DUANJU  NEWS

Between France and sub-Saharan Africa, the landscape of platforms, fiction, entertainment and streaming is changing. Canal+ is a French subscription group (pay television and app-based services), present in more than 70 countries. It is headed by Maxime Saada and operates within the media ecosystem associated with Vincent Bolloré. The deal, valued at around $3 billion, allows Canal+ to take control of MultiChoice, a South African player that dominates pay television across much of Africa with DStv (premium offering) and GOtv (more accessible offering). MultiChoice owns Showmax, its recently relaunched but loss-making streaming platform. Canal+ has already indicated its intention to review its business model, as Showmax is the natural gateway for converting TV subscribers to app-based viewing. Canal+ is also aiming for significant synergies: around 150 million euros in annual savings from 2026, and more than 400 million euros per year from 2030. The idea is simple: to pool technology, suppliers and part of the costs, in order to invest more effectively in the digital offering. In terms of content, the benefits are twofold. Canal+ brings its powerful production and distribution capabilities for fiction, notably through STUDIOCANAL. MultiChoice contributes a significant volume of African fiction and a local commissioning system, with a streaming platform via Showmax. The agreement can therefore accelerate the circulation of series between Africa and Europe, leveraging an existing subscriber base. “The key issue is distribution,” summarized Gérald-Brice Viret, head of programming and channels at Canal+ France, on January 16, 2026, regarding the battle between channels and platforms. After losing C8’s terrestrial broadcast frequency, which the group deemed “unfair” and “political,” Canal+ is therefore strengthening its international presence and streaming services: a way to rebound in areas where public access is less dependent on a national frequency. Sources: • Reuters – January 29, 2026 • Business Insider Africa – January 29, 2026 • Broadband TV News – January 29, 2026 • CB News – January 29, 2026 • BFM TV – January 29, 2026 • The Media Leader – January 16, 2026

We had already followed this project when it was called StoryTV, at the time when Alexandre Perrin and Adrien Cottinaud presented it as a French initiative dedicated to vertical micro-series. The name has since evolved to StoryShort, an English title for a French application featuring series in French. This reflects a desire to position itself in a global market while avoiding confusion with similar names, particularly in India with the “Story TV” application. During the screening organized by Studio Phocéen in Paris on June 14, 2025 , the two directors explained their method: 9:16 full-screen video, frontal acting, close-ups, micro-episodes, and a dramaturgy designed for mobile attention, with very close cliffhangers. Three months later, the French context was hardening: at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival, the president of the CNC, Gaëtan Bruel, described micro-dramas as "the perfect counter-example." It is in this climate that StoryShort emerged, choosing to move forward despite institutional reluctance. A few months later, the project changed scale. StoryShort is no longer a platform in development or a simple distribution concept: it is an application distributed on stores, driven by the idea that duanju is no longer just imported or commented on in France, but that it can now be produced, organized and marketed locally. In terms of form, StoryShort takes up the fundamentals of the duanju language: full screen vertical, very short episodes, accelerated narration, editing designed to hook immediately, and seriality structured by the permanent rebound. The featured catalog clearly prioritizes readability, with titles that offer archetypes and immediate promise, typical of vertical dramas: forbidden love, power figures, secrets, and status reversals. The strategy is clear: to produce simple, immediately understandable narrative triggers that allow the viewer to become engaged within seconds and continue watching. The mobile version of a soap opera, and the idea of a format that breathes new life into television From a French perspective, this style evokes established television series such as: Au nom de la vérité , Mon histoire vraie , Si près de chez vous , Face au doute , Le jour où tout a basculé , and their spin-offs like Petits secrets entre voisins . The same logic of short stories focused on intimacy, the same domestic situations, the same ordinary secrets that escalate into dramas, the same efficient production and storytelling designed for repetition and seamless transitions. The difference is that the writing speed acts like a dusting off. The DNA of the popular series is retained, but compressed, made more dynamic, more compatible with fragmented attention spans, and more directly monetizable in an app-based environment. In other words, it's not just a new medium: it's a way to modernize a familiar television language by making it natively smartphone-ready. This is precisely where StoryShort's future could be of interest to producers and media outlets already familiar with this type of storytelling. Companies that create narratives based on clear stakes, immediate hooks, rapid plot twists, and narrative performance could see this type of application as a complementary outlet or a testing ground. If StoryShort manages to establish a regular publication schedule and sustainable consumption, it could become, in the medium term, an attractive platform for French players looking to rejuvenate their formats, test new uses and capture a mobile audience without abandoning popular fiction. Discover the app on Google Play Sources: • Full screen – January 22, 2026 • Business Insider – September 17, 2025

Holywater has just announced a $22 million funding round to accelerate the development of its applications, such as MyDrama, and its content dedicated to the short vertical format: Duanju. A fundraising round is a process where investors buy a stake in a company to finance a growth phase. In practice, there is almost always a lead investor, the one who provides the largest share of the capital and leads the round. They manage the analysis of the business plan, negotiate the terms of entry, and then other investors join the round under the same conditions. In the case of Holywater, Horizon Capital is leading the transaction. The fund indicates it is investing $16 million of a total of $22 million. The remaining $6 million comes from other announced participants, including Endeavor Catalyst and Wheelhouse. Who are the investors mentioned? Horizon Capital is an investment fund that finances growth-stage technology companies. Its role is to provide capital, but also to help structure scaling up: objectives, management, recruitment, and partnerships. In its announcement, Horizon explains that it is supporting Holywater to accelerate the production and development of a suite of applications dedicated to vertical fiction. Endeavor Catalyst is the investment fund linked to Endeavor, an organization known for its international network of entrepreneurs and creative industry professionals. This type of investor often seeks two main benefits: financing and access to a business and entertainment network. Wheelhouse. It's an American company positioned at the intersection of production, talent, and investment, founded by Brent Montgomery. Its "entertainment" profile aligns with the current logic of the sector: produce quickly, industrialize formats, and optimize distribution. Genesis. In Horizon Capital's press release, Genesis is presented as a long-standing supporter of Holywater. Horizon specifies that it has known the team for over ten years through its relationship with Genesis, which positions Holywater within an already established product ecosystem, rather than simply as a recently launched application. What does this change for the public? This funding should translate into a noticeable upgrade: more original series, more serialized storylines, a more recognizable cast, and a more premium production quality while remaining true to the vertical format. The objective is clear: to capture the daily consumption habit on smartphones, with short episodes designed to immediately trigger the next one. Beyond Holywater, the signal is broader. A $22 million funding round confirms that duanju is no longer a marginal format. It is becoming a fully-fledged investment segment, where catalogs, applications, and integrated monetization mechanisms are being financed, with ambitions comparable to those of streaming platforms, but adapted for mobile devices. Sources: • Holywater – January 15, 2026 • Business Wire – January 15, 2026 • Axios – January 15, 2026 • The Hollywood Reporter – January 15, 2026 • Vestbee – January 16, 2026

On the heights of Goudes and Callelongue, in the heart of the calanques of Marseille, facing the island of Maïre, two anachronistic figures reenact the comedy of the Middle Ages. This is Jean-Pierre Castaldi who plays a massive, gruff but kind-hearted knight, accompanied by a squire overflowing with energy played by Jordan De Luxe. Together, filming for the series King Gandolfi , they revive the spirit of the great adventure duos. The scene unfolds against a backdrop of limestone cliffs, dry grasses, and the marine horizon, all bathed in Mediterranean light. By contrast, the interiors of a medieval castle required different shots, which were filmed in a studio using a green screen. In 2016, several media outlets, including Télé Loisirs and Télé 2 Semaines , presented the project under the title Chevaliers Academy, broadcast on several cable channels. Since then, the universe has evolved: the series has been redesigned in the Duanju format under the name King Gandolfi , vertical and tight, designed for phone screens. The story refocuses on the kingdom's sovereign, whose peace is disturbed in a few episodes by this duo of adventurers. Jean-Pierre Castaldi has been a familiar figure in French cinema since the 1970s. A former resident of the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, he has distinguished himself in both theater and screen, from Claude Zidi to Claude Lelouch. He has influenced several generations with his popular roles, notably in the film adaptations of Asterix "Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar" (1999) and "Asterix at the Olympic Games" (2008), where he plays a now-iconic Roman centurion, often featured in trailers and television clips. Jordan De Luxe, now recognized as a TV host and commentator, from Voltage to C8, including W9 alongside Cyril Hanouna, successfully tries his hand here at a different register: fiction and comedy. During a radio appearance on Voltage, the actor with the prolific filmography, Jean-Louis Barcelona, also congratulated his interviewee, Jordan De Luxe, for his performance. A program on a Canal+ channel revived a memory of filming marked by a minor accident: Jordan De Luxe injured his eyebrow after a false swing with his sword, an episode that Jean-Pierre Castaldi recalls with fondness, to the detriment of the person concerned. With the participation of Jean-Pierre Castaldi and Jordan De Luxe, King Gandolfi  gains both depth and personality. The series embraces a taste for parody, fantasy, and popular satire, transposed into the Duanju format. It stands as a direct heir to the serialized comic books of the 1960s. Much like Astérix the Gaul, born in the pages of Pilote  magazine, where each week a “to be continued” kept readers in suspense, Roi Gandolfi follows a fragmented, episodic rhythm. Its creator, Guillaume Sanjorge, openly claims this symbolic connection with the world of Uderzo and Goscinny. He also took part in the Canal+ documentary Astérix on Uderzo’s Couch , dedicated to one of the fathers of the legendary Gaul, extending the legacy of popular storytelling reimagined for the vertical screen. Watch the full series on Duanju Kids .

A familiar figure to 1980s TV viewers, Michel La Rosa made his mark as a host before turning to fiction. His unique journey resonates today with the revival of a series he proudly leads. Michel La Rosa established himself on television thanks to his ability to unite audiences and highlight prominent guests. His memorable interviews, now preserved at the National Audiovisual Institute (INA), demonstrate the diversity of the personalities he hosted: Jean Rafa, Isabelle Aubret, Odette Joyeux, Jacques Demy, and Darry Cowl. He then went on to popular programs: Tremplin on FR3 Méditerranée (1985-1987), then in 1990 on Antenne 2 with Matin Bonheur, Été Show, Villa de star and Ça va tanguer. A trajectory marked by success, abruptly interrupted in 1990, when he left television at the request of President François Mitterrand, at the time of the announcement of France's entry into the Gulf War. This decision pushed him to reinvent himself, cultivating a fresh perspective on creation and sincerity in his profession. The fame he acquired quickly opened up new horizons for him: he returned to the microphone on France Inter, then returned to TF1 as host of Shopping Avenue Matin and Télévitrine (1998-2013). Michel La Rosa joins the " King Gandolfi " series Under its former name, Draculi & Gandolfi, the series made its mark on cable and regional TV channels in the 2010s with its quirky tone and deep roots in medieval heritage. Regional and national press, from Var-Matin and Sud-Ouest to La Provence and including Télé-Loisirs and Premiere, extensively covered its spectacular film shoots. These productions were notable for their costumes, casting, and the large number of extras, particularly in Marseille, Les Goudes, the Frioul islands, the Gaou peninsula, the Château de Tarascon, and various other historical monuments in the south of France. In 2020 on Radio Maritima, Michel La Rosa talked about the series on the occasion of screenings in the South of France. The same year with Benjy Doti, Michel La Rosa discussed the success of the series on social media. June 14, 2025 Screening Michel La Rosa is participating in a screening organized by the Studio Phocéen association on June 14, 2025, in Paris. On this occasion, he spoke about his meeting with Guillaume Sanjorge, the director of the series King Gandolfi which was shown that evening. Their meeting was not a recent one, dating back about fifteen years, thanks to Frédéric Perrin, the director of the Le Prado cinema in Marseille. Michel La Rosa recalled being struck by the young director's passion and conviction: "This young man spoke to me with an obvious passion, with a desire, and I sensed talent." Convinced, he agreed to play King Gandolfi, the central character of the series' medieval universe. Discover Michel La Rosa's speech from the June 14 screening: Roi Gandolfi, a Saga Reborn Today, the story is being reborn under the title "King Gandolfi," adapted for current technology and the Duanju format: vertical, short, and fast-paced episodes designed to be watched on a phone. More than just a simple comeback, this project embodies the dialogue between television history and digital innovation, driven by the commitment of an actor, Michel La Rosa, who has successfully spanned the eras. Source : VarMatin , Auguste 26, 2020 Southwest , September 10, 2019 All Culture , April 28, 2016 Télé Loisir , Télé 2 Week on February 17, 2016 Provence , July 3, 2012 Premiere , August 20, 2010

During his opening speech at the 2025 La Rochelle Fiction Festival, Gaëtan Bruel, president of the French National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), addressed the phenomenon of micro-dramas, better known in China as duanju. Rather than seeing it as the emergence of a new audiovisual language, he described it as “the perfect counterexample” of what a national screen culture should defend. That reaction reveals a deeper confusion between a format and the commercial content that happened to accompany its first wave of international circulation. Judging a format by the earliest titles to travel is like judging cinema as a whole by its blockbusters. Fear of change rather than a real debate Duanju is neither an economic model nor a fixed aesthetic movement. It is a format, just like the short film, the series, or the feature. Ignoring it or dismissing it will not prevent it from becoming a social phenomenon. This kind of rejection says a lot about an industry that struggles to face the shifts in attention, viewing habits, and distribution. Months earlier, Gaëtan Bruel had already spoken about the format in a fatalistic tone, referring to a “prescriptive effect coming from Asia” without imagining a creative response. Instead of pitting models against each other, the better question is a creative one: how can duanju become a new showcase for storytelling, for authors, and for ideas across languages and markets? Here, we choose to shed light on, analyze, and highlight the artistic forms emerging around this format, rather than stoking fears or discouraging the people who want to engage with it. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge #Duanjuphobia Sources : • CNC , September 19, 2025

In a landscape where smartphones already dictate the pace of consumption, Nigeria appears as a natural candidate to bring duanju to Africa. However, Lagos-based project manager and producer Ajibola Olayiwola cautions that enthusiasm alone is not enough: without a method, the format will remain just a promise. Nigeria, a critical mass to transform. For Olayiwola, the potential is real, but contingent on industrial development. He states it clearly: “Nigeria can also get on board. I think it’s feasible, but there’s still a lot to be done.” His central point: structuring the entire chain, from scriptwriting to post-production, with investments and planning capable of supporting high production rates. Duanju isn't arriving in a vacuum: attention is already being captured by TikTok, Reels, and continuous vertical video. The difference, therefore, lies in the organization and editorial approach, not just the format. Olayiwola advocates a pan-African approach: "If Nigeria and Africa as a whole can collaborate, put this structure in place, and raise the funds, I think it's feasible." The goal: to pool resources, expertise, and distribution to produce identifiable vertical series that transcend the social media feed. Interview conducted by Blessing Azugama #BlessingAzugama

For a long time, duanju seemed like an anomaly. A vertical stream of very short fictional stories, saturated with close-ups, immediate plot twists, and promises of sequels at the click of a button. A grammar of urgency, designed for the phone, that might have amused streaming professionals. Except that, since the end of 2023, the “anomaly” has started to appear where it hurts: in the download charts, and then in the revenue. Figures that are changing scale The shift is first and foremost quantifiable. Appfigures estimates that 66 short-drama apps generated $146 million in consumer spending in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $1.8 million in the same period a year earlier. This acceleration isn't simply a passing fad, because it's accompanied by a change in status: these apps are no longer simply "copying" TikTok; they're capturing entertainment budgets and purchase intent that video platforms hadn't necessarily converted. ReelShort, often presented as the standard-bearer of this wave in the US market, offered the clearest illustration of it. On November 11, 2023, the app briefly overtook TikTok to become the most popular entertainment app on the US App Store, a rare occurrence in a market where TikTok is usually untouchable in terms of mainstream downloads. References to this event subsequently circulated in several industry analyses, demonstrating that it resonated with observers as a significant market moment. A model that eats up screen time The competition isn't head-to-head on usage, but rather on the scarcest resource: time. Where TikTok wins through variety and endless content, duanju apps win through continuity. Everything is designed to transform curiosity into a series. And above all, acquisition is industrialized. Adjust describes strategies where the share of paid downloads for market leaders (ReelShort, DramaBox, GoodShort) can reach very high levels, a sign of growth driven by media buying and optimized like a traditional mobile product, not like a "social" platform that relies on organic traffic. This is where the comparison with major streamers becomes relevant. Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video compete on catalog size and content budget, but they sell a longer, often more established, ritual. Duanju apps, on the other hand, sell impulse and seamless streaming. They don't necessarily replace a full evening of binge-watching; they replace fragments of the day—the very fragments TikTok has captured. When these fragments become monetizable on a large scale, duanju ceases to be a novelty and becomes a category competitor. The challenge for 2026 is therefore not whether these apps will “hold up” against TikTok or streamers, but how far they can extend their reach: more genres, more locations, and economic models capable of financing more ambitious production without losing the speed that is their strength. On this point, cases like DramaBox or Stardust TV count as much as ReelShort: the story is no longer that of a single application, but of a format that has become an industry. Sources: • The Economist – November 23, 2023 • 36Kr Global – March 3, 2025 • Global Times – November 26, 2023 • Appfigures – 2024 • Adjust – June 4, 2024

As smartphones become the primary screen, part of the audiovisual battle is now being fought on ultra-short formats, consumed in binge-watching, but produced with premium fiction ambitions. It is in this context that Holywater, the Ukrainian company behind the My Drama app, announces a strategic alliance with Elefantec Global, a studio founded by Pepe Bastón, a major figure in the Latin American industry and a specialist in serialized storytelling. A partnership tailored for mass production, Elefantec Global's telenovela expertise is being combined with My Drama's duanju distribution and monetization mechanisms. Based between Los Angeles and Mexico City, Elefantec boasts a "premium" focus and a history of producing content for international platforms. In terms of volume, the stated objective is ambitious: up to 70 vertical series aimed at the Spanish-speaking public in 2025 and 2026. The average production budget mentioned is between $80,000 and $140,000 per series, a level that signals a desire to industrialize without falling into ultra low cost. The conquest strategy: distribution first, catalog second Behind the announcement, the central issue is access to the Spanish-speaking market, conceived as a combination of Spain and Latin America, where mobile consumption is already massive and where serialized dramas are culturally ingrained. Holywater highlights the traction of My Drama and its ecosystem: the company speaks of a global audience of tens of millions of people, with monthly usage metrics for My Drama. The economic rationale is clear: quickly establish a foothold through a stream of localized titles, then convert that distribution into recurring usage. Some sources indicate a Spanish-language market for the video vertical estimated at $2 billion annually, a potential audience of up to 290 million users, and a target of 10 million monthly active users as part of the expansion. Implicitly, this alliance illustrates a broader trend: duanju platforms are now seeking partners with established local industries (in this case, the Latin American telenovela industry) to accelerate production, artistic validation, and distribution. Several industry observers cite this Spanish partnership as one of the key drivers of Holywater and My Drama's international expansion. Sources: • Holywater.tech - September 17, 2025 • dev.ua - September 30, 2025 • The Odessa Journal - October 1, 2025 • Real Reel – November 10, 2025

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