Amazon, Disney, Netflix All Have Vertical Feeds Now. What Happens to the Rest of the Industry?
Amazon, Disney, and Netflix all have vertical feeds now. RoseBerry Media launched with five major TV distributors.
Industry analysis of the global vertical drama and microdrama market.
⦿⦿
In one week, streaming, TV distribution, festivals, and awards all moved closer to vertical.
Week of May 4-10, 2026
The week of May 4–10 confirmed what the industry had been circling for months: vertical video is now a standard feature of premium streaming. Amazon Prime Video launched a vertical feed called Clips on May 8, joining Netflix and Disney+, all three major subscription streamers now have a swipeable vertical layer in their mobile apps. Meanwhile, RoseBerry Media launched with deals covering Banijay, Fremantle, and All3Media, bringing library verticalization into the mainstream distribution business. Vertical drama and microdrama are no longer upstream of the industry. They are the industry.
Second LA Vertical Drama Market Runs May 7–10; Apollo Awards Debut Tonight
The LA Vertical Drama Market returned for its second edition this week at FAB Factory Entertainment in Hollywood, running May 7–10 with a four-day program of eight craft labs, ten panels, six conversations, and a live pitch competition. Media Play News reported from the May 8 sessions, where panelists from across the production community discussed format evolution and audience behavior. Key voices included director and EP Zao Wang, who has directed 15 vertical microdramas since 2023 and cited the Hollywood strike as his entry point; producer J. Thomas Mayfield of Snow Story Productions, who argued that traditional media's attitude toward audiences accelerated the format's rise; and vertical audience researcher Caitlyn Hanlon, who flagged that American viewers actively resist the slapping and violence elements carried over from Chinese originals — a localization gap the U.S. industry hasn't fully solved. The market closes tonight (May 10) with the IAVA Apollo Awards, the first peer-jury industry awards dedicated to vertical drama, covering 15 categories across performance, craft, and technology.
The Apollo Awards introduce the first formal craft-recognition system evaluated by vertical drama practitioners themselves: a structural step that separates the format's professional identity from fan-driven validation.
Amazon Prime Video Launches Vertical "Clips" Feed — The Third Major Streamer in Two Weeks
On May 8, Amazon Prime Video rolled out a vertical video feed called "Clips" to select U.S. users on iOS, Android, and Fire tablets, with a broader rollout planned for this summer. The feature surfaces short personalized clips from Prime Video's full catalog of series, films, and live sports — including content available through add-on subscriptions — and lets users tap directly into the full title, rent or buy, save to watchlist, or share. Clips first appeared during the 2025–26 NBA season as a highlight feed before expanding to the wider entertainment catalog. The timing is striking: Disney+ launched its vertical feed ("Verts") in March; Netflix launched "Clips" on April 30; Prime Video launched its own "Clips" — same name — on May 8.
All three of the world's largest subscription streamers now have a vertical discovery layer in their mobile apps. The format is no longer a product experiment — it's becoming a default interface assumption for streaming at scale.
Amanda Silberling
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro: Vertical Video on Disney+ Is "Already Driving Deeper Engagement"
In his first quarterly earnings call as CEO on May 7, Josh D'Amaro confirmed that Disney+ and the ESPN app have both introduced vertical video, and that the format is "already driving deeper engagement" with viewers despite still being in early stages. D'Amaro tied the short-form push directly to Gen Alpha audience strategy: "They want to engage with our brands and franchises in this new way." Disney has already brought creator-made videos for Predator and Lilo & Stitch onto its streaming platforms, with D'Amaro stating the company plans to "advance that work in the months ahead." The earnings call, Disney's first under D'Amaro following Bob Iger's departure, also confirmed a reorganized content structure placing streaming, film, TV, and games under a single leadership umbrella led by newly appointed president and CCO Dana Walden.
When a CEO names vertical video in a quarterly earnings call as a driver of engagement, not a feature test, it becomes a budget and organizational priority. Disney's restructuring now puts short-form and long-form content decision-making under the same roof.
Caitlin Huston
RoseBerry Media Launches With Banijay, Fremantle, All3Media Deals — Library Verticalization Is Now a Business
On May 6, RoseBerry Media officially launched as a New York-headquartered vertical TV studio, with creative and technology hubs in London and Tel Aviv. The company was founded by Guy Hameiri (creator-producer, founder of Abot Hameiri, best known for Netflix's Shtisel), Lior Friedman (former Amagi executive), and investors Itay Koppel and Simi Efrati. RoseBerry debuts with signed agreements to repurpose library content from A+E Global Media, All3Media International, Banijay Rights, Cineflix Rights, and Fremantle into vertical micro-series, using proprietary AI-powered workflows it has dubbed "library verticalization." The company's pipeline is projected to cover 500+ titles from partners by year-end. A direct-to-consumer app is planned for this summer, offering a mix of verticalized library content and original productions. Genres covered include documentary, true crime, reality, and scripted.
Three months ago, Banijay, Fremantle, and All3Media were cited by Deadline as conspicuously absent from the vertical video space. All three are now RoseBerry partners. The holdout period for traditional TV distributors just ended.
Jesse Whittock
ABFF Announces First 9:16 Microdrama Showcase — Eight Titles, Including One From South Africa
On May 4, the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) announced the inaugural cohort of its 9:16 Microdrama Project Showcase: eight vertical series selected through a competitive review process, to be screened exclusively on the CODEBLACK app (powered by Hartbeat) during ABFF's 30th anniversary edition in Miami Beach, May 27–31. The initiative was designed to identify and amplify vertical microdrama series by creators of color. ABFF founder Jeff Friday stated the goal is to ensure that "as this format scales, creators of color are not just participating, but leading." Among the eight selections is The King, The Affair, and the Son Heir from Both Worlds in South Africa, a pre-colonial drama co-written by Anathi Rubela and Mamello Makhetha and directed by Star Kganki Maphahlele, marking the first African microdrama to receive official selection at a U.S. film festival.
ABFF's institutional entry into vertical drama signals that the format now has a talent pipeline pathway recognized by legacy film culture, and that the format's creative geography extends well beyond the U.S.–China–UK triangle.
ABFF Miami
✱
