Vertical Weekly: P&G's 50ep Vertical; Spain first native vertical series…
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Brand money locks in, broadcasters follow, fans vote with emotion — vertical microdrama moves from experiment to system.
Week of Dec. 5–12, 2025
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P&G Studios, dentsu Entertainment and Native set a 50-episode “microsoap,” with rollout details locked.
A Dec. 10 announcement confirms The Golden Pear Affair, billed as the first brand co-produced, feature-length “microsoap” in the U.S. from P&G Studios, dentsu Entertainment and personal-care brand Native, produced by Pixie USA. The series runs 50 episodes and will go social-first, with a trailer in January 2026 and an app expansion after the social launch; leads are Nick Ritacco and Alyona Real. The note also ties the premiere window to Native’s Global Flavors product line, underscoring a commerce-aware cadence. (GlobeNewswire also cites industry projections of $11B global micro drama revenue in 2025.)
Beyond brand integration, the industry’s long-term sustainability hinges on its underlying IP and platform infrastructure. We recently examined how vertical drama infrastructure is evolving to support high-frequency content delivery, suggesting that the "micro-soap" format is not just a trend, but a new architectural standard for mobile-first entertainment ecosystems.
dentsu
Spain plants a flag: Atresmedia’s Flooxer will premiere its first vertical series on Dec. 23 and pushed the key art on Dec. 10.
Atresmedia’s Nov. 19 press note introduced Flooxer’s first vertical micro drama, Una novia por Navidad (working counts 54–60 episodes, 1–3 minutes each). The Dec. 10 poster drop and fresh local coverage this week re-centered the timing: Dec. 23 launch on Flooxer/Atresplayer. Cast includes Marina Baeza and Carla Flila. The platform positioning is explicit: Spain’s “first” homegrown, phone-native series from a major TV group, using a holiday window to test daily-style engagement.
Fans, not AIs: the first global, fan-run snapshot of vertical viewers lands with clear preferences.
The Vertical Drama Love Fan Survey 2025 (103 pages; 1,670 valid responses) publishes a systematized, fan-side readout: viewers report actor-driven loyalty, daily viewing habits, and low enthusiasm for AI-led casting; Deadline’s write-up pegs weekly viewing at ~64% of respondents. The topline for creators and commissioners: emotional drivers, star appeal and format clarity are doing the heavy lifting, more than novelty. (Note the survey is independent, not platform-sponsored.)
The audience’s growing preference for recognizable faces underscores a pivotal shift in production standards. As we explored in our detailed review of MyDrama’s "Wild Silence" and its strategic casting of Maksim Chmerkovskiy, the move to bring in mainstream TV personalities is no longer just a gimmick—it’s a calculated effort to lower user acquisition costs and professionalize the storytelling within the micro-soap genre.
Southeast Asia adds a front door: Astro’s sooka launches “sooka Shorts”
Malaysia’s sooka switches on a microdrama feature called sooka Shorts on Friday, Dec. 12, debuting with early local titles (including Mandrem, Gadis Dihina Pemilik Empayar, Mak Kau CEO Aku, Raja Fitnah) and a freemium sampling layer; full access sits inside the Entertainment plan (RM13.90/month). ContentAsia’s brief flags planned regional collaborations in 2026, including Korean and Chinese micro dramas.
This localized momentum in Southeast Asia mirrors the broader global ambitions of top-tier platforms. In our exclusive sit-down with Sasha Tkachenko on MyDrama’s international expansion and vertical strategy, it became clear that the friction between native storytelling and global scalability is the next major hurdle for apps looking to replicate the success of domestic hits in foreign markets.
Heirul Kamel
Wider entertainment context
Box office: Disney’s Zootopia 2 has now crossed/is crossing the $1B worldwide line, per Reuters/Forbes and running dashboards. ⇲
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