WINNER Fans Boycott Against YG Entertainment for Unfair Treatment

WINNER‘s fans have decided to boycott against YG Entertainment due to unfair treatment of WINNER.

On October 30, WINNER’s fan club INNER CIRCLE created a petition stating, “We are going to boycott WINNER’s DVD (2015 WWIC in Seoul) since YG has acted on its own and delayed WINNER’s comeback.”

According to INNER CIRCLE, the fans believe that YG Entertainment has planned unfair schedules for them from the start. Although YG announced that WINNER will be debuting in October 25, 2013, the group actually ended up debuting almost one year later in August 14, 2014. Even after their debut, WINNER’s comeback has now been delayed for almost a year.

However, WINNER continued promote, without a new song, in a Japan tour for over 10 times. WINNER did not have any promotions in Korea during that time. The group only has one album since their debut but has released five DVDs consisting of fan meetings and concert footage. Moreover, their behind-the-scenes video of their music videos and choreography footage, which is usually released online for free for other fandoms, have been included in WINNER’s season greeting DVD. That means that fans have to buy the season greeting DVD to unlock the videos.

On September 20, YG’s CEO Yang Hyun Suk wrote on his SNS saying, “Miss them?” leaving the fans with a bit of hope. Then, in the beginning of October, various articles hinting WINNER’s comeback were published online.

Somewhat relieved, fans stayed patient and waited for WINNER to come back. However, iKON, who is under the same company, revealed that their album release date will be postponed from November 2 to December 7. This made WINNER fans worry that WINNER may not be coming back any time soon. This soon lead to the current boycott situation for INNER CIRCLE.

Fans started pointing out that they’ve spent so much money on Japan concerts and expensive DVDs, saying, “We are not ATMs.”

When other fandoms heard this news, they too sided with INNER CIRCLE and said, “Honestly, if the WINNER fans are boycotting, YG should know this is serious business. YG, please think about what benefits the agency and how you can grow your fandom.”

In response, YG Entertainment only stated, “We have nothing to say about this issue, and we are still planning WINNER’s comeback.”

Source (1)(2)