Fox invests in Holywater: embracing the Duanju format

When a legacy studio like FOX Entertainment turns its gaze toward a startup built on 9:16 storytelling, it’s a sign of how far vertical drama has come and how fast it’s growing. This week, FOX Entertainment announced that it has taken an equity stake in Holywater, a Ukrainian-born vertical video platform that’s rapidly becoming a creative hub for microdramas, AI-enhanced storytelling, and bite-sized emotional worlds. The deal marks more than a financial investment, it’s a creative alliance. FOX will produce over 200 vertical titles for Holywater’s flagship app My Drama over the next two years, joining forces across original series production, ad sales, and brand partnerships. In the words of FOX Entertainment CEO Rob Wade, the move represents a deliberate step toward “building a modern studio for the future.” And the future, it seems, is vertical.

Rewriting the Frame: From TV Screens to Phones

For decades, FOX has been synonymous with primetime television hits, Empire, Glee, 9-1-1, and more. But the next chapter unfolds on a very different canvas: the smartphone screen. The partnership with Holywater isn’t just about scaling digital IP; it’s about adapting Hollywood-grade storytelling for the fast-scrolling, emotionally charged world of microdramas series that run anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes per episode. Unlike traditional short films, vertical dramas rely on tight pacing, expressive close-ups, and emotionally resonant sound cues that pull viewers in within seconds. The form thrives on intensity and immediacy and Holywater has mastered that rhythm. Founded in 2020, Holywater already boasts over 55 million users and a family of platforms, including My Drama, its main vertical streaming hub, FreeBits, an ad-supported vertical app, My Passion, a digital publishing platform for independent books, and My Muse, a space where creators produce content supported by generative AI. Together, these ecosystems reflect Holywater’s mission to merge technology with imagination, what co-founders Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov call “the art of AI-driven creativity.”

FOX’s Studio-Grade Ambition

FOX’s entry into the vertical video space is not just reactive it’s strategic. The company plans to develop its own slate of microdramas, beginning with Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession, both already in production in Atlanta. These titles will likely set the tone for what “studio-grade verticals” can look like, polished cinematography, recognisable talent, and writing that compresses emotional arcs into high-impact beats. The partnership also integrates FOX’s massive IP portfolio, spanning Studio Ramsay Global, Bento Box Entertainment, and the network’s scripted and unscripted divisions. That opens the door to vertical spin-offs of existing FOX properties, from crime thrillers to reality formats, condensed into the mobile-first style that’s dominating attention spans globally. For Wade, the deal is about flexibility and speed. “Innovation in digital storytelling is shaping the future of entertainment,” he said. “Holywater is at the forefront of this evolution, skillfully using technology to fuel creativity. This partnership is all about finding different, innovative ways to tell stories and inspire creators.”

Holywater’s Vertical Revolution

In a market where short-form video is often dismissed as disposable content, Holywater has pushed for narrative depth. Their flagship app My Drama features addictive vertical series like The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Pregnant Cinderella titles that combine the melodrama of soap operas with the visual intimacy of TikTok storytelling. But behind the click-worthy titles lies a serious mission: to prove that vertical storytelling can carry real emotional weight. Holywater’s founders say the collaboration with FOX will help “raise the bar on quality and widen the genre slate,” blending high production value with the immediacy of mobile engagement. “We’ve been focusing on storytelling depth to prove that verticals can carry premium drama, thriller, romance and more not just a narrow set of tropes,” said Nesvit and Kasianov. “Our partnership with FOX validates that vision and gives us the scale and creative firepower to accelerate it.”

A Market in Motion

The move comes as the global vertical video industry valued at nearly $8 billion enters a new growth phase. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Kuaishou have already trained billions of users to consume vertical content daily. But what Holywater and FOX are betting on is not just engagement it’s longevity. They’re imagining a new entertainment ecosystem where a five-minute vertical series can achieve the same emotional and commercial impact as a 45-minute TV episode. It’s a future where storytelling becomes platform-fluid: a show might begin as a vertical teaser on My Drama, expand into a short series on Hulu, and spin off into a feature-length adaptation all within the same narrative universe.

Bridging Creativity, Technology, and Distribution

FOX brings Hollywood infrastructure experienced showrunners, talent rosters, and international distribution muscle. Holywater brings the tech, the data, and the audience. Together, they’re not just producing content; they’re redefining what “premium short-form” means. For creators, it could open a new pipeline: studio-backed projects that still retain the freedom, intimacy, and experimentation that made vertical dramas so viral in the first place. The partnership also reinforces a growing global trend where traditional studios look East and into emerging creative markets (like Ukraine and China) to tap into faster storytelling models, mobile-first strategies, and new formats for monetization.

A New Frontier for Storytellers

For storytellers, this moment is both a challenge and an invitation. The screen is shrinking but the possibilities are expanding. As FOX and Holywater prepare to roll out their first wave of productions, all eyes will be on how they balance cinematic craft with mobile-native energy. The real test will be whether studio-grade vertical dramas can sustain the emotional depth audiences expect and still thrive within the algorithmic heartbeat of digital platforms. Either way, the vertical revolution has found its most powerful ally yet.

Article written by Blessing Azugama

#BlessingAzugama

Source :

• The Wrap, October 9 2025

• Deadline, October 9 2025

• Variety, October 9 2025

• Hollywood Reporter, October 9 2025

• C21 Media, October 9 2025

• World Screen, October 9 2025