Director's Arena: 16 Teams to Co-Direct Webtoon IP

ENA and Lifetime's 'Director's Arena' have placed short-form drama at the forefront of variety competition. Although it is a program where directors compete, the evaluation target is not the participants' singing or acting, but the completed short videos.

2.1 Billion Short-form Drama App Downloads in 2025

According to AppMagic's 2026 mobile market report, short-form drama app downloads increased from 540.8 million in 2024 to 2.1 billion in 2025. Revenue increased from $905.1 million to $1.8 billion during the same period.

The same report identified short-form drama as the axis driving the growth of video formats within entertainment apps. As both downloads and revenue increase simultaneously, short-form drama is being treated as a market that no longer remains merely as supplementary content with short running times.

May 15 ENA Premiere and 2-Minute Competition

'Director's Arena' launched with an ENA programming slot on May 15 at 11:10 PM. Lee Byung Hun, Cha Tae-hyun, Jang Keun Suk, and Jang Do Yeon participated as panelists.

The program description emphasized that it is a survival competition for short-form directors who must captivate the public within just 2 minutes. The user behavior of skipping content on mobile when interest drops is transformed into a 'Stop' judging device within the broadcast.

Episode 4: 16 Teams, Webtoon IP Mission, and 2.32% 2039 Share

In episode 4, 16 teams that passed the first round will enter a co-direction mission to reinterpret popular webtoon IP. Two directors must form a team to complete a single work, and they are required to demonstrate original interpretation skills, teamwork, and short-form drama popularity.

Webtoons are source assets with characters and worldviews. Short-form dramas must compress those assets to fit mobile screens. The episode 4 mission focuses on the ability to extract the core emotions of the original work within a short time rather than the team's wit.

Initial indicators are limited. Sports Donga reported that after the second broadcast, the 2039 target share for the first broadcast was 2.32%. The platform consumption of the final round works, the subsequent projects of the participating directors, and whether the reinterpretation of webtoon IP will be produced repeatedly have yet to be confirmed.