It seems like each different week we’re getting hit with information concerning the leisure business that impacts us as TV watchers. There are price hikes. There are company mergers. Dwell sports activities streaming is messy. And there is the continuing convo about whether or not we’re again within the cable TV period, regardless of streaming companies’ takeover of our wallets and screens.
It is no shock that, on common, we spend $101 a month on streaming right here within the US. It is in all probability no shock that the variety of households that also have conventional TV has declined to 41%, whereas 91% of us have streaming subscriptions, according to Parks Associates. We’re streaming Stranger Things, NFL games, Landman and stay occasions just like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We watch so much at residence, and we watch extra on our telephones — whether or not we’re on the go or staying put at residence.
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However there’s one thing else occurring. We, as viewers, are altering the kind of content material that’s king, and we’re influencing how and what tales are made.
Microseries could possibly be the subsequent ‘it’ style
Deloitte revealed its 2026 Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions report in November, highlighting the brand new instructions TV is taking, due to our evolving viewing habits. The takeaway? Prepare for extra microseries and video podcasts.
This yr, media analysis consultants say we’re consuming extra video content material by social media and streaming companies, comparable to YouTube, Netflix and TikTok, quite than conventional TV. Whereas there’s an uptick throughout all generations, Gen Z and millennials surveyed are getting most of their video leisure by social media and think about it their important manner of watching TV — through their telephones. It is a shift that has gotten audiences accustomed to abbreviated types of leisure the place there’s an urge for food for short-form vertical movies, and microseries may change into the subsequent huge wave.
Popularized in China, microseries — and their subgroup, microdramas — are quick, bite-sized TV reveals and movies designed for cellphone viewing, sometimes lasting one to 2 minutes per episode. (Sure, it sounds just like the now-defunct Quibi platform.) The idea is taking off within the UK, the place there are manufacturing homes like Onset Octopus devoted solely to the format, and right here within the US, the place you could find apps like ReelShort, DramaBox or GoodShort pumping out cleaning soap opera-esque dramas.
Often, you might have seen clips pop up in your TikTok or Instagram feed, beckoning you to stream I Kicked Out My Three Fiances in My Second Life in its entirety — damaged down into 60- or 90-second segments. Whereas some content material is free, a paid subscription is required to stream all content material in an app’s library.
This is a have a look at some titles the Dramabox microdrama app has to supply.
Deloitte predicts that in 2026, microseries’ in-app revenue will surge to $7.8 billion, double the projected quantity for 2025 at $3.8 billion. For conventional Hollywood leisure manufacturers, there are alternatives to step into this rising style of microcontent by collaborations with particular person creators, fastidiously curated use of generative AI or by utilizing what these corporations have already got.
Once I spoke with Wenny Katzenstein, a managing director at Deloitte, she famous that media giants might discover a gap to seize viewers’ eyeballs by “utilizing them to really drive again to IP that already exists.” It is a strategy to reconnect with followers like us by turning our consideration towards acquainted characters and titles by newly created microcontent — and even AI-generated content material — and truly will not be that far off for some corporations.
Eric Schrier, president of Disney’s tv studios, recently told Variety that he hopes to convey microstorytelling to the platform quickly through vertical video, however there are not any agency plans on when. For now, the main focus is on the right way to convey manufacturing as much as par to satisfy Disney Plus’ requirements.
Viewers appear to be open to extra, with Activate Consulting reporting that 52% of adults it surveyed aged 18 to 34 used a minimum of one microdrama app to observe one thing. That does not imply streaming TV platforms will go extinct however it could imply that what we’ll see within the realm of vertical video expands to greater than Tubi’s Scenes function or Netflix’s experiment with short-form feeds on its cellular app.
Video podcasts, or vodcasts, acquire recognition
Who says podcasts are simply on your ears? Video podcasts hit your TV and cellphone screens as steadily as new episodes of community reveals like Chicago Hearth. There’s additionally a time period for them which you can both embrace or hate: vodcasts.
It is probably you have already watched video podcasts on YouTube, Spotify or Wondery, and it is also probably you have scrolled by clips (viral or not) on social media. Some viewers stream episodes utilizing paid subscriptions, and also you’re additionally in all probability watching adverts in trade for catching a free episode. Irrespective of the way you slice it, it is a format that is right here to remain, and as you might have guessed, there are two teams who watch recurrently: millennials and Gen Z-ers.
Throughout its fall 2025 survey, Deloitte discovered 27% of shoppers it surveyed within the US watch vodcasts weekly, and Activate Consulting mentioned 70% of the highest 50 US audio podcasts have a video providing. When you consider your must-see TV reveals, do you embody titles like Crime Junkie AF or Membership Shay Shay? Pointing to elements comparable to parasocial relationships with visitors and vodcast hosts, in addition to the power to include visuals, Deloitte famous that viewers acquire a greater sense of authenticity and relatability — making them extra more likely to return and watch extra.
Already a mainstay on YouTube, vodcasts are spreading to extra screens. In a significant transfer, Netflix is getting within the sport, partnering with iHeartMedia, Barstool Sports activities and Spotify to launch video podcasts on the streaming platform in 2026 for US viewers. When you’re a fan of The Breakfast Membership, The Ringer NFL Present, Conspiracy Theories or The Ryen Russillo Present, you can open the Netflix app to stream these titles and a minimum of two dozen others.
One of many vodcast titles you may see on Netflix subsequent yr.
What does it imply for the way forward for TV?
The Hollywood Reporter has described Vancouver as a microdrama production hotspot, with a bit of little bit of curiosity trickling in from Hollywood. And Netflix just isn’t the one huge streamer moving into the vodcast enviornment, as Prime Video streams new episodes every week of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. Streaming companies and different media corporations proceed to check vertical video codecs in several methods.
Viewers such as you — who watch TV in your telephones — ought to put together for newer, broader types of leisure that embody mini episodes and discuss TV (aka vodcasts). Anticipate a bump in video podcasts entry in your telephones and TVs subsequent yr and past, however do not anticipate anybody attempting to pry conventional weekly medical procedurals and hour-long bingeable episodes out of your palms simply but. Streaming and cable are nonetheless on the menu, however they’re additionally embedded into your cellphone display screen, too.
I requested Katzenstein what all this says about every era’s preferences for content material and the way it’s delivered.
“I believe the extent of entry that youthful generations have and that they’ve been skilled for use to has a giant implication on their want on the place they wish to interact,” she mentioned. “I believe there’s additionally the will round having related content material after I need it, how I would like it — it is one thing I believe youthful generations are simply used to.”
Holding her personal teen kids in thoughts, Katzenstein defined that the thought of getting to attend for entry to theatrical movies, or for one thing to reach on streaming or linear TV — launched based on a giant media supplier’s phrases — is “simply fully totally different for generations which can be rising up seeing people who find themselves related to them.” She added that leisure corporations might be pushed to grasp that and meet the necessity.
