Vurt, a startup built around vertical microdramas, is making an unusual screen bet: it wants viewers watching phone-native stories on their living-room televisions.
A TV library built for verticals
The company has launched dedicated apps for Apple TV and Android TV, carrying 3,500 episodes across more than 100 shows. Since the service went live in March, its user base has climbed from 10,000 to 675,000.
The catalogue skews soapy and melodramatic—the same microdrama formula popularised by DramaBox and ReelShort. But Vurt’s pitch is that most episodes are made with human casts and crews, and viewers can finish a series free through ad partnerships rather than buying credits.
From casting to native TV apps
Vurt originally considered letting users cast episodes from phones. It chose native apps instead, arguing it could tap the TV’s hardware for HD or 4K picture and better audio. Cofounder Hilmon Sorey says engagement time has increased among viewers who use the TV apps.
“You’ve got to have your hook to begin and at the tail end of that, you’ve got to thrust them into the next episode by virtue of a cliffhanger.”
Sorey frames vertical drama as its own genre rather than a smaller version of television. Short, cliffhanger-driven episodes are the format, not a compromise, in his telling.
The business logic
- Licensing deals give creators a 50/50 revenue split.
- Independent creators can submit projects and, once approved, stream within days.
- Ad-supported ‘free-to-finish’ access replaces microtransactions.
- Originals and livestreamed sports are now in development.
That creator treatment is a point of differentiation. Sorey is blunt about platforms that use virtual-credit systems, calling the model a ‘ruse’ when the platform controls the entire content ecosystem.
Why it matters
For streaming and ad-marketing readers, Vurt is testing two assumptions at once: that vertical entertainment can grow beyond the phone, and that free ad-supported viewing can beat credit-based microdrama monetization. Instagram’s TV app adding Reels and Stories this June shows even social platforms see the living room as a battleground. Vurt’s user growth gives media planners a signal: vertical content can generate lean-back, big-screen ad inventory, not just mobile swipes. That is the kind of signal media planners track: it turns a mobile-native format into a lean-back ad environment, with free inventory and measurable time spent on the TV screen.
The open question is whether audiences accept vertical video flanked by blank space on a widescreen set. If they do, expect more TV apps and ad packages built around short, cliffhanger serials. Vurt’s next tests—original series and live sport—will show whether the format can retain viewers beyond the initial novelty.
Source: The Verge
