Sneak Preview: Vertical Leap: Growing the Free Vertical Drama Business at Streaming Media Connect
On Thursday, February 26, Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel “Vertical Leap: Growing the Free Vertical Drama Business.” Vertical drama is exploding on free streaming platforms, driven by mobile-first viewing, bingeable formats, and a new generation of viewers and global creators. This session will break down the business models, distribution strategies, and monetisation tactics driving the vertical drama boom—and how to scale it effectively.
Confirmed panelists include:
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Chris Pfaff is a leading new media and technology producer and strategist: He was the first to use IRC for an interactive corporate webcast; he produced one of the first DVDs; he produced the first HD animated logo; he led numerous multipoint broadband events in the late 1990s; he produced some of the first mobile short films (2002–2003); and he produced the first Twitter Wall in 2011. His company, Chris Pfaff Tech Media, has provided strategy and marketing services for leading technology service providers, technology firms, and new media companies worldwide since 2002. Pfaff was also one of the founders of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) New Media Council East and a founder of the New York chapter of the VR/AR Association.
Pfaff says the biggest surprise for him about vertical drama’s popularity “has been that the core audience for vertical drama isn’t Gen Z—it’s women aged 45–65. While we expected the ‘TikTok generation’ to drive this, the most loyal, high-spending users are older women who previously consumed daytime soaps or Kindle romance novels. This demographic has higher disposable income and is more willing to pay the ‘coin-unlock’ fees than Gen Z, who are more likely to seek out pirated clips or wait for free releases.”
He calls the embrace of vertical drama “a fundamental rewiring of narrative psychology. In 2026, we’ve realised that vertical drama isn’t ‘short-form TV’—it’s a high-velocity engagement engine. In traditional cinema, you have the luxury of a 10-minute ‘inciting incident.’ In vertical drama, you have 3 seconds. The story structure shifts from a linear arc to a series of ‘Micro-Peaks.’ Every episode must function as a self-contained unit of dopamine.”
Pfaff believes that “the vertical drama market has moved past its ‘gold rush’ phase and into a high-stakes era of industrialisation and consolidation. The revenue ceiling is rising—forecasted to hit $7.8 billion to $15 billion by the end of the decade—but the floor is getting much more expensive to maintain. AI tools that can automate the ‘verticalisation’ of horizontal content or provide high-fidelity ‘visual dubbing’ (matching lip-sync across languages) are in high demand. If a platform doesn’t build organic ‘brand loyalty,’ it remains a slave to the social algorithms. A sudden shift in Meta’s ad pricing can bankrupt a mid-sized drama platform overnight.”
He sees the revenue landscape as follows: “Creators are now operating like mini-studios, utilising a hybrid monetisation stack that prioritises direct-to-consumer (DTC) transactions and ‘hook-to-pay’ mechanics. The ‘hook and coin’ model is the gold standard for certain platforms, like ReelShort and DramaBox. The first 5–10 episodes are free to hook the viewer. To continue, users purchase digital ‘coins’ or ‘keys’ to unlock individual 60-second episodes.”
Pfaff compares vertical drama production to mobile game development. “In 2026, the production of vertical drama has matured into a ‘high-velocity factory’ model,” he says. “A typical 60–90 episode series (roughly 90 minutes of total footage) costs between $150,000 and $300,000. For context, a ‘low-grade’ TV movie often starts at $1.5 million. Traditional ‘economic’ content (like daytime soaps or web series) might cost $10,000–$50,000 per minute. Vertical drama has optimised this to $1,500–$3,500 per minute. While a traditional TV series can take 12–18 months from greenlight to air, vertical dramas are engineered for market agility. A full 90-episode season of a vertical drama is typically shot in 7 to 10 days.”
Grace Gao is a first-generation Chinese American who graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2017 and began her career as director’s assistant to Xue Xiaolu on the Chinese-Australian co-production The Whistleblower (2019). From 2019 to 2021, she worked in Pearl Studio’s development department, contributing to the creative localisation of the Oscar-nominated animated feature Over the Moon (2020). Her feature script Narcissus was a ScreenCraft Film Fund finalist, with its proof-of-concept short screening at LA Shorts Fest 2021. She earned her M.F.A. in screenwriting from USC in 2023. After serving as head writer at GoodShort and head of development at COL Media, Gao founded Celestine Pictures, Inc., an IP-centric microdrama studio built on an AI-hybrid production pipeline and a global business model.
“Honored to be invited by Chris Pfaff as one of the panelists at Streaming Media Magazine along with some familiar faces!” Gao posted on LinkedIn.
Thom Woodley, partner at Hudson Vertical, is a New York-based creative director, writer, webseries pioneer, and director. In 2006, Woodley helped usher in the online video revolution with the launch of his seminal hipster comedy The Burg. He also created, wrote, and produced The All-For-Nots (a co-production with Michael Eisner), All’s Faire, and Greg & Donny, which won the IFC Out of the Box Award at the 2010 New York Television Festival. He is also a founding member of the International Academy of Web Television, is the first professor of webseries at the School of Visual Arts, teaches at the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts and Miami Ad School, and has written and addressed Congress on the subject of internet neutrality.
“For our panel discussion, I’ll be focusing on what vertical drama actually demands from creators and producers, not just creatively, but structurally and economically,” Woodley shares. He notes that what’s surprised him most over the past year-and-a-half of growth are:
- “How quickly free platforms trained audiences to expect premium emotional payoff in under two minutes. That forces us to rethink everything, from inciting incidents to cliffhangers to how we define an ‘episode.’”
- “How these microdrama formats and monetisation structures—while deeply flawed and limiting—have proven what the ‘smart money’ post-Quibi said would never happen: ‘Americans just WON’T watch vertical narrative.’”
Woodley continues, “I’m looking forward to discussing what’s actually working right now in terms of story engines, release models, and monetisation, and where the apps are failing to capitalise on the massive potential here. As the space scales, the opportunity is enormous, but so is the risk of sameness and burnout. Ideally I’ll be tailoring my part of the conversation towards those who care about where mobile-native storytelling is headed, and how to build sustainably inside it.”
Brandan Dennehy is a Hollywood veteran who has worked alongside acclaimed filmmakers and studios such as Universal, Sony TV, MGM, Amazon, and HBO. He pioneered the launch of vertical drama in the U.S. when, starting in 2022, he built and scaled a full entertainment content studio producing more than 10,000 hours of original and localised series. Today, in addition to producing vertical series, he works with platforms, brands, and start-ups to hone their content and business strategies, build and operationalise their acquisition, localisation, development, production, and marketing, and turn them into high-functioning units on par with industry leaders. With Stratagem Vertical, he is at the forefront of AI-driven collaboration in vertical content, fusing personalisation, story development, and production with creator and audience expansion.
“The current landscape is dominated by overseas players with huge IP libraries, massive performance marketing budgets, and hyper-aggressive monetisation models. But things are going to evolve rapidly in the next 12 months,” Dennehy predicts. “There are huge opportunities in self-distribution, brand partnerships, and influencer casting. The risks come from people moving into this space and not understanding how steep the learning curve is, especially in development.”
Carina Williamson, content and creative operations lead at top vertical app GoodShort, is a pioneer in the vertical mini-drama space. Williamson runs the creative operations and partnerships for one of the biggest brands in the space. Before taking the leap into verticals, she graduated summa cum laude from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with majors in cinema studies and Chinese language.
“I have been in verticals since the beginning—in August 2023 I was hired as the second U.S. employee at GoodShort—and look forward to giving my advice to anyone looking to understand the internal structures of vertical apps,” Williamson says. “Creatives, brands, and Hollywood studios are now all looking to get into the space, but you need to have an understanding of how vertical companies operate to be successful.”
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