Vertical Micro Drama Weekly: UK & Turkey formalize slates; WGA clarifies coverage; Vigloo debuts…
Week of Sept 28–Oct 5, 2025
UK: Spirit Studios & Night Train Media board a digital-first vertical series — with development cash and a global launch plan.
London’s Spirit Studios is teaming with Herbert L. Kloiber’s Night Train Media on a vertical micro-drama that is already in funded development, with worldwide rollout handled by Night Train Digital (the Eccho Rights/Night Train venture). Recruitment is underway; first details will be unveiled at MIPCOM’s “Inside Vertical Drama: Next-Gen Storytelling” session in Cannes. The play here is packaging: this isn’t a phone test; it’s a UK-style commission, money in, distributor attached, market reveal on the calendar, explicitly aimed at buyers who want short-form delivered through familiar TV workflows.
Turkey: Inter Medya adds production to its export machine and opens a third-party lane for short form.
Istanbul powerhouse Inter Medya, long a conduit for Turkish long-form drama, has moved into original vertical drama production and will acquire outside projects to build a distribution catalog. President Hasret Özcan will lay out the strategy on MIPCOM’s “Vertical Drama” panel, signaling that Turkey’s proven global buyer network is being re-tooled for 90–120-second beats and high-hook density. For independents, that means a non-platform sales path (pre-sales, volume bundles, regional output deals) without waiting for an app commission.
U.S. rules: WGA reminds writers that micro-dramas are covered by the MBA.
The Writers Guild of America issued a public reminder that writing work on verticals/micro-dramas is covered under the Minimum Basic Agreement, urging members to route deals through Guild contracts. The guidance, circulated Sept. 30, lands as platforms commission outside legacy streamers and clarifies that mini-episode runtimes don’t equal a labor gray zone. For U.S. teams staffing shortform rooms (or co-producing with U.S. writers), this week’s nudge effectively standardizes minimums, credits, and residual frameworks for the format.
Korea/Global: Vigloo launches two 30-minute, AI-visualized vertical features — testing a new runtime tier.
Platform Vigloo premiered Met a Savior in Hell (in-house) and Seoul: 2053 (with ZANYBROS) as 30-minute vertical dramas built with AI-driven visuals, debuting Oct. 2 exclusively on its app. Company materials peg the in-house title at a six-week build with a ~90% cost reduction, framing the drop as both a cost-time breakthrough and a format experiment: “long-verticals” that still chapterize cleanly for UA and monetization while keeping phone-native grammar. For producers, the knob that’s moving isn’t just subject matter — it’s runtime and cost base.
India: foreign vertical apps pile in as local taste data hardens.
Mainstream business coverage in India spotlights a wave of foreign micro-drama platforms, notably Ukraine’s My Drama and France-headquartered StoryTV, targeting the market as one- to two-minute, binge-engineered series scale with mobile audiences. Recent roundups quantify rising local investment and frame the territory as a multibillion-dollar opportunity over the next several years (platform projections, not audited). For U.S. rights holders, the practical pattern is license IP → local remake → language stack, with low-cost shoots widening paid funnels across Hindi and regional dubs.
This week: UK and Turkey are productizing shortform with proper commissioning and distribution; the WGA has codified the labor framework; platforms like Vigloo are stretching runtime layers to test retention and economics; and India remains the closest thing to scale for foreign apps seeking cost-efficient production plus massive mobile reach. Net-net: more doors to pitch through, clearer compliance, and new places to amortize volume.
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