International TV distributors are, by nature, a reactive bunch. They jump on anniversaries and news events as hooks for program deals, and are rarely last to an emerging trend.

However, their presence is almost entirely missing from what is arguably the most rapidly growing sector in global program making – microdramas, those melodramatic, one-to-three minute stories of enamoured mafia bosses, stepbrothers and forbidden love.

“This is a platform play,” says one senior distribution source when questioned over why TV sellers are late to the microdrama party. “The question is, can it be a distribution play as well?”

As we head into the London TV Screenings 2026, there are no obvious examples of a Fremantle, ITV Studios, All3Media International or Banijay Rights seeking out a way to package vertical videos for the likes of ReelShorts or DramaBox, instead leaving it to their production counterparts. You will catch GammaTime’s Alex Montalvo, Holywater’s Anatolii Kasianov, and COL Group’s Timothy Oh on stage At MIP London talking microdrama tactics, but you won’t find distribution execs doing the same.

We approached several major distributors for this article and all of them declined to comment, unwilling to talk openly about a space they seemingly don’t see as compatible with their sales model. One source at a boutique distribution business, which has been considering how to enter the space, suggests the speed of the microdrama business works against larger operations, which need to corporately make the case for any strategy.

“How many big companies have moved the needle?,” they ask. “Big companies can get bogged down and comfortable in their business, and I don’t think many have the foresight. Even though there are studies talking about billions of dollars at play, they don’t know the first thing about how to move on that.”

One smaller distributor, the Hong Kong-based Harbour Rights, has picked up more than 1,000 vertical dramas from COL Group International to sell into Europe and Latin America. The plan is to shop the titles to vertical video apps and traditional entertainment buyers. Many of the titles were originally for FlareFlow and China-based 17K, and the deal represents one of the first ‘traditional’ distribution partnerships to date.

We have heard several companies are considering whether library content can be repurposed and repackaged, but broadly the response has been, at best, muted, and most currently prefer the FAST channel route or selling non-exclusive windows further down the value chain. “Although people binge microdrama series, I don’t think anyone would think of them as a 20-minute linear watch,” says the senior sales source.

This comes despite microdrama players like Tattle TV looking to repurpose iconic content such as Hitchcock’s first movie.

Sharon Levi, Managing Director of Israel’s Yes Studios, which is making its London TV Screenings debut next week with shows such as Brewing Trouble and Strangers, offers more rationale behind the perceived lack of action.

“It’s an important point, and it’s not that we’re not discussing microdrama, but it seems like this is something that social platforms would look into in order to engage their followers and users,” she said. “We’ve heard of hi-tech companies looking into microdramas, given the technology needed and the language. It’s on the radar, and with the right opportunity and fit, it could be something to look into at a later stage. Our focus is still very much long-form series and formats.”

It’s also a matter of process, adds our first source. “Distribution houses are almost entirely connected to producers, who should be having the conversations with the platforms,” they say. In theory, because of the low price point of production and speed in which a vertical drama can come together, a producer with studio facilities can strike a deal with a platform and supply original content directly. In other words, no juice for distributors. The Tattle Hitchcok deal, for example, was made for a film that was available for adaptation in the States, meaning no distributor was required.

China at “forefront of AI”

According to media analyst Omdia, the global microdrama business was worth $11B in 2025 and will reach $22B by 2030. Other estimates peg this even higher, at around $30B. A huge amount of this is driven by China, which Omdia reports was accountable for 83% of microdrama revenue last year. In comparison, the second largest market, the U.S., took 9%, although it is rapidly growing.

We’re hearing reports of Chinese microdrama services shopping daily (yes, daily) at trusted vertical video suppliers, going direct to the source. That both subverts and excludes the traditional TV distribution model, where sellers either adopt programming from their production stablemates or go out and acquire third-party content. Still, Omdia predicts the microdrama market outside of China will be $3B in 2026.

“China is moving so fast in terms of production volume and dealmaking, and the traditional guys can’t get their heads around that – that’s even before the bureaucracy kicks in,” says the boutique distributor. “China is the only place that can keep up with demand. They are the forefront of using AI to do it.”

Min Lim, Group CEO at Malaysia-based Vision Entertainment Group. , which owns distributor Vision Plus Entertainment, says the key is to see the space as a partnership play, rather than a sales pitch.

When the microdrama boom began in China during the Covid-19 pandemic, Vision Entertainment was arguably best known for its distribution operations production wing, Double Vision Entertainment, which adapted The Bridge in Malaysia and Singapore for HBO Asia. “We did not have a connection to China’s microdrama space, where most of them were coming from, but the space was exploding and I realized that,” says Lim.

When former Warner and Sony Pictures Television Asia boss Ricky Ow and his business partner Cassandra Yang approached her about investing in their new microdrama business RisingJoy last year, she saw the opportunity. “It was a way to get into the business with people who already understood the space and had links into China,” she says.

The result is a partnership in which Double Vision takes a minority stake in RisingJoy, with the pair working together in the microdrama market with partners throughout Asia, MENA, Europe and South America on content. They will also launch RJoy, a co-branded vertical video app. Notably from a distribution standpoint, Double Vision’s sister production services business will assist with everything from music clearances – something that plagues many microdrama makers – and format bibles to localization services and local productions in key markets.

Traditional players experimenting

Taken as a whole, traditional television cannot be accused of ignoring vertical video. Fox has bought into Ukrainian microdrama firm Holywater, owner of My Drama, and struck a production deal with social media behemoth Dhar Mann Studios, while The Mediapro Studio is making its first microdrama slate. Japan’s Nippon TV has just announced Viral Pocket, a new division aimed at striking partnerships with brands and agencies. BBC Children’s has ordered its first microdrama, a spin-off of Canadian kids drama The Next Step. As for the streamers, Disney+ launched its first microdrama, Locker Diaries, this week, and Netflix and Amazon are considering their ways into the space. Latin American streamer Vix is also well invested.

Distributors may be missing from that list. But while sellers don’t see a straight sales play for microdramas, it isn’t true to say none are experimenting with monetization. Those that have been going direct to consumer with library titles, for example, are exploring the possibilities.

“On our AVOD platforms, we are experimenting with both short-form content and episode compilations formatted as vertical video – particularly for episodes that have performed strongly as stand-alone viewing,” says Bo Stehmeier, CEO of factual-focused vendor Off The Fence.

“We’re seeing positive results across all formats, which suggests that different versions of the same content are not cannibalizing one another. Instead, they’re being consumed by audiences with varying amounts of disposable time.”

He is also keeping a close eye on how things develop, noting what kinds of format the vertical video model suits. “Scripted – and soon, reality TV – has the emotional stickiness required to support the kind of gamification emerging in microdrama,” he says.

“Genres that can’t reliably deliver minute-by-minute cliffhangers will struggle to scale behind paywalls and will instead gravitate toward free-to-air, ad-supported models. We’re already seeing this play out: Snackable, on-demand, specialist factual content is here to stay – and it’s maturing fast.”

For distributors, Stehmeier argues that the worry isn’t about any one genre, but understanding that “the real transformation of the industry is happening beneath the surface.”

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” he adds. “We only need to look at how other legacy industries, such as print and music, evolved by embracing change ahead of us.”

Where this particular evolution is concerned, distributor involvement remains an open question.