\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMicro-dramas playing out on the endless scroll of social video platforms across Asia. A group of Hollywood veterans are diving in to bring this form of content U.S. audiences.<\/p>\n
\n\tChris McGurk, chairman and CEO of Cineverse, and Lloyd Braun\u2018s Banyan Ventures have teamed to launch MicroCo. Jana Winograde, former Showtime president and former head of ABC\u2019s business operations, will serve as CEO of MicroCo. Susan Rovner, former president of Warner Bros. TV and former head of programmig for NBCUniversal TV and Streaming, will sign on in October as chief content officer. Erick Opeka, chief strategy officer for Cineverse, will also work closely with the MicroCo team.<\/p>\n
\n\t \u201cMicroCo will combine a new style of storytelling that engages fans and creators alike, with state-of-the-art technology that we have spent years developing, and an elite leadership team that includes some of our generation\u2019s most successful media and content executives,\u201d McGurk said. \u201cThe end result will be a category defining studio and platform. Early results in the space have underscored the massive strategic upside of this new format, including the opportunity to build an original IP engine with global monetization opportunities, to integrate brand partnerships, and support a robust creator economy flywheel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe plan is to use Cineverse\u2019s streaming platforms and its content library to launch MicroCo\u2019s slate of series that will feature episodes running 1 to 2 minutes in length. The micro series trend emerged a few years ago in Korea, China and other influential territories.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe average person scrolls through hundreds of feet of content a day, but almost none of it is built to last,\u201d said Braun, whose long career as a producer and executive includes stints as chairman of WME and ABC Entertainment Group. \u201cWe\u2019re merging the storytelling rigor of series television with the pace, energy, and intimacy of short-form\u2014creating addictive, emotionally rich, quality series that are developed specifically for this format and speak directly to how people consume content now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe partners hope to release their first shows by the first quarter of next year. Given the ultra low budgets for this content venture, it\u2019s unlikely that MicroCo will employ Hollywood union talent.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs viewing habits shift towards fast, social, and mobile-first experiences, our Microseries will deliver high-impact storytelling meant to be shared,\u201d said Winograde. \u201cWhether it\u2019s leaning into genre or the creator community, we have the tools to meet fans in their native ecosystems and pull them into this new format and platform built just for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCineverse operates numerous FAST channels and it serves up streaming content via the Cineverse platform. McGurk, who previously headed Universal Pictures and MGM, emphasized that Cineverse is deeply invested in the engineering and the tech needed to get MicroCo productions off the ground. Cineverse is home to more than 71,000 titles including movies, TV shows and podcasts. The company made a mark last year with its release of the horror pic \u201cTerrifier 3,\u201d which scored at the box office with a modest $1 million marketing budget that McGurk emphasized reflects the company\u2019s technology-guided approach to digital ballyhoo.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhile the need for great stories never changes, viewing habits do, and microdramas have proven that short-form storytelling can attract and engage an audience,\u201d said Rovner. \u201cBut what\u2019s been missing is the quality, creative passion and fun that our team will bring to this format.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOpeka stressed that MicroCo has the chance to secure the all-important first-mover advantage for this format in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBy bringing Hollywood best practices to a global format that\u2019s taken off in Asia \u2014 but hasn\u2019t been cracked in the U.S. \u2014 we believe MicroCo is uniquely positioned to lead this space,\u201d said Opeka. <\/strong>\u201cThe tech, the talent, the timing \u2014 it all lines up.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t(Pictured: Chris McGurk and Jana Winograde)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Micro-dramas playing out on the endless scroll of social video platforms across Asia. A group of Hollywood veterans are diving in to bring this form of content U.S. audiences. Chris McGurk, chairman and CEO of Cineverse, and Lloyd Braun\u2018s Banyan Ventures have teamed to launch MicroCo. Jana Winograde, former Showtime president and former head of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[9959,795,9960,3164,9958,9957,9962,7263,9961],"class_list":{"0":"post-16648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-braun","9":"tag-chris","10":"tag-jana","11":"tag-launch","12":"tag-lloyd","13":"tag-mcgurk","14":"tag-microco","15":"tag-venture","16":"tag-winograde"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}