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Turkish content distributor Inter Medya is expanding its business to include the production and distribution of vertical dramas. This move targets the growing mobile-first audience. The company has begun production on its first original vertical series and will also acquire third-party projects to build its catalog. The initiative is led by Inter Medya’s President, Hasret Özcan.

The primary advantage for Inter Medya is capturing a new revenue stream from the high-growth mobile-first audience. This move diversifies their content portfolio beyond traditional formats. The company is entering a competitive but growing market. Similar moves have been made by India’s Balaji Telefilms (with its Kutingg app) and China’s tech giants (like ByteDance’s ReelShort). While the move into vertical content is not unique, Inter Medya’s established distribution network gives it an edge in supplying this content.

Inter Medya’s move adds a high-volume, rapid-turnaround production layer to its traditional business, a strategy to defend its market in a global micro-drama space that surpassed China’s box office in 2024 and is forecast to hit $26 billion by 2030. This shift forces the company to master a “factory-like” production model, mirroring moves by other major incumbents like India’s Balaji Telefilms, which just launched its Kutingg vertical content app and forged a key co-production partnership with Eloelo’s Story TV (a platform targeting 1 crore+ users). This strategy aligns with the actions of major tech players like Tencent and iQiyi, which are similarly building their own short-drama slates to compete with ByteDance‘s globally successful ReelShort app. The primary impact is the creation of a scalable content pipeline built for “freemium” or pay-per-episode “coinwall” monetization, leveraging AI-driven localization to scale globally.

This move positions Inter Medya as a premium B2B supplier with a dual-track strategy. First, they are not competing with D2C platforms like ReelShort or Story TV; they are positioned to be a premium supplier to them. Their brand, production quality, and sales team give them an advantage in striking B2B content-supply deals with these new apps, which all need a constant, high-quality content pipeline. Concurrently, Inter Medya can use its established network to upsell this vertical content as a new category to its traditional clients. Broadcasters and SVOD services can use this content on their own digital platforms—apps, websites, and social media feeds—to engage a younger audience, without needing to adopt the “coinwall” model.