RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Local giant Globo’s streamer Globoplay aims to launch in August, right after the FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, vertical microdrama “Quando o Coração Entra em Campo”, featuring a soccer player who makes the preliminary list for Brazil’s national team for the Cup, Samantha Almeida.
The original production of Globo’s Estúdios Globo is due to be lensed in June and will have 50 episodes of approximately two minutes. Casting is in course.
In the plot, soccer player Rocca is the center forward of the most famous soccer team in Rio, and his career takes a leap when he makes the preliminary list for the World Cup. He signs a multimillion-dollar contract, transforming his family’s life, and faces the challenges of dealing with fame and pressure that comes with success.
Globo, one of the leading and most traditional telenovela producers in the world, currently has a catalog of 25 microdrama titles: five original productions, nine spinoffs of telenovela characters and 11 internationally licensed ones.
Globo’s Rio-based production center Estúdios Globo and indie Formata have made the originals and spinoffs. The microdramas are available in the Globoplay platform and TV Globo’s social media.
While streamer Globoplay tends to make microdramas with original plots, TV Globo, the leading open-TV network in Brazil, focuses on spinoffs of characters of telenovelas simultaneously airing in their lineup.
Almeida said TV Globo’s pilot microdrama was released in June 2025 along with the final episodes of telenovela “Garota do Momento.” They launched on TV Globo’s social media five episodes with brief spinoffs of the telenovela, which were instant hits with five million views.
“We realized there was room to further develop the stories of certain characters, who are often supporting characters. So we decided to produce microdramas with plots that are not part of the telenovelas’ main plots,” Almeida told Variety.
“Tudo por uma Segunda Chance”, released Nov. 25 last year, was Globo’s first microdrama. The production was a spinoff of telenovela “Dona de Mim” and featured local influencer Jade Picon in the leading role.
TV Globo’s big microdrama hit is “Loquinha”, featuring a young lesbian couple of telenovela “Três Graças.” Lo, the short for Lorena (Alanis Guillen), and Quinha, of Juquinha (Gabriela Medvedovsky), are supporting characters in the telenovela, but drew the attention of viewers on social media.
Lorena (Alanis Guillen – left) and Juquinha (Gabriela Medvedovsky – right) in “Loquinha” Credit: Beatriz Damy
BEATRIZ DAMY
“Our microdramas are digital-first products, but they are connected to the broadcaster’s overall telenovela business. They play a key role in attracting young social media users to watch the telenovelas on TV Globo,” Almeida said.
Rio2C, the largest creative business gathering in Latin America, will host in this year’s event a panel dedicated to discuss the microdrama sector fast expansion in Brazil. Thiago Teitelroit, Tele Tele’s head of content and development, will be one of the speakers in the panel, New Ways of Telling: Fast and Vertical Narratives.
Indie Tele Tele is due to launch their app in June as the first Brazilian platform dedicated exclusively to the distribution of vertical microdramas and variety shows. Teitelroit, who has an extensive experience as producer at TV Globo, Sony and Netflix, telenovela and series screenplay writer Antonio Prata and documentarist Camila Guerreiro founded last year Tele Tele, which will both produce and distribute microdramas.
“Tele Tele will distribute the microdramas it produces. Brazil has a long tradition of telenovela production, and we believe content with Brazilian DNA is of high quality and can travel,” said Teitelroit.
Tele Tele has already made one microdrama and has two others in production.
Photo of Vitoria Strada in “A Boa, a Má e o Marido Gigolô”. Credit: Camila Guerreiro
“A Boa, a Má e o Marido Gigolô” (“The Good, The Bad And Gigolo Husband”) has 43 episodes of 1-3 minutes and features Vitoria Strada and Jayme Matarazzo as leading actors. In the plot, Strada plays the roles of Marcelle (the good) and Rayanne (the bad) twin sisters. After the accidental death of Rayanne, Marcelle pretends to be her sister to save their mother’s life.
“I believe we are experiencing a cognitive revolution. People have started watching videos in a fragmented way. In my home, the TV set is no longer turned on. The habit of gathering the family to watch a two-hour program is a thing of the past. Everyone now watches their preferred content on their own phones,” Teitelroit said.
