\n\tInternational TV distributors are, by nature, a reactive bunch. They jump on anniversaries and news events as hooks for program deals, and are rarely last to an emerging trend.<\/p>\n
\n\tHowever, their presence is almost entirely missing from what is arguably the most rapidly growing sector in global program making \u2013 microdramas, those melodramatic, one-to-three minute stories of enamoured mafia bosses, stepbrothers and forbidden love. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is a platform play,\u201d says one senior distribution source when questioned over why TV sellers are late to the microdrama<\/a> party. \u201cThe question is, can it be a distribution play as well?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs we head into the London TV Screenings<\/a> 2026, there are no obvious examples of a Fremantle, ITV Studios, All3Media International or Banijay Rights seeking out a way to package vertical videos for the likes of ReelShorts or DramaBox, instead leaving it to their production counterparts. You will catch GammaTime\u2019s Alex Montalvo, Holywater\u2019s Anatolii Kasianov, and COL Group\u2019s Timothy Oh on stage At MIP London talking microdrama tactics, but you won\u2019t find distribution execs doing the same.<\/p>\n \n\tWe approached several major distributors for this article and all of them declined to comment, unwilling to talk openly about a space they seemingly don\u2019t see as compatible with their sales model. One source at a boutique distribution business, which has been considering how to enter the space, suggests the speed of the microdrama business works against larger operations, which need to corporately make the case for any strategy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHow many big companies have moved the needle?,\u201d they ask. \u201cBig companies can get bogged down and comfortable in their business, and I don\u2019t think many have the foresight. Even though there are studies talking about billions of dollars at play, they don\u2019t know the first thing about how to move on that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOne smaller distributor, the Hong Kong-based Harbour Rights, has picked up more than 1,000 vertical dramas from\u00a0COL Group International to sell into Europe and Latin America. The plan is to shop the titles to vertical video<\/a> apps and traditional entertainment buyers. Many of the titles were originally for FlareFlow and China-based 17K, and the deal represents one of the first \u2018traditional\u2019 distribution partnerships to date.<\/p>\n \n\tWe have heard several companies are considering whether library content can be repurposed and repackaged, but broadly the response has been, at best, muted, and most currently prefer the FAST channel route or selling non-exclusive windows further down the value chain. \u201cAlthough people binge microdrama series, I don\u2019t think anyone would think of them as a 20-minute linear watch,\u201d says the senior sales source. <\/p>\n \n\tThis comes despite microdrama players like Tattle TV looking to repurpose iconic content<\/a> such as Hitchcock\u2019s first movie. <\/p>\n \n\tSharon Levi, Managing Director of Israel\u2019s Yes Studios, which is making its London TV Screenings debut next week<\/a> with shows such as Brewing Trouble and Strangers, offers more rationale behind the perceived lack of action.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an important point, and it\u2019s not that we\u2019re not discussing microdrama,\u00a0but it seems like this is something that social platforms would look into in order to engage their followers and users,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard of hi-tech companies looking into microdramas,\u00a0given the technology needed and the language. It\u2019s on the radar, and with the right opportunity and fit,\u00a0it could be something to look into at a later stage. Our focus is still very much long-form series and formats.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s also a matter of process, adds our first source. \u201cDistribution houses are almost entirely connected to producers, who should be having the conversations with the platforms,\u201d they say. In theory, because of the low price point of production and speed in which a vertical drama can come together, a producer with studio facilities can strike a deal with a platform and supply original content directly. In other words, no juice for distributors. The Tattle Hitchcok deal, for example, was made for a film that was available for adaptation in the States, meaning no distributor was required.<\/p>\n \n\tChina at \u201cforefront of AI\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to media analyst Omdia, the global microdrama business was worth $11B in 2025 and will reach $22B by 2030. Other estimates peg this even higher, at around $30B. A huge amount of this is driven by China, which Omdia reports was accountable for 83% of microdrama revenue last year. In comparison, the second largest market, the U.S., took 9%, although it is rapidly growing.<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019re hearing reports of Chinese microdrama services shopping daily (yes, daily) at trusted vertical video suppliers, going direct to the source. That both subverts and excludes the traditional TV distribution model, where sellers either adopt programming from their production stablemates or go out and acquire third-party content. Still, Omdia predicts the microdrama market outside of China will be $3B in 2026.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cChina is moving so fast in terms of production volume and dealmaking, and the traditional guys can\u2019t get their heads around that \u2013 that\u2019s even before the bureaucracy kicks in,\u201d says the boutique distributor. \u201cChina is the only place that can keep up with demand. They are the forefront of using AI to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMin Lim, Group CEO at Malaysia-based Vision Entertainment Group.\u00a0, which owns distributor Vision Plus Entertainment, says the key is to see the space as a partnership play, rather than a sales pitch.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen the microdrama boom began in China during the Covid-19 pandemic, Vision Entertainment was arguably best known for its distribution operations production wing, Double Vision Entertainment, which adapted The Bridge in Malaysia and Singapore for HBO Asia. \u201cWe did not have a connection to China\u2019s microdrama space, where most of them were coming from, but the space was exploding and I realized that,\u201d says Lim.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen former Warner and Sony Pictures Television Asia boss Ricky Ow and his business partner Cassandra Yang approached her about investing in their new microdrama business RisingJoy last year, she saw the opportunity. \u201cIt was a way to get into the business with people who already understood the space and had links into China,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \n\tThe result is a partnership in which Double Vision takes a minority stake in RisingJoy, with the pair working together in the microdrama market with partners throughout Asia, MENA, Europe and South America on content. They will also launch RJoy, a co-branded vertical video app. Notably from a distribution standpoint, Double Vision\u2019s sister production services business will assist with everything from music clearances \u2013 something that plagues many microdrama makers \u2013 and format bibles to localization services and local productions in key markets.<\/p>\n \n\tTraditional players experimenting<\/p>\n \n\tTaken as a whole, traditional television cannot be accused of ignoring vertical video. Fox has bought into Ukrainian microdrama firm Holywater<\/a>, owner of My Drama, and struck a production deal with social media behemoth Dhar Mann Studios<\/a>, while The Mediapro Studio is making its first microdrama slate. Japan\u2019s Nippon TV has just announced Viral Pocket, a new division aimed at striking partnerships with brands and agencies. BBC Children\u2019s has ordered its first microdrama, a spin-off of Canadian kids drama The Next Step. As for the streamers, Disney+ launched its first microdrama, Locker Diaries, this week, and Netflix and Amazon are considering their ways into the space. Latin American streamer Vix is also well invested.<\/p>\n \n\tDistributors may be missing from that list. But while sellers don\u2019t see a straight sales play for microdramas, it isn\u2019t true to say none are experimenting with monetization. Those that have been going direct to consumer with library titles, for example, are exploring the possibilities.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOn our AVOD platforms, we are experimenting with both short-form content and episode compilations formatted as vertical video \u2013 particularly for episodes that have performed strongly as stand-alone viewing,\u201d says Bo Stehmeier, CEO of factual-focused vendor Off The Fence.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re seeing positive results across all formats, which suggests that different versions of the same content are not cannibalizing one another. Instead, they\u2019re being consumed by audiences with varying amounts of disposable time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe is also keeping a close eye on how things develop, noting what kinds of format the vertical video model suits. \u201cScripted \u2013 and soon, reality TV \u2013 has the emotional stickiness required to support the kind of gamification emerging in microdrama,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cGenres that can\u2019t reliably deliver minute-by-minute cliffhangers will struggle to scale behind paywalls and will instead gravitate toward free-to-air, ad-supported models. We\u2019re already seeing this play out: Snackable, on-demand, specialist factual content is here to stay \u2013 and it\u2019s maturing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor distributors, Stehmeier argues that the worry isn\u2019t about any one genre, but understanding that \u201cthe real transformation of the industry is happening beneath the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t need to reinvent the wheel,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe only need to look at how other legacy industries, such as print and music, evolved by embracing change ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhere this particular evolution is concerned, distributor involvement remains an open question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International TV distributors are, by nature, a reactive bunch. They jump on anniversaries and news events as hooks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,150571,133520,411,42969,124003],"class_list":{"0":"post-305043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-london-tv-screenings","12":"tag-microdrama","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-tv-markets","15":"tag-vertical-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}