Welcome to The Vertical Bloom, a weekly dive into the fast-growing world of microseries and vertical storytelling. Here, we unpack the platforms, creators, and deals shaping the format that’s redefining what it means to make and watch scripted content in the mobile age.
This week, Disney lays out an ambitious plan for vertical content, YouTube and Meta rethink how audiences watch episodic storytelling, and a familiar group of 90210 stars makes the jump into microdramas.
But first, a little something from Scott about a very familiar candy bar.
Sometimes You Just Want a Snickers Bar
by Scott Brown
I had a really interesting meeting recently with someone who gave me what might be my new favorite analogy for the creative ethos we’re all chasing in digital storytelling.
He likened it to a Snickers bar.
What is a Snickers bar? It’s peanuts, caramel, nougat (which I had to quickly consult Wikipedia to remind myself what exactly nougat is), and chocolate. Put it all together, and you get a very specific taste. An experience we know the moment our taste buds communicate with our brain.
There’s a mouthfeel to it, as this person put it.
When someone wants a Snickers bar, they don’t want a cheesecake covered in nougat, caramel, peanuts, and chocolate. They want a Snickers bar.
He told me about some attempts he’d been involved with as an investor and producer in scripted digital media. As much as he’d wanted each one to work, unfortunately, none had been successful.
And I told him that I understood. In fact, I think that until this particular moment we’re living in, one that’s been brewing for the last several years, you were almost guaranteed to fail at that endeavor.
But today is different.
The rest of this piece continues below, but first, the news.
Disney Plans to Bring 500 Vertical Clips a Day to Disney+
An internal Disney presentation obtained by Business Insider reveals plans to ramp up to 500 new vertical clips daily by early April 2027, alongside creator content, microseries, and a potential free tier. Disney+ is looking increasingly less like a traditional streaming library and more like a platform designed for everyday engagement.
YouTube and Instagram May Be Microdrama Apps’ Biggest Competition
Storyboard18 explores why established social platforms may pose a greater threat to dedicated microdrama apps than competing services. YouTube’s new Shorts Series tools and Meta’s developing episodic features give creators new ways to distribute serialized content. With built-in audiences and discovery engines already in place, what exclusive value does a standalone app offer creators and viewers?
Meta’s Series Feature Gets a Christmas Microdrama
Pixie USA is launching Christmas at Maple Hollow Inn, a 20-episode holiday romance developed with food brand Bob Evans, on November 14. The series is also among the early projects associated with Meta’s upcoming Series feature, which organizes short videos into episodic collections. It’s another example of brands moving beyond traditional advertising and into original entertainment audiences might actively choose to watch.
True Crime Finds a New Home in Vertical
RoseBerry Media’s Epis is expanding its true-crime offering with Two Marys and The Swindler & the Billionaire Murder, two documentary series from Fremantle-backed Silvio Productions. The platform now has a true-crime lineup of 75 projects and more than 2,250 short-form episodes. As platforms experiment beyond scripted romance, true crime offers another genre built around suspense, revelation, and the irresistible urge to watch what happens next.
Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green Reunite in a Vertical Thriller
Former Beverly Hills, 90210 stars Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green have wrapped production on an untitled thriller microseries for vertTV, alongside fellow alum Carol Potter. The project marks another example of recognizable television talent entering the vertical space, bringing established fan bases and a little nostalgia into a format historically driven by lesser-known performers.
The BBC Takes a Closer Look at Britain’s Microdrama Boom
A new BBC feature examines the growing UK appetite for microdramas, speaking with audiences who have embraced the format’s fast pacing, familiar tropes, and low-commitment viewing experience. The UK is now Europe’s largest microdrama audience, according to Omdia. Interestingly, some fans are also growing tired of repetitive billionaire storylines, suggesting that the same familiar formulas driving the format’s success may eventually create demand for something new.
What Microdramas Understand That Quibi Didn’t
In a Forbes Business Development Council opinion piece, media executive Scott Schiller argues that the difference between Quibi’s failure and today’s microdrama boom isn’t the smartphone screen. It’s the business model. Microdramas have found ways to monetize cliffhangers and audience engagement, but retention and acquisition costs remain significant challenges. The larger question is who ultimately controls the audience relationship, and who captures its value.
The Media Industry Is Pivoting to Video. Again.
The Verge’s Mia Sato examines the industry’s latest pivot toward vertical video and the uncomfortable similarities to its failed video ambitions a decade ago. As publishers adapt their content for social feeds, platforms are already pushing creators toward longer-form programming. It’s a useful reminder that attention doesn’t automatically translate into revenue, and building a business entirely around platforms’ changing priorities remains a risky proposition.
Sometimes You Just Want a Snickers Bar
By Scott Brown
Continued…
The one part of the analogy I find myself pushing back on, and to be fair, I don’t even know if this was implied, is the idea that a Snickers bar is somehow a cheap or lesser thing.
Because if that’s the implication for digital storytelling, I reject it.
And I don’t think I reject it simply because I’m stubborn, or because I have a vested interest in all of this working. Though I’m self-aware enough to recognize that there may be a little of both at play.
I reject it because I genuinely believe in the evolution of this space.
That belief is bolstered by what I’ve watched unfold over nearly three years in vertical and other digital storytelling, after spending my entire career inhabiting the broader world of digital media.
And yes, there are people who want their Snickers bar.
What I like to call the standard-issue vertical. The werewolves. The billionaires. The soapiness. The familiar tropes and rhythms that audiences have come to know and love.
That’s the Snickers bar of it all.
But I’ll tell you something.
I’ve been to restaurants where incredibly talented pastry chefs have elevated things like a Snickers bar into something extraordinary.
And what made those desserts special wasn’t simply that they contained the same ingredients. Or “better” ingredients. It was that they came from chefs who understood exactly what made eating a Snickers bar so satisfying in the first place.
More importantly, they themselves authentically loved that experience.
They weren’t trying to replace it with something they considered more sophisticated. They were trying to delight people with something that was at once familiar and entirely new, tapping into a shared love they knew that they and their audience both shared. There was an “I see you and you see me” in all of it.
When I look at the recent vertical work of Issa Rae, or watch Pooja Tripathi, the creator of Brooklyn Coffee Shop, collaborating with Anthropologie on The Holiday Party, directed by Jonah Feingold, the mind behind Romantical, I see people who understand and love the Snickers bar, finding new ways to elevate it with people who love it too.
And I see audiences responding.
Audiences who love their Snickers bar, but who are equally capable of loving a new interpretation of it. Something that delivers the experience they came for while surprising them with something they didn’t know they wanted.
That’s exciting to me.
We’re approaching that time of year when emails start containing those words: “Let’s circle back in the new year.”
Things are beginning to slow down. Not all things. I doubt the people that read this are built for a total shutdown.
Still, this is a natural time for reflection. And I suspect I’ll be doing plenty more of it as the year winds down and we start gathering our energy for another sprint, or perhaps another marathon, toward the things we’re trying to build.
One idea I’ll be carrying with me into the new year is the importance of understanding and preserving the DNA of the storytelling experiences we’ve spent decades developing in digital media.
The rhythms. The joys. The things that make audiences feel at home.
But I’ll also be thinking very hard about how we elevate those experiences. How we surprise and delight audiences without losing sight of the things they loved in the first place. People question whether audiences want that, and I know they do. But they want it from people who know the feel of the thing.
Because I still love a Snickers bar.
But the way I love it has changed as I’ve gotten older.
And I believe audiences’ relationships with the stories we make evolve in much the same way.
The opportunity isn’t to convince people to stop loving their Snickers bars.
It’s to discover just how extraordinary a Snickers bar can become.
That’s it for this week’s Vertical Bloom.
We’ll be back next Thursday with more news, perspectives, and recommendations from the ever-evolving world of vertical storytelling.
See you in the scroll!
Editor: Scott Brown
Writer: Franziska Harms