As studios begin to embrace the potential of vertical micro-dramas, should their rise be dismissed as merely a fad or a profound shift in the production, consumption and gender-bias of global storytelling?
Bite-sized video series designed for mobile viewing are taking the world by storm and even the $26bn in annual revenue predicted by 2030 seems conservative.
“That number is very realistic – if not bigger,” says Vivian Wang, Head of Content at Crisp, an app dedicated to vertical content, based in LA. “Vertical storytelling has limitless potential, and we haven’t even fully seen it yet.”
When people talk about vertical content, they often call it “micro-drama,” but industry professionals usually refer to it as vertical drama, vertical series, or simply “verticals.”
When the format first emerged in China, most of the content was...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.
KICK: Writing the rules of high-altitude immersive production
From camera placement and viewer comfort to movement, pacing and post-production, the French Alps-set KICK provided Altitude101 with a unique opportunity to test, challenge and refine the methods shaping its immersive storytelling.
Sheffield DocFest: “We need to be more weird”
Funding remains a puzzle, but the documentary and factual entertainment genres are thriving at Sheffield Documentary Festival.
FIFA World Cup: A cyber criminal’s cash cow
Alongside financially motivated cybercrime, politically motivated hacktivists are also likely to target organisations linked to the tournament through distributed denial-of-service attacks, website defacements, and disinformation campaigns.
AI and sports piracy: “It's whack-a-mole, except now the mole is running an algorithm”
Illegal sports streams in Britain have more than doubled to 3.6bn in the past three years, according to a recent report from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. But is there any correlation between the increase in piracy and advances in tech? Is AI more effective as the sword or the shield? Anna Tobin reports.
From screens to spaces: The rise of immersive experiences in live events
From AR-powered sports coverage to immersive theatre and AI-driven fan engagement, broadcasters, organisers, and rights holders are rethinking how live experiences are created and extended beyond the event itself.


