YG's Operating Profit Falls 56.8% as Tour Costs Meet Last Year's High Bar

YG Entertainment's third-quarter operating profit fell 56.8% from a year earlier, Yonhap reported, as the company booked BIGBANG's world tour costs and distribution fees against a quarter that the label's own touring had set unusually high.

The drop is only half the math. YG said revenue and operating profit each rose 22.7% from the second quarter, with concert revenue and merchandise sales from the label's major artists' world tours doing the work.

YG's explanation for the margin is a high base effect. Last year all of its artists toured, BLACKPINK among them, so this year's quarter had a bigger number to clear, and the cost of staging BIGBANG's world tour plus the distribution fees attached to releases came due in the same three months.

Whatever it does to profit, the touring has not slowed. BABYMONSTER is in the middle of its second world tour, CHOOM, a 31-show run through 18 cities on five continents, Yonhap reported.

TREASURE wrapped a fan concert tour of 22 shows in 10 cities behind its fourth mini album, NEW WAV, released in June, and put out the digital single "SHOCK" on Nov. 2.

YG said it is stepping up preparations to debut a new group, and that it expects new and early-career intellectual property to keep growth going.

On X, the reaction fixed on the gap between a tour-heavy quarter and a profit that missed. @Snper22 posted that operating profit fell 56.8%, net profit dropped 73.8% and earnings came in 28.9% below market expectations, then asked whether the BABYMONSTER, TREASURE and BIGBANG tours were supposed to be massive commercial successes. The post drew 92,346 views and 866 likes.

Until the debut lands, the two lines keep moving in opposite directions: the tours sell, and the cost of staging them lands in the same quarter.