Mnet Asian Music Awards is one of the most anticipated award ceremonies in the music industry in South Korea. However, this year's ceremony was barely watched by K-pop fans.
This year's Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) earned a 1.2 percent rating for all three parts of the ceremony, Allkpop has learned. The first part of the ceremony had an average of 1.15 percent, followed by 1.39 percent for the second part, and 1.10 percent for the third part.
Many are surprised with the third part's rating since it covered the biggest awards in the ceremony. Making matters worse, the 2049 target rating which is considered the most important since it targeted the main consumer aging 20-49, remained lower than one percent throughout the ceremony.
Comparing to last year's ratings, "2015 MAMA" averaged a rating of 3 percent, which means that this year's event dropped its viewership ratings over a half. However, some netizens cite that the lack of YG Entertainment artists was a big factor on the low average ratings.
It can be recalled that Director Kang Hui Jeong earlier revealed in a press conference that the YG artists can't make it to the "2016 MAMA" due to their busy schedule. "In the case of YG, we expressed our intention for them to participate and heard that they will be unable to participate due to overseas schedules. It is very unfortunate but we respect YG's decision," Soompi cited.
Following the news, a representative of YG revealed that the absence of their artists were not caused by any conflict between the label and Mnet. Apparently, the said decision to not attend "2016 MAMA" has been long decided since it would be impossible to prepare a performance for the award ceremony.
It is worth noting that a comeback schedule for YG's top artists BIGBANG, PSY, and Sechskies are set this December. The top YG artists are now busy wrapping up album productions and preparing for concerts and attending the said event which is expected to occur for three days is too excessive for the artists.
Meanwhile, catch one of YG's artists BIGBANG in "BANG BANG BANG" below: