Busan is good

Busan, a Global Content Hub City, Celebrates the Grand Opening of the 19th Busan Contents Market

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The Busan Metropolitan Government (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will host the 19th Busan Contents Market (hereinafter “BCM 2025”) at BEXCO Exhibition Center I for three days from May 28 to 30.
Now in its 19th year, BCM 2025 will bring together over 2,300 buyers and sellers from 700 companies across 50 countries. The event will showcase a diverse range of content genres—including broadcasting, animation, webtoons, over-the-top (OTT) services, documentaries, and AI-based content—offering opportunities to tap into new overseas markets and expand global networks.

This year’s event will feature:

• ●[Market] Targeting emerging markets such as Northern Europe and West Africa;

• ●[Investment Attraction] Business matching between startups and content production companies and the signing of international co-investment agreements;

• ●[Major Conference] Discussions on the latest media industry trends and future prospects;

• ●[Side Events] New programs such as “CANNESERIES×BUSAN” and the 1st “Asia Short-Form Drama Awards (ASDA).”

To support market expansion, joint national pavilions will be established with Northern Europe, West Africa, Iran, Mongolia, and other countries. A separate “BCM SME Pavilion” will also be set up to support small and medium-sized domestic content enterprises and expand real business opportunities.

For investment attraction, one-on-one business matching sessions will be held between more than 15 venture capital firms and content producers to facilitate investment agreements. In the “Global Pitching” session, outstanding domestic and international content will be presented and discussed for export.

The major conference sessions will include prominent industry professionals such as writer Lee Nak-jun and director Lee Do-yoon of Severe Trauma Center, writer Lee Jong-beom of Dr. Frost, and director Yoo Sun-dong of Trigger. Topics will include adaptation of webtoons and web novels into visual media and planning AI-generated content. Additionally, sessions will explore the key success factors of K-dramas, strategic futures for regional media, and content formats in the OTT era.

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In particular, this year’s event has expanded its side events to strengthen the content market function and foster public engagement, introducing:

• ●CANNESERIES×BUSAN

• ●Pink Carpet

• ●Asia Short-Form Drama Awards (ASDA)

“CANNESERIES×BUSAN” is a special screening event officially co-hosted by Busan and the world-renowned CANNESERIES drama festival held in Cannes, France. It will showcase nine outstanding global TV series—five in the competitive category (including international and Korean entries) and four in the non-competitive category—and will include dialogue sessions with creators and actors, as well as a Pink Carpet event.

Note: The Pink Carpet event is similar to a red carpet event, where actors, directors, and production staff from the competing drama series walk on a pink carpet. This year’s event features 21 participants from nine productions, including director Ahn Joo-young and lead actors Lee Soo-hyuk and Arin from <S-Line>, which won the Best Music Award at CANNESERIES 2025.

Also debuting this year is the Asia Short-Form Drama Awards (ASDA), which aims to select outstanding short-form content from Asia and promote its expansion into full-length productions and intellectual property (IP) development. The BCM OTT Series Awards (BOSA) will also broaden its award categories to spotlight hidden contributors and socially impactful creators within the content industry.

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Mayor Park Heong-joon stated,

“The Busan Contents Market has served as a vital gateway for the global expansion of K-content,”
and added,
“As it prepares for its 20th edition next year, the market will further grow into a platform of innovation that unites creation, investment, distribution, and platforms, and into Asia’s premier content festival where K-content fans can come together and enjoy.”