New television production and distribution outfit RoseBerry Media has launched Epis, a mobile-first global streaming service aiming to bridge the gap between traditional TV and streaming and the growing business of mobile-first microdramas and vertical video.
Epis (short for “episodes”) bills itself as the world’s first premium vertical streaming service. It is launching with more than 100 titles across various formats, from reality TV and true crime to drama.
The line-up includes vertical originals including Two Marys; The Swindler and the Billionaire Murder, a true crime format from Silvio Productions of Israel, known for its Shadow of Truth format on Netflix; and the comedy-drama series Revenge Is a Dish from Lime Pictures, the British outfit best known for its hit soap operas Hollyoaks and The Only Way Is Essex.
The Epis platform will also feature several TV formats adapted for vertical viewing on mobile, including the BBC 3/Netflix dating format Sexy Beasts, produced by All3Media’s Lion Television, in which contestants don beastly makeup before pairing off in an effort to find romance trying to find romance; You Can’t Kill Me, adapted from Fremantle‘s Channel 4 true crime miniseries The Fall: Skydive Murder (2024); and House in Flames, a vertical adaptation of the Fremantle-produced Channel 5 thriller Heat (2023), starring Danny Dyer.
RoseBerry said it is planning more than 25 original vertical productions for this year.
RoseBerry co-founder and CEO Guy Hameiri said epis is founded on the “simple belief” that mobile-first vertical entertainment can be premium entertainment. “Audiences have changed how they consume content, but they have not stopped wanting great stories,” he said. “With epis, we are bringing together world-class creative talent, proven television IP, original productions and advanced technology to create a curated, mobile-first service for audiences who want stories worth watching, whether they have five minutes or fifty.”
Epis is keen to distinguish itself from Microdrama apps such as ReelShort, DramaBox or FreeFlow with its focus on premium, “TV quality” productions and formats. RoseBerry has signed deals with several traditional TV players, including Fremantle, Banijay, All3Media, A+E Global Media, and Cineflix Rights to repurpose selected shows from their libraries for premium vertical services.
While Epis will operate as a stand-alone service, RoseBerry is also positioning the app as a testing site, a place where producers can try out vertical formats, adaptations, and monetization models in real time, with an eye to licensing them to vertical video feeds on other premium sites, such as Netflix Clips or Disney+ Verts.
“It gives us and our partners a DTC [direct to consumer] destination, a testing and data analysis ground and a source of audience intelligence, while supporting a broader studio model designed to help the industry create, understand and monetise premium vertical television across multiple distribution windows,” said Hameiri.
Timed to the Epis launch, RoseBerry has appointed Gidon Katz, the veteran TV exec behind the launch of the Peacock and Now TV streaming platforms, to its advisory board.
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