TV executive turned AI entrepreneur, Guy Gadney reveals how his new microdrama platform will help traditional producers become vertical content creators.
Guy Gadney
Former Foxtel and BBC Worldwide executive Guy Gadney is unequivocal in his belief that vertical content is set to play a major role in the re-shaping of how programming is produced, monetised and consumed. In other words: ignore this trend at your peril.
“I don’t know any UK prodco or broadcaster that’s not putting together a microdrama strategy right now,” he says. “Vertical content is a really valuable stepping-stone for the industry. It’s a way to plug revenue shortfalls, reach new audiences, bring work to the entire production sector and open new revenue streams for dormant IP in ways that weren’t previously economically viable.
“If you look at the revenues generated by a company such as [shortform video streaming app] ReelShort, it generated US$700m in 2025. It’s a clear transactional model that really stands up. There’s a lot of money there.”
Having spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in the legacy media sector, Gadney then pivoted into working at the intersection of AI and the creative sectors, leading cross-media teams and strategy. In late June, Gadney launched what he claims is the world’s first generative AI platform for the creation of microdramas.
UK-based Charismatic.ai promises to “re-write the rules of shortform storytelling” and is marketed towards creators, agencies and brands, asserting that it can help them generate idea-to-animated narrative content in under 15 minutes.
The platform has been developed with research partners including UK public broadcaster Channel 4, Wallace & Gromit prodco Aardman Animations and ‘digital ethicist’ Lisa Talia Moretti.
Microdrama The Purrfect Employee is on the way from Charismatic.ai
Charismatic.ai lets users input a single prompt, such as “Gen Z heist” or “football adventure”, to instantly generate animated episodic drama content. It integrates with video generation models such as Veo3 to turn concepts, audience data and advertising briefs into bite-sized, serialised stories.
Forthcoming titles produced by Charismatic.ai include comedy microdrama The Purrfect Employee and animated title Graveyard Shift.
The product has been designed to exploit the boom in shortform storytelling. Interest in vertical TV series, or microdramas, is soaring, with platforms specialising in mobile viewing such as GoodShort, ReelShort and Viddsee drawing in audiences with their fast-paced, concise, soapy storytelling.
This year has seen the launch of a flurry of companies specialising in microdramas made using AI, including Cyprus-based Shortly. In July, digital content company Kedoo Entertainment rolled out its Love Drama mobile app, which is devoted to shortform romantic drama series.
“Vertical content first exploded in China due to a perfect storm of factors,” says Gadney. “The first was the general move towards shorter form storytelling, driven by YouTube, TikTok and the creator economy in a broader sense.
“The second factor was the audience acceptance of pay-per-episode micro transactions. Then, what really lit the fire was the story format – around 100 episodes per series, each two or three minutes long, with cliff-hangers at the end of each episode. This made microdramas much more compelling to users.”
Graveyard Shift, coming soon from Charismatic.ai
With major vertical content platforms commissioning significant amounts of programming to fill their libraries and attract customers, Gadney believes that time is of the essence for broadcasters and producers who want to move into this space.
“It’s certainly not too late, but the wave is moving fast,” he warns. “As the market matures, each app is making and acquiring more content. ReelShort, for example, has a library of around 2,000 episodes. Given that the average cost of producing a series is around £300,000 [US$407,000], you’re looking at [an investment of] £3 million to £6 million just to build the content base that these guys already have.
“So, the longer you wait to formulate a [microdrama] strategy, the further away the competition gets.”
The emergence of generative AI technology has been transformational for the vertical content sector. While the production process of microdramas has always been much faster than longform TV content, AI now enables creators to make multiple series at once, mix up live action with photorealistic AI techniques, dub programming into multiple languages, edit quickly and use virtual actors.
Gadney believes that Charismatic.ai is a tool which will help creatives from the traditional production sector transition smoothly into building their own slates of shortform content.
“We’re trying to bridge that gap,” he tells C21. “We want to enable companies that intend to launch their own microdrama apps or series to accelerate the production pipeline process and get them from concept through to final video much faster, with a strong focus on writing and story structure.
“The growth of quality microdramas is how we can maintain constant story worlds – much like soap operas have been doing for decades. The mobile phone is now our primary screen, so in some ways this trend is nothing new. It’s just that it’s in the palm of our hands rather than on the screen in our living room.”
