the vast majority of survival shows are hardly profitable by themselves. when produce was at its peak, the show itself had tons of sponsors and sponsorships. but with company run survival shows the resulting group's profits are what cover the cost of the show and planet 999 is in that category since mnet essentially lost produce's brand power. kepler is under wakeone which is under cjemn.
honestly is debatable how profitable kepler is overall, but mnet will never stop trying to create an even bigger group the next go around.
Well, they consistently sell 300k+ on every mini, which just 2 years ago would have had them amongst the top of most GGs, so I'd say they are pretty profitable. They sell more than most mid-tier GGs. Also more than IOI and IZ*ONE (initially).
They also have a decent size Japanese fanbase, so they can definitely tour there successfully. If they sell like that consistently, I think MNET wouldn't do any worse than they probably did for Produce 101. Most of these temporary groups seem like a money grab tbh. Kep1er's sales have been on a slight decline, so I don't think they will match IZ*ONE. But, they will only last 2 more years, and I don't think their decline will be significant enough for them to bring in less than IOI.