For the first time, the Report on National Audiovisual Production by APA (Audiovisual Producers Association) includes a focus on microdramas, curated by OpenEconomics. Microdramas are the new frontier of vertical-format entertainment, watched on smartphones. The advertising market is changing and reflects new audience trends. In the United States, the leading destination for time spent in front of the TV in July 2025 was YouTube, with 13.4% of viewing time. Italy has no comparable public data, but advertising points in the same direction: in 2025, online platforms in Italy collected €7.37 billion, against €4.30 billion for traditional media.
Measuring a new format and tracking where audiovisual resources are moving
The aim is to describe the growth of vertical scripted series, worldwide and in Italy, to understand how their business model is changing, and to assess what this means for the resources that fund Italian production. The starting point is the shift of audience attention towards smartphones and platforms. It comes in a year in which, according to estimates by eMedia included in the same Report, investment in the production of original Italian titles fell from €2,166 million to €2,005 million (down 7.4%), the first decline since 2018.
Consumption, advertising and regulation read together, with direct observation of the Italian market
OpenEconomics brought together three sets of data that are usually analysed separately. For advertising, it processed data for 2021–2025 from the Osservatorio sulle comunicazioni (Communications Monitor) published by AGCOM, the Italian communications regulator (Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni). For the regulatory framework, it compared the obligations of broadcasters and on-demand services to invest in Italian works with those of video-sharing platforms. For the format itself, it gathered international data on consumption, spending and downloads from Nielsen, Omdia, Sensor Tower and the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA). As Italy has no public measurement of viewing time, it also directly recorded app store rankings in the Entertainment category on 29 September and 2 October.
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Advertising is going to platforms, and Italians already pay for microdramas
In 2025, online platforms in Italy collected €7.37 billion in advertising, 1.7 times the €4.30 billion taken by TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, which has stayed flat since 2021. Broadcasters and on-demand services must reinvest between 6.25% and 11.2% of their revenue in Italian works. YouTube, TikTok and other platforms have no such obligations, so a growing share of revenue escapes the mechanism that funds national production.
Microdramas are the format in which this shift is most visible. In the United States, active ReelShort users spend 35.7 minutes a day on the app, more than users of Prime Video (26.9) or Netflix (24.8). This measures intensity of use, not reach: ReelShort has 1.1 million monthly active users on smartphones, against around 12 million for Netflix.
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Spending on apps
Worldwide, spending on microdrama apps reached US$2.98 billion in 2025 (up 115%). In the first quarter of 2026, downloads grew by 140% and spending by only 20%. This means that free, ad-supported viewing now prevails over paying to unlock episodes. The next step is to answer one question: will the supply of advertising space grow faster than advertisers’ demand?
In Italy, 13 of the top 30 entertainment apps by revenue in the app stores are microdrama apps, in both surveys and on both Google Play and the App Store. These are snapshots, not a market estimate, but they show that spending on the format already exists.
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An integrated reading of consumption, market and regulation
- Integrated view: audience time, advertising revenue and regulatory obligations read together, to understand how much of the revenue a format generates returns to production;
- Original data: a direct survey of app store rankings, to observe a market for which Italy lacks public data;
- Evidence for decision-making: indicators that help producers and policymakers track the share of resources growing outside the scope of reinvestment obligations.
Microdramas are the format in which the shift is clearest: attention and revenue are growing on platforms with no obligation to fund national production. The study does not propose solutions, but it shows where to look. One piece of data is still missing to measure the scale of this shift in Italy: public measurement of viewing time, currently available only in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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