Canada’s CBC Joins Global Microdrama Boom

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which launched itself in television in 1952, has found its next media frontier: vertical dramas.

The taxpayer-funded broadcaster and streamer has hired a new head of digital originals, Ariel Yang, and her commissioning duties include taking pitches from local producers for homegrown microdramas. The exec will build out a slate of short form digital series under Trish Williams, executive director of scripted content.

The CBC is already home to homegrown comedies like Schitt’s Creek and North of North, and dramas like Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland, many of which also stream on its CBC Gem platform. And while Yang will be at work on short-form content under 15 minutes for Gem and aimed at adult audiences, a CBC spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter, “there is room to consider vertical/micro dramas, as well, should the right ones come along.”

Yang earlier worked at Letterkenny producer New Metric Media as a creative producer. Her credits include Rent A Plus-One, a Canadian 57-episode microdrama for iQIYI International about a Chinese international student studying at an Ivy League university and working as a “rental girlfriend” to pay off student loans, and the digital series Gay Mean Girls for KindaTV, a YouTube channel run by Shaftesbury Films.

Canadian producers are already busily shooting short mini-series with bite-sized content in 60-90 second shots in Toronto, Vancouver and production hubs elsewhere across the country. Each is strategically written with a hook, a spike and a cliff hanger to get viewers onto the next episode. And ample local talent and generous film tax credits are available to ultrashort producers as Canada joins the microdrama gold rush.

Canadians already view the bite-sized soaps on social media and microdrama apps like ReelShort, Dramawave and ShortMax. So CBC is looking to get its own upside from phone-based dramas as it increasingly competes against YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and other rival U.S.-based digital platforms for eyeballs.

And YouTube has nabbed the largest ad-supported reach in Canada of streaming platforms on offer. That dominance in the Canadian TV market follows a splintering of the traditional cable bundle, allowing domestic TV viewers to increasingly pay for streaming content they covet, and with ads to lower subscription costs.