Choi Hwi-young "Establishment of Panomenon joint venture at the end of this month... government intervention is also being considered"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lim Soon-hyeon = Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young announced that a joint venture dedicated to the global K-pop festival 'Paenomenon' to be held in December next year will be established within this month.

At the comprehensive audit of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee held at the National Assembly on the 23rd, Minister Choi responded to People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin's point that the Panomenon joint venture should be established before the National Assembly's budget deliberation, saying, "The Fair Trade Commission said last month that a joint venture involving the four major entertainment companies can be established, so the joint venture will be created by the end of October."

Previously, suspicions of preferential treatment arose when it became known that the trademark rights for the Panomenon event were applied for exclusively by JYP Entertainment (hereinafter JYP), the agency of co-chairman Park Jin-young, rather than the Popular Culture Exchange Committee. As the controversy arose, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Popular Culture Exchange Committee explained that they would later create a joint venture involving the four major K-pop agencies, including JYP, Hive, SM, and YG, to take full charge of Panomenon trademark rights and event management.

In response to the point that a mechanism should be established for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to be involved in the operation of the joint venture, Minister Choi said, "The four companies are not allowed to use the trademark Panomenon as they please," and added, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will directly go in and review whether it is possible to intervene further."

At the National Assembly audit on this day, the original copy of the Panomenon trademark amendment contract was submitted and members of the Culture and Sports Committee perused it on site. The new contract reportedly states that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the joint venture will share 50% of the domestic and international trademark rights for Panomenon. Regarding this, Rep. Bae said, "I would like to say that the issues pointed out in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's government audit on the 7th were faithfully reflected in the contract renewal and are appropriate."