The Vertical Bloom: 12/11/25
Your guide on the happenings of the vertical drama landscape.
Welcome to The Vertical Bloom, a weekly dive into the fast-growing world of microdramas and vertical storytelling. Here, we unpack the platforms, creators, and deals shaping the format that’s quietly redefining what it means to make—and watch—television in the mobile age.
Fresh Takes
A Look at MicroCo with Founder Jana Winograde
At Content London last week, Jana Winograde shared her surprise at how aggressively top talent and IP holders have approached MicroCo, her soon-to-launch microdrama studio which is gearing up for a Q2 2026 debut under a likely new name. The platform is staking its identity on fast, gamified, hook-driven storytelling—positioning itself as an antidote to doomscrolling while deliberately avoiding the complexity of streaming fare. Romance and romantasy lead the charge, with horror, thriller, animation, and unscripted in play, all built for 60–90 minutes of content produced in a week using third-party partners and AI-assisted workflows. Backed by Cineverse’s enormous horror fanbase and designed for a fundamentally different viewing behavior, MicroCo is making an early bet that the winners of the American microdrama race will be the ones who master speed, format fluency, and audience psychology—not legacy TV instincts.
Quote from Jana Winograde:
“Everyone sees where this world is going. People are frightened. Opportunities are getting fewer and fewer in traditional media and this is one of the first things in a long time that has come along and feels new and exciting. It has the ability to have real longevity.”
DramaBox Creates Initiative for Aspiring Film/TV Writers with Stage 32 Partnership
Dramabox is making a calculated grab for U.S. writing talent by partnering with Stage 32 to create an invite-only “writer incubator” designed to train storytellers in the ruthless mechanics of vertical drama—three-second hooks, frictionless conversion, and episodic pacing. Stage 32 will use its internal performance data to determine who gets in, and the companies are doubling down on this initiative with a global writing competition, offering a $5,000 contract and a chance to adapt IP tailored to the winner’s voice. Coming off similar initiatives with Gold House and Roadmap Writers, this latest move signals something bigger: Dramabox isn’t just widening its pipeline—it’s racing to shape the first generation of U.S. vertical writers before Hollywood realizes there’s a new talent market forming under its feet.
Quotes from Stage 32 CEO Richard Botto and DramaBox Head of Development Christianne Cruz, respectively:
“Vertical series aren’t just a trend. They’re a legitimate career pathway. DramaBox is at the forefront of this movement, and this partnership gives writers direct access to a thriving market that’s actively seeking fresh voices.”
“We’re looking for writers who can move fast, be bold, and understand what hooks an audience within seconds. Our partnership with Stage 32 unlocks a worldwide network of emerging and seasoned writers, creating new opportunities for discovery on a global scale.”
U.K. Microdrama Firm–Onset Octopus–Joins Micro-Series Certified Alliance
Onset Octopus, a U.K. based microdrama-first studio, has signed on as the founding partner of the new Micro-Series Certified Alliance, a global standards initiative created by IGM Media and architected by founder Irvin Gelb, who says audience fatigue—and outright concern—set in after encountering intimacy requests “...so extreme they became a breaking point.” Representing the Alliance at Content London, Onset Octopus founder Ben Pengilly will preview certified productions for 2026–27, outline co-production paths across the U.S., U.K., and Europe, and introduce a forthcoming “Certified Alliance Seal” meant to reassure audiences and brands that microdrama growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of ethics or quality.
TelevisaUnivision Finds Success with Microdrama Series for JCPenney
TelevisaUnivision has partnered with JCPenney on a five-part microdrama—each episode just 90 seconds—set to roll out across Univision’s TikTok and Instagram feeds as well as JCPenney’s YouTube and Pinterest channels. The project reflects TU’s broader shift toward ultra-short entertainment tailored to a generation trained on swipe-first storytelling, but it also adds a commercial twist: the series is fully shoppable, letting viewers tap directly into the products they see on screen. It’s a clear signal that microdrama isn’t just evolving as a narrative format—it’s progressing with the technology that transformed the medium.
Platform Spotlight
MyDrama, operated by the newly FOX-backed Ukrainian startup HOLYWATER, is redefining how technology meets storytelling. HOLYWATER uses generative AI and a high-frequency production output to cut costs while elevating the look and feel of microdramas—and MyDrama is the platform where it all lives. Since their launch: ~1M users and ~$3M in revenue and Holywater claims its ecosystem attracts 32M users worldwide. One reference says they aim to reduce production cost by ~US $20,000 per series using AI. The company’s deal with FOX, and collaborations with high-standard production studios around Europe, suggests the model is working, hinting at a future of higher-value vertical dramas—and maybe even a few familiar faces from the FOX catalogue.
Show Spotlight
Family in Name Only (DramaBox):
Logline: After an accident ruins her life and reputation, a disgraced heiress comes home only to be ousted by a new daughter—sparking a ruthless battle of manipulation, betrayal, and emotional endurance.
Genre: Stolen Identity / Drama / Thriller
A Dramabox original, this is one of the platform’s darker breakout titles—a spiraling tale of reputation, replacement, and the brutal economics of familial loyalty which pushes the envelope within the psychological thriller genre. The story follows Mona Bale, a former golden heiress whose life collapses after an accident sends her to jail. Returning home, she discovers her family has replaced her with Hope—an angelic stand-in who quickly becomes the architect of Mona’s undoing. What follows is a steady campaign of manipulation and cruelty designed to break her down. And that’s the moment the series clicks: this isn’t a redemption arc—it’s a reckoning. Family in Name Only stands out because it shows how microdrama thrives when it leans into emotional extremity with purpose, turning cruelty into momentum and melodrama into razor-sharp character evolution.
To understand what this kind of success means for the industry, I turned to the people shaping it behind the scenes…
Industry Insider
Brandan Dennehy, a vertical producer with legacy experience, analytically looks back at the year in the microdrama space, and expertly crafts his insightful view at what’s to come…
Microdrama’s rise in 2025 has been nothing short of explosive: industry-wide ARR has surged from roughly $2.5B to well over $6B, with multiple platforms vaulting into nine-figure territory and new U.S.-backed entrants joining a field still overwhelmingly dominated by China.
ReelShort and DramaBox remain the twin superpowers, but challengers like DramaWave, GoodShort, NetShort, and the fast-climbing FlareFlow are reshaping the competitive map with aggressive marketing, deeper IP pipelines, and localized studios across North America.
At the same time, cross-industry players—Fox, Disney, SAG-AFTRA, Cineverse, and a growing slate of Hollywood-adjacent startups—signal that microdrama is no longer a fringe experiment but a formalized entertainment economy with real gravitational pull.
The takeaway is blunt: the money is scaling faster than the talent and infrastructure, and 2026 will likely be defined by consolidation, rising U.S. involvement, and an arms race to own both IP and production velocity before the market matures.
Read his full analysis here.