Vurt bets vertical microdramas belong on TVs — free with ads, 675k users (interview)

Vurt streams soapy vertical microdramas for free across phone and TV apps, paying for content through ad partnerships.

That vertical microdramas are their own genre whose next stage is the living-room TV — watched free with ads on big screens, not bought with coins on phones.

Vurt launched in March 2026 as a mobile vertical-microdrama app and had 10,000 users when the TV push began. It licenses shows from studios and creators at a 50/50 revenue split, and approved indie submissions can go live within days; cofounder and angel investor Hilmon Sorey made fair-to-creators terms a stated corporate tenet.

After users asked to watch Vurt's verticals on bigger screens, the team built casting first, then decided dedicated apps could use the TVs' hardware for HD/4K video and high-quality audio. The Apple TV and Android TV apps now carry 3,500 episodes across more than 100 shows; Sorey says engagement time keeps rising among TV-app viewers (self-reported in the interview).

Every major streaming service is racing to cram vertical video onto phones; Vurt is betting the genre's next home is the TV nobody is serving.

Free, ad-supported and human-made positions Vurt against pay-per-coin rivals whose catalogs are filling with AI-generated shows.

Growth from 10,000 to 675,000 users in about seven months (self-reported) suggests the free model is finding an audience.

Sorey says TV-app viewers show rising engagement time because they no longer have to pick up their phones.

When a format is native to phones, differentiation can come from the screen everyone else ignores: take the genre to the living room and monetize attention with ads, not microtransactions.

As of 2026-10-11 Vurt's Apple TV and Android TV apps are live with 3,500 episodes across 100+ shows, the user base is 675,000 (self-reported in the interview), and the company is developing original series and livestreamed sporting events while staying vertical-only. Rivals are following the big screen: Instagram added Reels and Stories to its TV app in June 2026.