Susan Rovner’s MicroCo Bets on ‘Joy Scrolling’ and the High-Speed Microdrama Production Pace

Former NBCU content chief Susan Rovner is now in the business of “joy scrolling” with her microdramas venture, MicroCo (as opposed to doom scrolling, of course). 

The executive revealed that since audiences are already addicted to scrolling on their devices, they might as well be consuming scripted content that gives an escape rather than real-world content that makes them wallow. 

The yet-to-be-released platform MicroCo was founded by Hollywood executives Rovner, Jana Winograde, Cineverse and Lloyd Braun’s venture firm Banyan. Though it comes from creatives from traditional entertainment unlike some other apps, Rovner insisted the app is not attempting to reinvent the wheel. 

“I personally feel like there’s a lack of respect sometimes for the audience of these and you hear things like they’re cheesy,” she said in March. “That bothers me to no end. There is a really big fandom here that needs to be respected, and that should be respected.”

Rovner, chief creative officer of MicroCo, was joined on the Warner Bros. lot by Matthew Ko, CEO of Knockout Shorts; Silas Wang, head of talent and brand partnerships at DramaBox; and Vivian Anan Wang, head of content at Crisp Momentum, for a Hollywood Radio and Television Society panel last month. Fox Entertainment Studios’ Sara Chiang-Pistono moderated the conversation.

Rovner clarified that, while her venture hopes to elevate the content by expanding genres and reach, MicroCo’s budgets are low in order to compete with leading platforms like ReelShort, GoodShort and MyDrama. It’s her plan to appeal to the dedicated fanbase rabidly consuming this content. 

“Traditional media stopped making soap operas and stopped making mid-range romances. It wasn’t cost-effective,” Rovner explained. “And just because you stop making it doesn’t mean that people don’t want it. I think the microdrama space came in and saw that there are people who were desperate for this content, and it wasn’t being offered to them.”

Screenwriter Vivian Anan Wang told the audience that seeing her scripts go from page to a phone screen in a couple of months is thrilling in an industry that has seen mass consolidation. 

“Every single script I write is in production in months, and you see it on screen,” she said. “That cured the depression every screenwriter is suffering from.”

While the microdramas space has grown significantly in the U.S. with more Hollywood interest still to come, Silas Wang of DramaBox told the panel that the domestic production is still “Verticals 1.0” compared to China. 

“The verticals in China are Vertical 3.0,” he noted. “It really started in similar forms, but in the past few years, it is really growing with the audience. A lot of the verticals in China are very cinematic, so I think that’s where we’re hoping to see.”

Matthew Ko has launched his own microdramas studio, which he says focuses more on elevated storytelling compared to the romantic, soapy tropes prevalent in the microdramas industry today. He clarified that Knockout Shorts will create less output than its competitors but at a higher quality, giving writers and producers “more cushion.” 

“We are respecting the audience and giving them the tropes in the format of what they’re used to,” Ko said. “But making some slight variations to bring in creators and influencers and people who are very interested in the space that want to play in it, but might not want to do the traditional buzzy romance.”

The company has also teased that its early projects will feature an Academy Award nominee, making his microdrama debut. “We’re about to go to market with that one – hopefully the people next to me like it,” he further joked. 

With many platforms producing nearly 30 productions a month, DramaBox’s head of talent and brand partnerships said that the most fulfilling part of his job is allowing aspiring actors to make their living performing. 

“I talk to a lot of actors. Many of them have told me for the first time in their life they’re able to work as an actor without waiting tables and bartending,” Silas Wang shared. “People come here to [Los Angeles] chasing dreams and then they’re stuck waiting tables, and it’s such a beautiful thing that they’re able to live different lives through these characters.”

“With the consolidation obviously that is happening right now in traditional Hollywood, the barrier to entry is enormous,” Rovner added. “The amount of jobs that are being cut every day, the less television shows that are being made, the less features that are being made, there’s less work, and I think the microdrama space has taken down those barriers.”

When asked what is on the horizon for these verticals, Crisp Momentum’s head of content said that she thinks the next step is a free, ad-supported model (microdramas have been largely successful from the coin-based subscription model used by all of the major platforms thus far). 

Viewers can watch the first eight to 10 episodes of any series for free before paying a hefty fee per segment. Wang teased that there will be a stark difference in the shows that are free to watch and those you have to pay for, basing her prediction off of the Chinese market. 

“Another change that I hope can take place here is shows that really speak to the public sentiment,” she said. “That’s how verticals took off in China, because it’s really tapping into the fear, the anxiety, the things people worry about every day, and I think that that needs to happen here.”

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