- ViX is rolling out 40 original scripted microdramas this year
- The company hopes to drive engagement for a large installed mobile base
- Produced in-house, ViX MicrO’s are filmed with iPhone 16s and/or Sony FX3
- Early response is encouraging, with users bingeing and sharing snackable episodes
TelevisaUnivision’s ViX has brought the drama to its mobile app and is serving up Spanish-language episodic storylines to consumers through a buffet of scripted bite-sized vertical video microdramas.
Microdramas - also known as microvideo, microcontent or microseries - are episodic content with stories told over a series of snackable, short-form vertical videos (think about a 60-90-minute storyline spliced into 1-2-minute episodes) typically made for mobile.
The format has proved wildly popular in Asian markets and some dedicated apps are making their mark on the U.S. Microvideo apps like ReelShort have climbed the entertainment app charts in the U.S. and are capturing consumer attention and wallets. While there aren’t yet major U.S.-based apps yet, some are looking to get in on the action like Cineverse, which this week announced a joint venture formation for a studio and platform dedicated to microseries as it looks to capitalize on what the company said is projected to be a $10 billion market outside of China by 2027.
ViX, meanwhile, is already on its way with the format and appears early among major media streamers to try its own hand at microdramas.
In late July ViX officially rolled out its first slate of original microdrama series and episodes (dubbed ViX MicrOs) on the SVOD’s mobile app Shorts experience, after first sharing plans for the new format at TVU’s Upfront presentation.
StreamTV Insider spoke with with Rafael Urbina, president of Streaming and Digital at TelevisaUnivision and spearheading ViX - who categorized microdramas as a top product priority for the Spanish-language streamer. He discussed the foray into the format, production, and potential monetization strategies behind what it sees as a “tremendous opportunity” for microdramas, as well as initial consumer response just over a week into the debut.
To be sure, ViX is still focused on long-form content, but with microdramas it’s seeking to hop on momentum for the format (which are much cheaper and quicker to produce than traditional episodic TV) and to drive engagement of a large but underutilized mobile app base.
ViX microdramas debut
On July 21 ViX rolled out around six original scripted microseries, with titles typically counting 60 to 70 bite-sized “episodes” that each average around 1-2 minutes in length.
Trailers and the first five episodes of each microdrama debut on ViX Micro social channels across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X, with remaining episodes available for free (for now) exclusively on ViX, and only available on mobile (also for now).
New ViX microcontent premieres weekly, with 10 out so far and plans to release 40 original microseries throughout 2025.
The first six original titles include:
- “El regreso de la Heredera Fugitiva”
- “Te escribí antes de conocerte”
- “Intensamente Victoria”
- “Me fui gata volví perra”
- “¡Mamá, no me dejes morir!”
- “Destinada a ser la dueña”
Bringing scripted episodic storytelling to short-form
With the advent of TikTok, YouTube and other social video platforms, the consumer appetite and consumption of short-form vertical video isn’t a secret.
But unlike social video platforms, ViX’s microdramas aren’t user-generated content or an influencer post, which Urbina likened to a “one-off.” Instead, they feature narrative, episodic storytelling, with ViX’s initial genres focused on dramas, including the classic high-drama telenovela-style that TelevisaUnivision is well-versed in. And more distinct to the micro format, minute-long episodes usually end on a cliffhanger or key moment that leaves the user hungry for the next episode.
In starting the effort on micros about nine months ago, Urbina acknowledged plenty of data points that speak to the popularity of short-form content, where ViX too has seen its own general vertical video content take off on social platforms like TikTok, Instagram and even YouTube Shorts.
But what’s more interesting to the media company is “the proliferation of storytelling in that short-form,” where there’s an apparent appetite for more quick-hit, serialized content as well as the opportunity to bring TVU’s resources and expertise from the episodic long-form video world to a new format.
Per Urbina, TVU knows the ViX audience consumes a ton of vertical video (ViX already gets “billions of views” against its non-episodic content on short-form social video platforms) and is on mobile.
The thinking was to bring those elements into ViX and start creating content that’s both unique to the Spanish-language streamer’s viewers and delivers value beyond a one-off influencer or UCG post, as microseries are meant to be bingeable.
“Given how much video consumption is growing overall, but also specifically on mobile devices, we think there’s a huge opportunity to take our storytelling into that environment with short-form, episodic vertical video,” he said.
Why mobile-first? Engaging a large installed app base
The microdrama trend is focused on mobile short-form vertical video – filling a need for consumers on the go, seeking a quit hit or maybe those who have time to binge an easy 60-minute series. And for ViX it’s a chance to engage a mobile app base that’s already installed but underutilized.
As of Q2 ViX counted more than 10 million global paid subscribers and with free tiers available counts more monthly active users. Since much of its audience tunes into the platform’s long-form content, most ViX engagement currently happens on CTV, per Urbina.
However, most people discover streaming apps on their phone first before installing on CTV, meaning ViX has “a massive mobile app installed footprint.”
But one that could be getting more engagement with microdramas.
“The mobile app is sitting there and it's not getting as much use as it could,” Urbina said. “We think this is an opportunity for us to take what is a massive base of installed apps around the world and drive engagement on mobile to a new level, both in terms of time spent, frequency of visitation, all those things are metrics that we're monitoring very closely.”
CTV potential
Connected TV could be in the future for ViX micros.
It’s monitoring apps like YouTube Shorts on CTV and ViX is seeing “some strong numbers for our own Shorts consumed on that platform” he noted, suggesting an appetite for short-form on CTV as well.
ViX plans to experiment with microdramas on CTV at some point and tests could already be happening now with a subset of users, according to Urbina, although he said there’s no timeline yet for a broad CTV rollout.
High volume, lower costs and quicker production
Let’s take a minute to note that when it comes to ViX’s product priorities, Urbina said the microdrama effort “absolutely is a very big priority for us” – but he didn’t necessarily want to call the format a “content priority” because in terms of minutes, ViX’s hours of and investment in long-form still rule the day.
However, the fact that microseries don’t necessarily need to sit as a priority in the sense of content expense or investment is likely part of the appeal.
Asked about investment and time to create serialized microdramas compared to long-form episodic content like a telenovela, he affirmed the short-form format requires “definitely lower time and production costs for sure.”
“The goal here is to produce a large volume of micronovellas, microshows,” he said, and having plans for 40 titles this year alone just wouldn’t be doable in a traditional long-form world.
That said, micros need their own type of attention to get to the volume desired.
“We’ve had to set up a completely different infrastructure to be able to do this at scale in short-form,” he explained.
ViX produces all of the microdramas in-house and benefits from a large production facility in Mexico City (ViX will start microseries production in the U.S. “soon,” per Urbina). The San Ángel studio in Mexico City serves as a studio lot and already has a wide variety of sets the media company can leverage for most any type of microdrama storyline.
There’s a dedicated team of around 20 people per production for the ViX MicrOs
While sets are built-in, production itself is significantly different as the ViX microdramas are filmed using iPhone 16s and/or Sony FX3 cameras.
Generative AI will also play a role in production. According to Urbina, the streamer has already started to test scenes created by genAI in some of the short-form content.
“That is something that absolutely will happen in the next 12 months,” he said of AI-generated elements for microdramas.
Talent costs are also likely lower as he noted ViX can pull from Centro de Educacion Artistica (The Academy of Stars), which has about 5,000 students at any given point that are starting work in fields like acting, singing, directing and producing, as well as emerging talent from Mexico theater.
“So we have this talent pool of young talent that we can bring and put to work on these shows,” he commented.
ViX MicrOs can bring the star power if needed
Still, as TVREV’s Alan Wolk pointed out in this article, the quality of content and star power (or lack thereof) on some of the popular existing microvideo apps is subjectively, not so good – but seemingly part of the formula.
However, ViX – with its legacy media parent - is still looking to deliver premium video and storytelling in a vertical short-form format. And TVU already has expertise in high-drama content that’s often seen in classic telenovela storylines, helping its position to potentially deliver better quality microdramas.
For ViX’s micros, in Urbina’s view, the acting is as good or perhaps better than what he’s seen in other microcontent apps. ViX has used a mix of students (or up and coming talent if you will) with more established talent in the series, which he thinks works really well. And while maybe not household names, the people are trained actors rather than influencers or models giving acting a go.
“These are actual actors and I think it comes across on the screen really well, so we’re excited about that,” he said.
ViX also feels well positioned in that it can bring the star power if needed.
As a media company, TVU has access to plenty of talent, so “if we need to do a cameo with a superstar, we can,” Urbina noted.
Microdramas as side stories to long-form content
Plus, he envisions how ViX can leverage TelevisaUnivision’s relationship with talent and its broader, long-form entertainment ecosystem alongside the new microdrama format.
“At some point I’m sure that you’ll see some either more established talent participate or maybe have some of these micronovellas run side stories for some of the main characters of our novellas or main shows,” he explained.
Meaning the company could have a primetime long-form TV series and then a related side storyline playing out in a microseries.
“There’s all kinds of interesting ways in which we can leverage this as part of a broader ecosystem,” Urbina said.
That said he dispelled the notion that a primary goal is to funnel users from the short-form microdramas into long-form content on the platform (although the format could provide a vehicle there as well).
“We think that this is a destination in and of itself,” he said of microdramas. “We think that there’s some business to be built around microcontent on mobile devices and potentially connected TVs at some point.”
And while acknowledging “talent will always be talent” and a big draw, Urbina also sees potential to get viewers involved in microcontent themselves.
That could be in the form of interactive user decision-making about plots, or eventually, viewers uploading a picture or selfie of themselves to actually become part of the content.
“Who knows where this will take us but there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity and it’s an exciting trend to be a part of,” he said.
But for now, the focus is on getting the user experience right and ensuring the types of stories they’re telling are optimally formatted, with “bells and whistles” to be added as the effort progresses.
Fitting the format, early response
As ViX set out to produce the first batch of microdramas it had to look at the storytelling narrative and how that needed to change from a 1-hour telenovela to a 1-2-minute vertical video story that could then be stitched together for a full 60-90 minute arch.
“I think it’s very tricky to get the right cadence for these shows right,” Urbina said, noting changes in post-production as well. “You have to be able to tell the story for that episode in 90 seconds or less.”
While just fresh on the scene Urbina is proud of the ViX MicrO product and thinks it’s “very mature” for something only a week old at the time.
ViX experimented with different types of stories, but all microseres that have launched so far are broadly drama. Within that some follow a more traditional telenovela storyline while others are a bit more modern, such as stories that feature influencers or dramas with more of a comedic or lighter flair.
One title in particular, was a classic telenovela-type story high on melodrama that Urbina said they initially thought “might not work so well because it was too close to what we do traditionally on television.”
But roughly 10 days in “and it actually did great.”
Overall, it’s had a few telenovela-like microdrama storylines that “have done incredibly well” per Urbina.
But it’s been interesting, he said, to see in the very early days that different types of storytelling “resonate with different audiences” and can perform differently depending on the market or even device type – although didn’t want to jump to definitive conclusions so early on.
As for initial consumer response after ViX microdramas had one full week officially in market: “It’s definitely surpassed our expectations in terms of both the percentage of users that are sampling this as well as how engaged they’re becoming. So we’re excited. It’s early, but we’re very excited,” Urbina said.
Some of that engagement comes in the form of binge sessions and sharing episodes on social.
Meant to be bingeable
The goal of course is not for viewers to tune into a single microvideo, but to get them quickly hooked on the story and move to the next episode or title.
Again, that means changes for post-production and employing storytelling mechanisms and the right cadence to keep viewers engaged at the end of each 1-minute segment.
“You need some sort of cliffhanger to make sure that people swipe to the next episode,” Urbina explained, citing it as one of several learnings TVU gleaned as it set out on the effort and performed focus groups ahead of the recent launch.
And ViX’s initial efforts look to be doing the trick as, users are “not watching one, they’re binging a bunch of episodes,” Urbina said.
The end of a micro episode is often when a monetization mechanism of some sort kicks in on existing microvideo apps (like having to watch an ad, pay a small amount or buy a binge pass) – all of which ViX is considering.
Monetization mechanisms will vary
ViX is still refining the business model, so for now all of the microdrama episodes are completely free but it expects to start serving ads in microshows later this year, according to Urbina.
As the model gets solidified, some of the content will go behind a paywall of sorts, and ViX will have to see if and how user patterns change once that happens, he said.
In the short term it’s monetizing microdramas through product integrations and sponsorships within the shows, which is easily doable because ViX controls production end-to-end.
“It’s very simple for us and cost-effective to introduce brands or sponsorships into the shows,” Urbina noted.
In addition, later this year ViX will start experimenting with content behind paywalls of sorts that leverage three different existing models.
Those could include requiring a user to sign up for a paid premium subscription to access certain microcontent, asking them to pay a small amount (also known as microtransactions or micropayments) to see a few episodes, or make them watch an ad to unlock the next episode or title in a series (known as incentivized ads).
“It’ll be a combination of all the above,” Urbina said. But “it may not be a one-size-fits all per user or per market,” he added where different markets may end up adopting different models.
In his recent column, Wolk explained how some Chinese-owned apps have been very successful at generating relatively big sums from in-app payments, with models that have the goal of encouraging users to become so-called “whales” who spend upward of $80 per month on microcontent.
In advice to the larger TV industry, Wolk said players should figure out how they can make it work for them “in the Global South, where few consumers will have the means to afford a monthly subscription, but will likely be willing to pay on a per-show or per-episode basis, especially if you start them off on some free-with-ads episodes.”
As for ViX, it continues to monitor what other services are doing and how the market is evolving in terms of monetization and what works.
But it could be well positioned to deliver and monetize better quality microdramas for Spanish-speakers, in part thanks to its storytelling and production chops, large installed mobile base, users in markets with strong potential for micropayments or incentivized ads, and a platform with content that’s already attracted audiences in the U.S. and across Latin America.
Sharing microdramas at a high rate, presents brand opportunity
For now though, the early focus for microdramas is engagement. And Urbina said the platform is seeing a lot of bingeing and that people are getting into the snackable stories.
Not only are users bingeing micro episodes, they’re also sharing them with friends on social.
This benefits from and was part of the thinking behind a mobile-first experience, as it’s easily built for sharing. But Urbina said he was surprised by just how high the share rates have been, adding viewers are sharing the microcontent “at a much higher degree than we expected.”
While not putting a specific stat on it, he did say share rates for some of the microdramas are “significantly higher” than ViX’s average share rate for a post on a social media platform.
“So that’s encouraging to see that people are interested in sharing these stories,” he commented.
Even through there’s typically more co-viewing in a CTV environment than on mobile, it was interesting for Urbina to see that even when people aren’t technically watching in the same room or on the same screen together, they’re “co-viewing in a synchronous way by sharing” the microdramas - tying in a critical “social component to the content that we watch and love.”
This also presents an opportunity for brands or advertisers aligning, because if there’s a microdrama episode with a product integration “that sharing becomes very valuable to the advertiser,” he noted.
It could also create an interesting chance to match, for example, if someone is getting a microdrama share but it’s “brought to you” by a specific brand, particularly by aligning with specific emotions and moments in time and content.
In addition, he sees the chance for viewers and advertisers to be more involved in the storyline itself.
For example, presenting the viewer with a decision to slap or kiss a character (which Urbina described as “a very typical telenovela type situation”) – and from there a brand can be part of that decision and integrated in some way.
“There’s all kinds of different moments in time in which we think the consumer is super engaged, where brands can benefit from participating” around microdramas.
And he thinks advertisers who are willing to experiment will benefit in the not-so-distant future.
“There’s no question that this is going to happen in a big way and this is going to be a big part of the media consumption pattern for a lot of consumers globally, but also in the U.S.,” Urbina said.
Catering to Gen Z, but expects broad appeal
ViX is certainly looking after Gen Z audiences as short-form vertical video is understood to be a big part of that demo’s media consumption – but the executive was keen to note that mobile and short-form vertical video isn’t exclusive to Gen Z by any means.
Separately, Wolk’s column called out the fact that some dedicated microvideo apps like ReelShort are actually attracting Millennials (rather than Gen Alpha or Z) as the bulk of the audience and skew female.
For ViX MicrO’s Urbina expects to see “a cross-section of demographics engage with this type of content,” although anticipates it to lean more Gen Z, which excites the platform and was a big driver for the microdramas.
Still, he can see microdramas resonating across ages.
“We wouldn’t be surprised to see older generations also engage with this content because a lot of these stories are multi-generational and they’re timeless in many ways, so we think they can have broad appeal,” the executive said.
Microdramas are a key product priority for ViX and seen as a major opportunity for the platform, but there are no plans to abandon the streamer’s typical long-form premium content approach. Instead, it wants to bring together both content formats in the same app.
“We’re not 100% dedicated exclusively to micros, but we’re certainly dedicated to entertaining our audience, and hopefully consumers can start to navigate long-form and short-form content in the same environment,” Urbina said.