HYBE & MBC end a 4-year beef that started over BTS and that they never acknowledged existed

Seemingly out of nowhere, MBC and HYBE have agreed to end their four-year long beef that they never formally acknowledged but was an open industry secret. MBC’s Ahn Hyung Jung met with HYBE’s Bang Si Hyuk, and the pair buried the hatchet with a handshake like the Naruto meme.

During their meeting, President Ahn suggested to Chairman Bang, “Let’s definitely improve the long-standing and entrenched flawed production culture between broadcast companies and entertainment companies. We should create an environment for content production with mutual respect and consideration.” He also stated that MBC would lead efforts to enhance artists’ rights and establish a fair partnership to create an entertainment environment that allows for mutual growth.
In response, Chairman Bang expressed deep gratitude for MBC’s consideration of raising the rights of K-pop artists. He said, “I hope that this meeting will serve as an opportunity for the establishment of progressive production practices not only for our two companies but for the entire entertainment industry in South Korea.”
After this meeting, both parties agreed to announce specific collaboration plans for a new paradigm shift in the entertainment industry in the near future.

So yeah, both parties did their usual public relations tradition of sucking each other off a bit in official statements to seal the deal.

But if it sounds like MBC is the more apologetic party here, that’s because … well, this basically started with them getting salty at BTS performing for the KBS and SBS year-end festivals back in 2019 but not being able to attend the MBC Gayo Daejejeon because they had a schedule at literally the Times Square stage. Four years of not just BTS but all HYBE artists being blacklisted from the network because of that shit. The pettiness of these executives knows no bounds, and they will never miss a chance to use their power to try and lean on people, consequences for anybody else be damned.

Anyway, so that’s definitely a newsworthy development and also provides an opportunity to explain the background on the corporate beef and all, but did I write this whole shit just because I wanted to reference that meme? You’re goddamn right.