Duanju in Portugal: RTP and SPi launch 5 vertical series

Duanju continues to gain traction in Europe, and Portugal is now launching its own industrial project. At the end of October 2025, RTP, the Portuguese public broadcasting group, announced a partnership with SPi, a local production company, to launch what is being presented as Portugal's first vertical micro-drama project.

Production: a clear package, an identified team

The project is structured as a series: five series, 20 episodes per series, approximately 1 minute 30 seconds per episode, promising a variety of genres ranging from thriller to comedy. The original idea is attributed to Pedro Lopes, and the writing is entrusted to three screenwriters: Inês Gomes, Susana Romano, and Marina Ribeiro. The production team is also named: Manuel Amaro da Costa is listed as the project coordinator.

Schedule: Filming announced over two months, start date confirmed

Filming is scheduled to take place between December 2025 and January 2026. In early December, SPi confirmed the move to the studio phase, indicating that they had started filming the first of the five micro-dramas.

Distribution: social media first, then the platform

The distribution plan is explicitly mobile and social oriented: TikTok and Instagram are cited as distribution channels, with RTP Play, the RTP group's streaming and replay platform, as a third access point.

On the editorial side, RTP1 speaks through its director José Fragoso, who presents the operation as a fiction project designed for vertical digital distribution, which signals a “platforms” logic rather than a simple marketing supplement around a classic TV series.

Against this backdrop, international pressure is mounting: according to Sensor Tower, cumulative downloads of short drama apps are approaching 950 million by the end of March 2025, an order of magnitude that explains why public broadcasters are now testing native network formats in professional production.

Sources

• SPi , 30/10/2025

• SPi , 10/12/2025

• SATURDAY , 04/01/2026

• Sensor Tower , July 2025

• ECO , 04/11/2025