SBS Faces Legal Sanctions Due To NewJeans’ Live Performance
On November 4, KST, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KOCSC) decided to impose a “caution” legal sanction on SBS due to a broadcast involving NewJeans.
The broadcast in question was an episode of the channel’s popular music show, Inkigayo, where NewJeans performed their then-newly-released song, “ETA,” on July 30. The performance became a hot topic after the group pulled a unique stunt on stage and started filming themselves on stage with an iPhone 14 PRO. Each member was filming themselves with the phone on live television as the broadcast feed switched between the main Inkigayo cameras and the iPhone camera. The performance ended with the group taking a selfie on stage.
The audience reception of this stage direction was mixed, but the KOCSC showed concern about its possible violation of advertising regulations. Back in August, the organization announced that they had received formal complaints about the passive advertising of iPhone in the broadcast and had launched a formal review. The recently announced legal sanction was a result of that, according to Article 46 (advertising effects) of the “Regulations on Broadcast Review.”
The SBS Entertainment CP, Park Sung Hoon, admitted that the channel’s mistake was “broadcasting something that was no different from an advertisement,” adding that they were reflecting on it. However, Park also offered their reasoning for doing so.
Usually, when an agency curates an artist’s performance as a complete work, we respect it and try not to intervene as much as possible. At the time, NewJeans said they would use the music video concept for the production, so we accepted it without any problem, but we did not realize that the music video was being used as an advertisement.
— Park Sung Hoon
According to the KOCSC, at the time of the broadcast, SBS did not have a separate indirect advertising contract with Apple. Though a prior Broadcast Advisory Special Committee had given a decision of “no issue” by seven members and “violation” by one, the KOCSC’s full committee unanimously decided on legal sanctions.
You can watch the controversial NewJeans performance here:
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