Vertical drama is becoming a significant topic in Australia’s mainstream screen industry. The Cairns Crocodiles are set to host a specialized microdrama panel at the annual APAC creativity festival, which will bring together platform executives, broadcasters, and content creators.
Tim Oh, the general manager of the leading microdrama company COL Group International, will participate in the Queensland event. He will join Nikyah Hutchings, executive producer of commercial and partnerships at NITV, in a session titled “The Maestros of Microdramas.” The panel aims to explore how microdramas are transforming storytelling practices, brand integration, and creative possibilities in the region.
“Australia has been quietly outperforming every other market on [microdrama platform] FlareFlow for some time now, in revenue per user, in audience depth, and in how quickly new users convert,” said Oh. “To give you a sense of the scale, Australia’s new user payment rate is close to 20%, more than double what we see in most other developed markets.”
“Vertical is not coming to Australia,” Oh continued. “It is already here, and it is working better here than almost anywhere else in the world. The question now is how we build on that together.”
Nikyah Hutchings, who recently won the Grand Prix at the B&T 30 Under 30 awards after excelling in the media sales and account management category, also oversees NITV’s commercial content and contributes to SBS’s “Australia Explained” series. “Microdramas are changing how culture shows up on our phones and is this exciting meeting point of culture, tech and money,” she remarked. “I’m looking forward to sitting down with Tim Oh in Cairns about how vertical storytelling can open up new opportunities and make space for more voices, and what they really mean for creators, broadcasters and brands.”
In Australian industry circles, the format is often viewed more as a mobile or platform phenomenon rather than a storytelling one. “Disruption is happening and the future is not yet written,” commented Catherine de Clare, co-curator of the film and screen track at Cairns Crocodiles. “We want creatives and business leaders to start thinking about what opportunities are out there and what kind of world we want to build.”
The panel will further discuss the potential for brands to move into microdrama, with some analysts predicting the format could achieve box office parity with Hollywood releases this year. Cairns Crocodiles, which serves as a hub between Australian and Asian media markets, has grown in recent years as a venue for cross-regional deal-making and format development.
