It seems like each different week we’re getting hit with information in regards to the leisure business that impacts us as TV watchers. There are price hikes. There are company mergers. Reside 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 dwell occasions just like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We watch loads at dwelling, and we watch extra on our telephones — whether or not we’re on the go or staying put at dwelling.
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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 may very well be the subsequent ‘it’ style
Deloitte printed 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 12 months, media analysis specialists 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 essential approach of watching TV — by way of 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 turn out to be the subsequent huge wave.
Popularized in China, microseries — and their subgroup, microdramas — are brief, bite-sized TV reveals and movies designed for telephone viewing, usually 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.
Sometimes, 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 take 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 through the use of what these firms have already got.
Once I spoke with Wenny Katzenstein, a managing director at Deloitte, she famous that media giants could discover a gap to seize viewers’ eyeballs by “utilizing them to really drive again to IP that already exists.” It is a method 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 firms.
Eric Schrier, president of Disney’s tv studios, recently told Variety that he hopes to carry microstorytelling to the platform quickly by way of vertical video, however there are not any agency plans on when. For now, the main target is on methods to carry 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 not less than 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 characteristic or Netflix’s experiment with short-form feeds on its cell app.
Video podcasts, or vodcasts, achieve recognition
Who says podcasts are simply in your ears? Video podcasts hit your TV and telephone screens as continuously as new episodes of community reveals like Chicago Fireplace. There’s additionally a time period for them which you can both embrace or hate: vodcasts.
It is probably you’ve got already watched video podcasts on YouTube, Spotify or Wondery, and it is also probably you’ve got 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 advertisements 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 realized 27% of customers it surveyed within the US watch vodcasts weekly, and Activate Consulting stated 70% of the highest 50 US audio podcasts have a video providing. When you consider your must-see TV reveals, do you embrace titles like Crime Junkie AF or Membership Shay Shay? Pointing to elements comparable to parasocial relationships with company and vodcast hosts, in addition to the flexibility to include visuals, Deloitte famous that viewers achieve 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 recreation, partnering with iHeartMedia, Barstool Sports activities and Spotify to launch video podcasts on the streaming platform in 2026 for US viewers. In the event 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 not less than two dozen others.
One of many vodcast titles you will see on Netflix subsequent 12 months.
What does it imply for the way forward for TV?
The Hollywood Reporter has described Vancouver as a microdrama production hotspot, with a little bit little bit of curiosity trickling in from Hollywood. And Netflix shouldn’t be the one huge streamer entering 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 firms 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 embrace mini episodes and speak TV (aka vodcasts). Anticipate a bump in video podcasts entry in your telephones and TVs subsequent 12 months and past, however do not anticipate anybody making an attempt 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 telephone 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 feel the extent of entry that youthful generations have and that they’ve been educated for use to has a giant implication on their need on the place they wish to have interaction,” she stated. “I feel there’s additionally the need round having related content material once I need it, how I need it — it is one thing I feel youthful generations are simply used to.”
Protecting her personal teen youngsters in thoughts, Katzenstein defined that the concept 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 utterly totally different for generations which can be rising up seeing people who find themselves related to them.” She added that leisure firms will probably be pushed to know that and meet the necessity.
