Mediapro Studio moves into microdrama production, weighs up shortform strategy

Spain’s The Mediapro Studio has begun work on its first slate of microdramas and is exploring different strategies to expand in the fast-growing sector.

JC Acosta

The strategy was announced on Wednesday by JC Acosta, head of The Mediapro Studio US and Canada, during a panel at Mip Cancun in Mexico.

According to Acosta, the studio already has its first projects in motion. So far, all of them are work-for-hire commissions following the distinctive style of the genre, packed with melodramatic and often steamy romantic storylines.

But the company is now looking at additional ways to grow in the space, including mining its own IP for vertical adaptations, coproducing with third parties and offering services such as talent, crews and studios.

“We are currently asking ourselves what our place is in the microdrama space. And the first thing we thought was that we can mine and adapt our own IPs for this format,” said Acosta.

“We are also thinking about coproduction, which doesn’t need to be limited to premium series and can certainly expand to microdramas. And we believe collaborations are key. In that sense, we can offer distribution, talent and studios to other companies looking to enter the microdrama space.”

Acosta also expressed optimism about the future of the sector. “If you look at the data, it’s clear. Instagram Reels are generating an annual run rate of 50 million and YouTube Shorts are delivering more revenue per hour than longform content. And we all know TikTok is now eight times bigger than in 2021. Shortform is massive,” he said.

“And from a production standpoint, microdramas are relatively easy to make, with much shorter processes.”

Acosta shared the panel with Shawn Wu, VP of globalisation at COL Group-owned microdrama platform FareFlow, who revealed that it currently produces 15 microdramas a month, with production cycles ranging from 45 to 60 days.

Highlighting the opportunity in the space, Wu noted that when FareFlow launched in April this year, the platform generated US$500,000 in its entire first month. Today it reaches that figure every day.

“The potential is truly huge,” he said. “And in China, where the market is already more mature, last year total microdrama revenues exceeded the entire theatrical box office by 20%. And based on what we’re seeing, it will continue to grow.”

Both Wu and Acosta agreed that the genre requires original content and that repurposing existing titles by editing them into vertical formats has been proven not to work.

The same view was shared by Can Okan, CEO of Turkish distributor Inter Medya, who revealed the company is working towards producing six to 10 microdramas a month.

“We tested adapting some of our titles into vertical and it didn’t work. They are different things. But what we are considering is producing conventional dramas and taking advantage of those shoots and locations to produce vertical microdramas in parallel. We are also testing producing in horizontal and vertical simultaneously.”

All three executives agreed it is only a matter of time before mainstream streamers begin producing in the space as well.