Vurt, a startup built around vertical microdramas, is taking the format off the phone and onto the television. According to The Verge, the company has rolled out dedicated apps for Apple TV and Android TV, offering 3,500 episodes across more than 100 shows. The Verge also reported that Vurt's userbase has climbed from 10,000 to 675,000 since the service launched in March.
The move runs against the grain. Most vertical series platforms have concentrated on mobile viewing, while big streamers, from Disney Plus to HBO Max, have been experimenting with vertical content of their own, per The Verge. Vurt is wagering that the next stage for the format is the wide screen.
Free to watch, human-made
Vurt serves the soapy, melodramatic style that helped make rivals such as DramaBox and ReelShort popular. Its pitch differs in two ways, according to The Verge. The vast majority of its series are produced with human casts and crews, and the service is funded by ad partnerships, so viewers can watch everything without paying.
Cofounder and angel investor Hilmon Sorey told The Verge that the company calls this a "free-to-finish" model and sees it as the main way it treats users fairly. He was pointed about the alternative of selling coins to unlock episodes. Platforms that make their own originals and have no outside creators to pay, he said, can lean on that approach because they control the whole ecosystem. In his words, "It’s a ruse that they can use to boggle your mind because they control that entire content ecosystem."
How the creator deal works
To fill its catalog, Vurt signs licensing deals with production studios and creators that include a 50/50 revenue split, The Verge reported. Independent creators can submit projects directly, and once approved, a show can be streaming within a few days. Sorey described fairness to creators, and listening to them, as core to the company's philosophy.
The TV push itself, he said, came from user feedback. Viewers wanted to send the verticals they watched on phones to larger screens. Vurt first built casting to smart TVs, then concluded that a native app was the better route because it could use the hardware for HD and 4K video and higher-quality audio.
A genre, not a workaround
Before building the apps, Vurt asked content creators how they like to watch films and television. Many named theaters and big screens as their preference for immersion, Sorey said, but they also maintained that vertical microdramas can hold attention just as well on a phone with earbuds as on a TV.
Sorey argues that the format's hallmarks set it apart from traditional series and films. The Verge listed those traits as formulaic plots, questionable acting and very short episodes. Structure matters too: each episode needs an early hook and a closing cliffhanger that pushes viewers to the next one. Sorey said engagement time has risen among people using the TV apps, which The Verge suggested is likely because they no longer have to pick up a phone.
What comes next
Vurt says it is staying focused on vertical content while developing new programming, including original series and livestreamed sporting events. The competitive backdrop is shifting as well: The Verge noted that Instagram expanded its TV app in June to include Reels, disappearing Stories and horizontal videos.
The open question, The Verge observed, is whether anyone beyond committed microdrama fans wants vertical video framed by blank space on a big screen. With so many platforms turning everything into vertical feeds, the outlet wrote, Vurt may be onto something. Its user growth since March suggests an audience exists. Whether it extends beyond the already converted is what the TV apps will test.
Reporting sources: The Verge, “Vurt wants you to look at vertical videos as a genre of their own”.