Cynopsis 10/12/2026: Microdrama Apps Are Licensing Real TV Shows Now

TV keeps growing – and also getting tinier at the same time. Snips is repurposing popular TV shows into snackable short-form videos as vertical video consumption on mobile is on the rise.

• On the slate of shows coming to Snips: “The Beautiful Lie,” starring Sarah Snook (“Succession”); “Two Weeks to Live,” featuring Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) and Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”); and “Gunpowder,” starring Kit Harington (“Industry”).
• Unlike many other vertical video platforms, Snips licenses show rights from media owners and offers them a performance-based revenue-share model, effectively incentivizing actors to promote the app to their fans. Snips trims each long-form piece of content down into a series of abridged clips, each no longer than two minutes.
• The Takeaway: Media companies have become more willing to license their prized shows in distribution deals to each other. Nowadays, that interest is spilling over into the sea of short-form video companies as networks compete to squeeze as much incremental revenue as possible from their existing content libraries. 

On the other side, the independent-creator-to-studio-talent pipeline is hotter than ever. But how is Hollywood handling IP in those deals?

• Some media companies only license existing content from established creators, as Netflix has been doing with many of its video and podcast deals. For original content, however, many studios will develop work-for-hire deals or split revenue models.
• Still others are investing much more money in fostering emerging talent via studio space, production teams and even acting lessons, so they typically demand more from their partners as a result. Home Game Studios CEO Adam Wescott told Digiday he worries this strategy will end up producing “really bad creator-driven features from the studio side” as legacy producers chase the success of movies like “Backrooms” or “Obsession.”  

Netflix may be planning to cut 5% of its workforce, or roughly 850 jobs, as early as this week. Puck reports that the layoffs are related to a period of relatively slow engagement growth for the company.

• The news follows Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos publicly acknowledging earlier this month that the company is not growing as quickly as executives would like.
• The streamer hasn’t gone through a massive public layoff round at this scale since 2022, but other networks certainly have. Disney has gone through three rounds since new CEO Josh D’Amaro took over, including one at the end of September that axed more than 300 jobs. Meanwhile, Skydance is about to lose employees as it merges Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s workforces – on top of the 2,000 employees Paramount lost while merging with Skydance last year, of course.
• Netflix also just lost Greg Lombardo, who served as its head of live experiences (such as Netflix House and the upcoming “K-Pop Demon Hunters” world tour) for seven years.

UK network Channel 5 isn’t doing too hot, either. The Skydance-owned television channel lost $32 million in profits last year, according to its annual financial report. Part of the issue stems from a slump in the UK’s advertising market, as well as new investments in streaming infrastructure.

For sneak peeks, check out Cynopsis Trailer Park.

“Bloodaxe,” the upcoming Viking drama from “Vikings” creator Michael Hirst, premiered its first trailer at New York Comic-Con last week. All eight episodes of the series will drop on Prime Video Jan. 20.

Acorn TV: “This Is Not a Murder Mystery”
Bravo: “Below Deck” Season 13 at 8 p.m.
Discovery: “Contraband: Seized at the Border” Season 9 at 8 p.m.
Netflix: “Instadocs: AI Gone Wild”

Marvel Television might have canceled “Wonder Man” and “Daredevil: Born Again” recently, but don’t count the studio’s TV ambitions out. Announced at New York Comic-Con last week, Marvel is working on a new live-action spy thriller called ”Zodiac,” set to release in 2028. Not much is known about the project, although there have been several (mostly obscure) Marvel Comics characters who go by that name.

Also announced at New York Comic-Con, Paramount+ has renewed “Avatar: Seven Havens” for two more seasons, and is now developing a new action-comedy series for the franchise, “Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos.”   

HBO placed a series order for “Crazy Rich Asians,” a sequel to the 2018 movie based on the novels by Kevin Kwan. It’s the first HBO series order since the cable network officially became part of Skydance, the artist formerly known as Paramount. The film cast is returning to the set for the series prequel, including Constance Wu (“Fresh Off the Boat”), Henry Golding (“Nine Perfect Strangers”) and Michelle Yeoh (“Star Trek: Discovery”).

FX has ordered a pilot from Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai (“In the Mood for Love”),  Emmy Award winner Hiro Murai (“Widow’s Bay”) and Searchlight Television. The crime drama will star Havana Rose Liu (“Hal & Harper”) and begins shooting in Bangkok this month.

In his latest Substack article, ad tech expert Mike Shields asks: As a newly combined company, does Skydance have what it takes to compete against Big Tech?

• Amazon and Google have massive audience bases in the billions spanning different properties – including streaming – and identity data to match. Media companies simply are not big enough to compete with that scale, writes Shields.
• Instead, Shields suggests media companies form a “data collective” to build a conjoined first-party data asset that actually could stand to compete with the Big Tech kahunas. Similar efforts are underway at the Joint Industry Committee, a trade organization trying to help standardize video ad measurement.

Based on the video ad measurement company iSpot’s analysis of the 2025-26 NFL season, many of the best-performing commercials were brief (15-second spots rather than 30-second spots), repeated multiple times, had a funny or feel-good tone and featured recognizable talent from the field. Expect these themes to show up throughout the games you’re watching leading up to the next Super Bowl.

Classic Nickelodeon series “The Brothers Garcia” and its sequel, “The Garcias,” are coming exclusively to Tubi, the service announced Friday. The original family comedy ran from 2000 to 2004, while the revival only lasted one season in 2022. 

Reelz bought the rights to Seasons 1 and 2 of The CW’s “Police 24/7” as part of a second-window deal following strong ratings for the reality law enforcement series.

Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed,” which CBS started airing in the time slot left by “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” is finally a ratings contender. The show drew 1.07 million total viewers last Tuesday night, slightly beating out “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” at 1.01 million viewers, Allen Media Group announced. (“Colbert,” meanwhile, averaged about 4.2 million viewers a night during its final month in May.)

Also on Tuesday, CBS’s season premieres for “NCIS,” “NCIS Origins” and “NCIS: New York” were the top three most-watched scripted broadcast shows, with the former two serving as the No. 1 broadcast shows in their time slot. Viewership shot up 39% compared to last year’s big “NCIS” premiere night.

UPtv declared itself to be the No. 1 growing cable network in 2026, as well as No. 30 among women over 18, according to Nielsen data. The family-friendly channel’s original series “Blue Skies” also ranked top 10 in its time period across ad-supported cable.

Rachel Stockman is now the CEO of Law&Crime and Court TV. Founder and former CEO Dan Abrams, who sold Law&Crime to holding company Jellysmack in 2023, will stay on as chairman.