Recently formed vertical video TV studio RoseBerry Media has officially launched “epis” ─ its direct-to-consumer mobile app dedicated to originals and established TV IP that’s been adapted to the trending vertical video microseries format.
Available globally via the App Store, Google Play and mobile web, Epis launches with more than 100 titles of bite-sized microseries.
When the studio launched in May 2026, RoseBerry had already secured agreements with major indie production and distribution houses including A+E Global Media, All3Media International, Banijay Rights, Cineflix Rights and Fremantle to repurpose selected long-form shows from their existing libraries into vertical video microseries ─ some of which are out now.
“With epis, we are bringing together world-class creative talent, proven television IP, original productions and advanced technology to create a curated, mobile-first service for audiences who want stories worth watching, whether they have five minutes or fifty,” said RoseBerry Media Co-founder and CEO Guy Hameiri in a statement. “We know how to adapt any genre for the vertical format and believe there are no creative limits to what vertical storytelling can deliver or who it can reach.”
Tapping into microdrama white space opportunity
The mobile vertical video microdrama format is one that’s been trending and according to the company is now a $10 billion global market that’s scaling rapidly with near-quadruple revenue growth among leading platforms.
Unlike other types of short-form video, this format is serialized content with a full storyline but spliced up and told over several bite-sized short form episodes. Microepisodes typically run 1-3 minutes in length that often end on high-intrigue or drama moments and cliffhangers that encourage viewers to swipe or scroll (and pay or watch ads) to get to the next episode.
But it’s one where existing popular microdrama apps, while capturing attention and consumer spend, are often known for salacious storylines that might not necessarily be brand safe and tend to skew towards older female audiences.
As such, RoseBerry is among those seeking to enter the market that sees white space opportunity to not only tap into the consumption and mobile viewing trend, but expand the microdrama format to more genres, wider audiences and more premium content.
“We see an opportunity providing an entertainment experience to all audiences on vertical, with an understanding that this is the primary method watching consumption today and in the future,” said RoseBerry founders Hameiri and Lior Friedman in a Q&A exclusive to StreamTV Insiders. “We are already working on providing a content offering for other audiences apart from the existing audience of microdrama viewers."
And alongside original productions, existing long-form TV content from RoseBerry's partners taps into a proprietary 12-step process, helped by AI, to be verticalized and repurposed into miniature episode formats for mobile-first viewing. This is an avenue to potentially help breathe new life and incremental monetization opportunities into content partners’ library catalogs.
Adapted series on Epis at launch span genres of true crime, drama, reality, dating, factual entertainment, documentary and storytelling. (Scroll further down for more on the launch lineup, originals vs repurposed IP and how RoseBerry is using AI tech to create the microseries).
Monetizing through all models
RoseBerry’s Hameiri and Friedman shared with StreamTV Insiders some more details about the launch and plans for RoseBerry.
Per the founders, lengths of the microseries debuting vary, with the catalog featuring titles that have over 100+ total minutes to those running 25 minutes long (but again each spliced up into micro episodes).
The company plans to roll out new titles on a weekly basis and has more than 25 original vertical productions in the pipe for 2026.
As for users of the new Epis app, no sign up is required and viewers can sample selected content for free before choosing to continue a series through a paid model.
In terms of monetization, Epis supports and is pursuing all types of business models. That includes transactional, where users might pay per episode (some popular existing microdrama apps often have things like coin packs or tokens for purchase to unlock content), a subscription that gives full access for a period, as well as the option to watch ads in exchange for unlocking micro episodes.
Hameiri and Friedman noted that the number of ads changes based on the content type and the paywall positioning, or when it gets surfaced to viewers, is dynamic.
“We plan to enable various business models in different use cases, including ad-supported viewing, as we see tremendous brand and advertiser interest in vertical television,” the founders commented.
Alpha and beta tests encouraging
While Epis has only just officially launched, the founders said they’re “very encouraged” by the alpha and beta launches of the app over the last few months, given that it’s introduced new types of formats and content for vertical TV video.
RoseBerry is “already seeing the results we were hoping for,” they continued, as viewers appear to both be watching and willing to pay.
“Since day 1, we have consistently seen a user behavior of install, viewing, payment, continued engagement, and subscription. Subscribers spend as much as 60 minutes per session on the app,” Friedman and Hameiri said.
A 60-minute viewing session for the format is notable, particularly as streamers and content owners prioritize engagement and several are working to beef up their own mobile capabilities and content offerings.
Originals vs repurposed IP
As a studio dedicated to vertical TV, production is an underpinning part of RoseBerry’s business and original titles are a key part in the offering.
That said, IP from partners repurposed into vertical video microseries currently make up the lion’s share of titles and is where RoseBerry sees the chance to help extend partners’ libraries.
But both types appear to be resonating as the founders noted they’ve seen vertically-repurposed library titles perform just as well as originals in some cases.
“Library performance validated our assumption that the vertical audience offers an incremental opportunity for content owners. It gives us the opportunity to further grow and monetize existing titles and create new audiences, engagements, fandoms and revenue streams for catalogs,” they explained.
And since RoseBerry collaborates closely with partners, it’s able to test multiple typs of content, genres and way of storytelling and “expand on specific titles when our data showed we are hitting the right metrics.”
Currently, Epis content offering consists of 10% originals and 90% repurposed library adapted for vertical and microseries.
A few examples of originals include the true crime series Two Marys; The Swindler and the Billionaire Murder by Silvio Productions, and drama series Revenge is a Dish; Make Me a Match by Lime Pictures.
A few of the selected long-form TV titles from partners repurposed for Epis include:
- Sexy Beasts: A hit BBC Three and Netflix dating format created and producted by Lion Television, an All3Media company
- You Can’t Kill Me: Adapted from The Fall: Skydive Murder, Fremantle’s true crime miniseries for Channel 4
- House in Flames: Adapted from Fremantle thriller Heat, starring Danny Dyer
- Homicide: Hours to Kill: A true crime series from Cineflix Rights
A 12-step workflow with an AI assist
Part of RoseBerry’s strength and ability to enter and tap into the vertical video and microseries space has to do with its proprietary verticalization process that can repurpose existing long-from IP for mobile quickly, at scale and without compromising the integrity or simply doing a slice and dice.
The company leaders explained how AI is key to managing Roseberry’s overall 12-step repurposing process workflow as well as executing key parts of it including: Verticalization; segmenting long-form content into intriguing micro episodes that start and stop at the right place; replacing music and scoring to align with rights and the need for royalty-free music; narration; metadata and inserting graphics.
This has significantly decreased the amount of time it takes RoseBerry to repurpose a given title.
“After nearly a year of the repurposing process, the introduction of AI technology has allowed us to reduce our repurposing time for a specific title by +80%,” Friedman and Hameiri said.
On the original production side, RoseBerry is using AI, for example, in re-enactments and B-roll.
Audience data intelligence layer, broader distribution and studio aims
The newly launched Epis app gives RoseBerry and its partners a DTC home for the original and repurposed microseries to live initially. But it also serves to support the company’s broader vision for production, distribution and to provide data as an audience intelligence platform.
On the data front, the app is a testing ground where RoseBerry can learn and help demonstrate how premium vertical microseries perform with viewers. That type of data can help offer insight to RoseBerry and content partners about audience behavior and engagement with the content and app, the type of demand for different genres and marketability in the mobile-first space. This is meant to help the industry including studios, distributors and rights holders to create, understand and monetize vertical microseries across multiple distribution windows.
“It is clear that data is one of the most critical components missing today in the media value chain. Mobile allows vast amounts of data that TV simply doesn’t,” the founders commented. “We plan to share a lot of this data with our partners, so we can collectively create better content and continue and grow the vertical TV economy.”
On the distribution and production front, RoseBerry’s route-to-market strategy is built to include additional distribution channels and affiliations, such as white-label services, mobile operator partnerships, partner-owned platforms, third-party streamers, broadcasters, networks and digital channels.
And partners can work with RoseBerry to create original vertical microseries or adapt their existing long-form IP to the format. After which, they can decide where it lives – either on Epis, through their owned-and-operated platforms or across broader third-party distribution channels.
“epis, RoseBerry’s direct to consumer vertical streamer service is built on a simple belief: vertical entertainment can be premium. Audiences have changed how they consume content, but they have not stopped wanting great stories,” Hameiri said in a statement.
Article headline updated to change the word "microdrama" to "microseries" to better reflect RoseBerry's aim of bringing and expanding the short-form vertical video format to new types of genres.