Reuters Entertainment News Summary

HYBE houses multiple labels behind globally renowned groups including BTS and Seventeen, and its shares fell nearly 8% on Monday largely due to the internal dispute. Ambani's JioCinema cuts subscription prices as India's streaming war heats up JioCinema, the streaming platform run by India's Reliance Industries, on Thursday cut prices of its premium offering to as low as 29 rupees ($0.3480) a month, heating up competition for Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Record giant HYBE audits 'NewJeans' label as infighting returns to K-pop

South Korea's largest music company is auditing the management of one of its labels as it suspects they are planning to break away, the latest case of infighting in K-pop, one of the world's most popular and profitable music industries. HYBE houses multiple labels behind globally renowned groups including BTS and Seventeen, and its shares fell nearly 8% on Monday largely due to the internal dispute.

Ambani's JioCinema cuts subscription prices as India's streaming war heats up

JioCinema, the streaming platform run by India's Reliance Industries, on Thursday cut prices of its premium offering to as low as 29 rupees ($0.3480) a month, heating up competition for Netflix and Amazon Prime. Reliance runs multiple TV channels and JioCinema streaming app through its media unit Viacom18 and has a sizeable hold over India's $28-billion media and entertainment market.

Hipgnosis' bidding war intensifies as Concord hikes offer for Shakira music owner

Shares of Hipgnosis Songs Fund climbed on Thursday after Apollo-backed Concord outbid a proposal by private equity giant Blackstone, launching a bidding war for the owner of music rights of artists, including Shakira and Blondie. Concord, a Nashville-based independent music company, sweetened its bid late on Wednesday for Hipgnosis to $1.25 per share, or about $1.51 billion, slightly higher than Blackstone's proposal of $1.24 apiece.

Silicon Valley and Hollywood worlds collide as David Ellison bids for Paramount

David Ellison, 41, would not be the first rich guy to arrive in Hollywood with a fat bank account and dreams of making movies, though the son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison boasts the rarest of attributes for a budding media mogul: a Silicon Valley pedigree. In an industry where many get their start fetching coffee or moving props, Ellison spent summers writing computer code for his father's software company and getting insights on the movie business from Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Steve Jobs. Those geek sensibilities will come in handy if he succeeds in his bid to take over Paramount Global, a storied studio whose fortunes have been upended by technological change.

Pet Shop Boys say new album Nonetheless 'one of our most melodic'

British electro-pop duo Pet Shop Boys say their new album "Nonetheless" is one of their most melodic from their four-decade-long career, featuring songs about solitude, freedom and looking for a new bohemia. The record, out on Friday, is the 15th studio album by the duo - singer Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe - and was written during the various COVID-19 lockdowns.

Zendaya's tennis movie, 'Challengers,' tests friendship bonds of complex trio

When Zendaya first read the script for director Luca Guadagnino's romantic sports film "Challengers," she immediately understood that the tennis player turned coach she would portray was unapologetic about her own power and how she wielded it. "I also think that she isn't immediately dislikable, and she isn't perfect, and she isn't trying to be and we're not making any excuses for that either," Zendaya said about her character, Tashi Duncan.

Eurovision euphoria boosts travel to Sweden's Malmo, eDreams says

Eurovision fever boosted travel searches for the Swedish coastal city of Malmo by 176% between September 2023 and April 2024, Spanish online travel booking company eDreams ODIGEO said on Wednesday. The Eurovision song contest, the world's biggest of its kind, takes place in Malmo from 7-11 May after Swedish singer Loreen won last year's competition in Liverpool.

'Taylor Swift Act' and other efforts target sky-high concert ticket prices

The Taylor Swift concert ticket debacle two years ago is leading state and federal lawmakers to take aim at sales practices that they say are deceptive or predatory to music fans. A main goal of venues and musicians is to outlaw speculative sales when a seller offers a ticket they do not yet have. In some cases, they ask thousands of dollars for a ticket that they can buy later from the primary seller for $200 or less and reap the profit.

Young Russians dance to K-pop and watch anime amid Asian culture boom

A few years ago, Karina Marakshina had to explain what K-pop was when asked to describe the musical style of her Moscow dance studio. Now she says she hears it blasting out from nearly every mall where she shops. Russia shares a lengthy border with China and has long fostered cultural ties with East Asia. But as sanctions have made it harder to access Western cultural products such as films and music, younger Russians in particular are turning to countries like South Korea, Japan and China for entertainment.

John Lennon's lost 1960s acoustic guitar to go up for auction

A previously lost 12-string acoustic guitar that belonged to the late John Lennon will go up for sale at an auction in May after it was recently found in the attic of a home in Britain. The auctioneers said Lennon played the guitar, which is expected to exceed its estimate of $600,000 to $800,000, on the Beatles' 1965 album "Help!".

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