Every Media follows up KRO-NCRV’s The Last Summer with more microdramas

Dutch producer Every Media is growing its slate of European microdramas following the success of its youth-skewing shortform series The Last Summer (10×2′) for public broadcaster KRO-NCRV.

Tim Vloothuis

Every Media has seven microdramas in development, two of which are in pre-production, Tim Vloothuis, producer and co-founder of the Amsterdam-based company, told C21.

Vloothuis said the projects target various demographics and come after The Last Summer racked up millions of views from tweens and teens online. The series explores cancer from a raw, youth-led perspective through the story of a summer crush and first love.

The show was being shopped to international buyers by Dutch Core at Mipcom last week, where the growth of the microdrama industry was a major talking point.

Vloothuis added that the new projects are being made with different commercial streamers as well as public service broadcasters, highlighting the growing interest in the format among European buyers. Vloothuis declined to reveal further details about the projects.

Vloothuis is targeting volume, daily viewing appointments and seasons of 30 or 40 episodes, or more, all made for “a tenth” of the cost of a traditional TV or streaming series, he said. Every Media is also exploring making microdramas for brands and advertisers.

Last week saw UK broadcaster Channel 4 unveil its first microdrama, in partnership with beauty brand Sol de Janeiro, while other European broadcasters and streamers are also dipping their toes alongside a host of specialised microdrama apps.

Every Media began exploring the microdrama format a few years ago after reading about the growing trend out of Asia in C21.

“We watched a lot of microdrama and we really got into it. We saw it was working but thought maybe we could do it better or in a different way by enhancing the concepts, especially if we wanted to work with public broadcasters,” said Vloothuis.

“It sits on social media, in between where broadcasters and streamers already are,” added Vloothuis, who believes the format can become a “new front door” for viewers to engage with a streaming service.