According to the legal community on Sep 12th, the Seoul District Court accepted MBC’s application to seize the assets of the “Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born” production companies Studio N, NPIO Entertainment and Management mmm. The decision was made on Sep 10th.
MBC explained, “We applied for the asset seizure based on ‘unfair competition due to unauthorized use of work product and breach of contract negotiations’. The court found our claim justified and fully granted the seizure on Sep 10th, 2024.”
“Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born” was originally planned to air on MBC. The director, Jung Ji-in, is affiliated with MBC, and conflicts arose between MBC and the production companies over production costs.
After lengthy negotiations, MBC offered a production cost of more than 2 billion won per episode. However, Studio N and others accepted a higher offer of 2.8 billion won per episode, totaling 33.6 billion won, from CJ ENM’s production company Studio Dragon, leading to the switch to tvN.
MBC claims they were heavily involved in the pre-production process, including location scouting, actor casting and research, but suffered significant losses when the show switched networks.
“Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born” is set in the 1950s after the Korean War and follows the story of a gifted vocal prodigy, Jeongnyeon, as she competes to become the top musical theater performer. Kim Tae-ri stars as the lead character.
While “Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born” was scheduled to premiere on Oct 12th at 9:20 PM, this legal dispute has now put the show’s future in jeopardy.
Update: On Sep 12th, the production companies—Studio N, Management mmm and NPIO Entertainment—released a statement clarifying the situation, “MBC’s recent provisional seizure is not a final ruling from the court but a simple preliminary injunction made without the production companies being given a chance to present their case. It is a temporary decision based solely on MBC’s one-sided claims.”
They further emphasized, “This provisional decision has nothing to do with the broadcast schedule, and it will not affect the airing of the show.“
The production companies explained, “The project was planned and developed entirely under our leadership, with all costs borne by us (without receiving a single won from MBC). Despite repeated requests, MBC delayed the production cost negotiations until just before filming was about to begin, forcing us into a situation where we had no choice but to accept their unreasonable terms. In the end, we were never able to reach an agreement with MBC on the production costs, and only 20 days before the shoot, MBC told us to find another channel if we could. As a result, we had to delay filming for over a month and switch to another platform.”
The companies added, “Despite this, we could not risk upsetting a major broadcaster and expressed our willingness to pay for any costs incurred by MBC. However, MBC refused to provide any cost details and declined requests for meetings. Then, just before ‘Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born’ was set to air, they filed a lawsuit in an apparent attempt to maliciously damage the project.“
