, meanwhile, is an eight-episode song battle series made with streamer Apple TV+, Band Project (working title) is a global audition show to form a new group and Unpretty Rapstar: Hip Hop Princess is a joint project between Korea and Japan that is due to premiere in the second half of this year.

Kim Jiwon, head of Mnet Plus business, detailed plans to enhance the digital K-pop service through music content, such as original horror survival reality series Sumbakkokjil (Hide & Seek), fan communication and global commerce. The company claims that the platform now has 27 million subscribers.

Away from its TV business, CJ ENM also unveiled plans for a global music strategy, including the launch of a new music label in 2025.

Harry HK Shin, head of music entertainment at CJ ENM, said: “Through our triangle strategy of global multi-labels, global content and global platforms, we will showcase CJ ENM’s distinctive value to the global music industry.”