Earlier this year, TVBEurope looked at how microdramas are gaining traction within the industry. In 2025, short form vertical videos generated $11 billion in global revenue, nearly twice that of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, according to figures from analysts Omdia.
While China leads the way in terms of worldwide revenue, the UK is one of the territories where microdramas are finding an audience, with many producers seeing these vertical videos as a way to release content without having to secure film distribution. However one production company has gone a step further and launched its own microdrama app, Tattle TV.
Marina Elderton and Philip McGoldrick met at film school and have since launched their own production company, EMC Productions. The pair, who are also husband and wife, have experience in working on features, branded content, music videos and short-form content. It was while working on their latest feature, Tramp, that they heard about microdramas for the first time.
“We saw they were making waves in China and the United States,” explains Elderton, “and at the same time, we were witnessing all the struggles of our fellow filmmakers in the industry, just things crumbling, and people out of work. We thought, what about vertical video for the UK?”
What makes Elderton and McGoldrick’s move into vertical video different is that, as well as creating content, they’ve launched their own app to distribute it. “We felt like we could really make a difference and draw on our filmmaking expertise, our networks, and provide opportunities for people and ourselves,” adds Elderton. “It’s not just these kinds of archetypal billionaire CEO microdrama stories. We want it to be broader than that.”
Tattle TV, which is currently available in iOS with plans to launch an Android version, focuses on ‘Britishness’. It offers audiences microdramas, reality TV and feature films, and is also testing a user-generated content (UGC) element. “We want to be at the forefront of the British movement into vertical, and we really believe it’s coming this year.”
Creating the app with AI
McGoldrick “impulsively” decided to build Tattle TV himself using Flutter, which employs artificial intelligence to create mobile apps. “The assistance of AI is crucial in today’s world. It’s making coding more accessible,” he explains. “A lot of people are vibe coding, exploring code as a result of AI, and that’s empowering.
“We jumped on the bandwagon and made the app in the space of about six months. Having some sort of ownership over it was important to us in these changing times.”
Once the app was built, the pair needed a name. They came up with Tattle TV together, and say they’re now working to make it a recognisable brand name. One of the positives of working on a direct-to-consumer app compared to their work in films is that they’re able to get feedback almost instantly. “I’m a musician originally, so I was used to being able to put my music out really quickly, build my audience,” explains Elderton. “I wanted to know why there is such a difference between the film model and that music model, which feels so much more immediate. That’s what’s so exciting about what’s happening now, it’s a way for filmmakers to bypass those gatekeepers and find more audiences directly.”
Another way the pair hope Tattle TV stands out is their decision to include user-generated content in order to introduce a “bit of a YouTube element”, enabling anyone making their own microdramas to find a natural home.
“We’ll be able to provide them with an opportunity to upload it to our app, have it immediately spliced into reels, and then the chance to monetise that,” McGoldrick explains. “I think it could be a really nice way for creators to have a different way of monetising, that’s maybe a bit more immediate than YouTube and the streaming giants, where they can get lost. Our app is very much at the beginning stages, but it will hopefully give people that extra opportunity to have their work seen.”
As well as user-generated content, and TV series and films made by their company, EMC Productions, Elderton and McGoldrick are also working on co-productions with other microdrama producers such as Onset Octopus. They want to see how UK audiences respond to the different genres to help build the app’s content going forward. “We have been speaking to companies that have some IP that they may want to repurpose, like more famous domestic shows. Hopefully, we’ll be experimenting with that, because I think it would be quite fun to have some more recognisable series on the app as well,” says Elderton.
Deconcatenating Hitchcock’s first thriller
One example of existing content they have already repurposed is Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Originally released in 1927, the film is now in the public domain in the US (it’s still under copyright in the UK).
McGoldrick used Luma AI to cut the 98-minute feature into short vertical video episodes. The technology places the original film onto a 9:16 canvas and then hallucinates the top and bottom edges. “We then used our in-house AI systems to streamline the process,” he explains. “We have an option to deconcatenate the footage into reels, and then reframe it. Deconcatenating is almost like splicing a film.”
He adds that prompting Luma AI to cut the film can get “quite specific” and that whoever is tasked with the job needs to understand how to use the technology. “There’s a lot of trial and error with it.
“We’ll also have a visual effects person look at the nodes. Some of the AI platforms have node-based systems. By linking prompts and nodes, you have to figure out how to actually get the reframe and how to export. So it’s quite a specialist job. That’s why we believe there is work available, there’s an option for people to retrain. There are definitely still opportunities in editing and prompting.”
“We definitely still see a role for humans,” agrees Elderton. “We’ve seen solely AI-produced work in microdrama format, and it’s impressive, but it’s still quite stilted. There’s something off in the characterisation, and it feels harder to connect to.”
While they see a use for AI in content creation, the pair are keen to stress that they’re also using traditional workflows to film their shows. Dog Dates, a reality TV series available on Tattle TV, is about humans (and their canine friends) and made by humans. “There’s a camera person, a director, there are subjects with their dogs,” says McGoldrick. “We are leveraging AI, but we are also focused on human-centric stories that are made by real people, so that we have both worlds working together.”
Following the official launch of Tattle TV in January, Elderton and McGoldrick are now focusing on their next steps, with plans to scale quickly. “Ideally, we want it to be the first port of call for UK and international audiences for high-quality British vertical entertainment,” says Elderton. “We want to broaden the space. We want to shift things. We don’t just want to repeat what’s being done on other apps. We see ourselves as the next chapter of change in this cultural movement.”
McGoldrick agrees, adding that traditional broadcast media models are no longer working and many are being left behind. “My message would be, let’s move forward together as an industry and be at the forefront of this, as opposed to just always catching up, which is what the UK seems to always do.”
This article originally appeared in the April 2026 issue of TVBEurope, available to download here.
