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Vertical Micro-Drama Weekly: MIPCOM crowns the boom; Omdia pegs it at $11B; Fox opens the…

Week of Oct. 12–19, 2025

Real Reel™

20 Oct 2025 — 2 min read

MIPCOM’s headline: the micro-drama boom is no longer a sideshow

Variety’s market coverage put micro-dramas centerstage in Cannes, with multiple vertical-first banners and distributors occupying prime floor real estate. The takeaway: buyers are treating phone-native series as a defined commissioning lane, not a TikTok experiment. For teams used to TV-style packaging (calendarized delivery, international sales plans), the tone shift matters: this is now a format the global market expects to transact on.

Fresh macro math: Omdia says micro-dramas will generate $11B globally in 2025 — roughly double FAST

In a MIPCOM presentation, Omdia forecast $11 billion worldwide revenue for micro-dramas by year-end 2025, driven by “free chapters up front, then subscribe/unlock” funnels and high ARPU behavior, placing the format at roughly 2× the FAST channel business. That aligns with Variety’s “10 Takeaways” readout and was reiterated via industry wires across the week. If you’re modeling retention and spend per user, this is the most conference-fresh benchmark you can cite right now.

Fox spells out a vertical unscripted strategy: “permission to experiment”

On stage and in market press, Fox execs framed their Holywater/My Drama partnership as a license to try unscripted formats built for phone-first pacing, short arcs, high-clipability, and direct brand adjacency. That widens the field well beyond soap-engineered fiction: think challenge beats, dating plays, docu-shaped series, all cut to 90–120-second rhythm. For U.S. creators, this means familiar unscripted playbooks: casting, compliance, integrations, now have a vertical buyer with volume ambition.

Co-production talk gets specific: U.K.–China leaders flag vertical micro-dramas as a “big possibility”

Deadline’s MIPCOM sit-down captured a rare bit of clarity in the co-pro debate: senior voices on both sides called out vertical micro-dramas as a particularly viable lane, citing the number of apps hungry for volume and the speed at which 30–60 episode runs can be tested and iterated. Translation: the classic co-pro headaches (long timelines, windowing gridlock) are less severe when the season is measured in minutes, not hours.

It’s not just panels, MIPCOM’s program gave vertical its own marquee sessions

Two official sessions: “Entertainment, Flipped: Vertical Series and the Future of Global Storytelling” and “Inside Micro Drama: Next Gen Storytelling” put founders, studio partners and commissioners on the record about budgets, funnels and international rollout. If you’re timing teasers and one-sheets, these are the rooms that set this quarter’s brief.

EVNT. ｜GOING VERTICAL: The Vertical Short Revolution Forum

Creators, producers, and platform folks, we’re bringing the 9:16 conversation into the room. Real Reel™, in collaboration with UCLA Center for Chinese Studies ↗ and the International Short Drama Association ↗, will host a two-panel forum putting both the craft and the business of vertical shorts on the table. Seats

YouTube-first for Vertical Mini Series: what it actually buys you (vs. TikTok and Vimeo)

This week there isn’t a flood of headline deals, so let’s use the quiet to zoom in on distribution. We’ve been hyper-focused on vertical-drama apps, but there’s a parallel signal: more mini-series producers are releasing directly on YouTube. Today, let’s study that path, and stack

Cut on Consequence: Tail Hooks That Drive the Next Tap

Tail Hooks That Drive the Next Tap: Trade playbook for vertical drama: cut on action, leak fallout under black, answer in 10s, pivot by :45, objects carry cost, faces carry payoff.

The Missing Master Chef: when short-form drama turns Chinese cookery into myth

Creator-first note: this is a craft-and-market read you can borrow from. A year after its October 2024 launch, The Missing Master Chef is still hovering on the hot charts for vertical dramas: an unlikely long tail for a dubbed import built around Chinese cuisine. The buy map skews unmistakably European;