Joe Churchill’s Fan Club collaborates with STV Studios on first microdrama

Former Channel 4 commissioner Joe Churchill’s digital content agency Fan Club is working with STV Studios on the UK production group’s first steps into the booming microdrama space.

Joe Churchill at C21’s Create London

STV Studios, which took a minority stake in Fan Club when it launched last year, owns STV Studios Drama, producer of forthcoming Netflix series The Witness, and has a majority stake in Two Cities Television, maker of BBC hit police series Blue Lights.

As the only branded content specialist in STV Studios’ portfolio, Fan Club is working with the various labels on their digital strategies, including experiments with microdramas, Churchill told C21.

Churchill said: “We are the first digital investment for STV Studios. We’re working with their production companies to help them upskill in digital, collaborate on productions in the social branded space or launch initiatives together that bring our expertise together.

“We’ve started developing a microdrama series with one of the scripted companies that we may take out to market and find a brand to come on board.”

The move comes as the booming microdrama space catches the eye of UK producers and broadcasters, but concerns about the lowbrow nature of much of the content and the threat of rapid AI disruption are deterring some from embracing the new format.

Churchill said Fan Club and STV Studios’ collaboration is seeking to offer something new to audiences looking for content to watch on their smartphones.

“In the UK, it comes down to the audience. While there are definitely people in the UK watching microdrama and getting sucked into those super-hooky, cliffhangers, the gap is in creating premium, high-end, well-crafted, grown-up storytelling in the microdrama form. I imagine that will be the next frontier of the microdrama and will be what will unlock it in a big way in the UK,” Churchill said.

The production arm of Scotland’s STV Group, Glasgow-based STV Studios is led by CEO David Mortimer and owns more than 20 scripted and unscripted production labels in London, Brighton, Manchester and Belfast. These include Barefaced TV, Crackit Productions and Tuesday’s Child.

It has produced hundreds of hours of television, including Apple TV thriller Criminal Record; Elizabeth Is Missing for BBC One; quiz format Bridge of Lies for the BBC; and The Yorkshire Auction House franchise for Warner Bros Discovery.

At Channel 4, Churchill led the commissioning of the social branded entertainment team, overseeing the growth of the department and creating partnerships including The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds with EON Next, Kojey’s Block Party with Brooklyn Brewery and Second-Hand Showdown with Vinted.

Prior to that, he was the founder and creative director of commercial production company Studio Weekend, which specialises in commercials, branded content and television, working with brands including Brompton Bikes, Jaguar Land Rover and Airbnb.

Churchill was at C21’s Create London yesterday where he spoke on the panel Partnering with Brands: The New Commissioners alongside Oyin Akiniyi, brand director at whiskey giant Chivas Regal; Rob Biagioni, CEO at Time Out Media; Salla Kozma, founder at Pig & Horse Productions; and Charlie Read, director and founder at Upstream.