Philippines’ entertainment conglomerate Viva Communications is adding the country’s first home-grown standalone vertical video microdrama app to its subscription-video stable at the end of October.

The new app, Viva Movie Box, goes live with a slate of 20 native-vertical series created and produced in-house, the company told ContentAsia during the Asia Contents & Film Market in Busan this week.

One new 90-minute series (between 50-75 episodes) will release every week.

Eight of the series are already complete and the other 12 are in production.

Viva Movie Box originals follow the format that has catapulted microdramas to the top of global attention charts – made for mobile vertical videos of between one and two minutes, tabloid titles, high-drama revenge/betrayal/conflict story lines, and cliffhangers.

At the same time, the series have a unique look and feel. “They're Filipino, not only in look, but also with heart,” says Vincent del Rosario, president and COO of Viva Communications.

The app’s launch series include “Elisa: The Young Mistress”, “The Substitute Lover”, “A Mistress’ Guide to Moving On” and “Maid for Revenge”, to name a few.

All are originals created for the app, and do not leverage Viva’s existing long-form IP.

The genre mix is likely to expand, said Studio Viva president and COO, Valerie del Rosario.

“The idea is to mirror our success with both Viva Max and Viva One in the microdrama space,” Vincent del Rosario said. The two platforms have a combined 18 million registered users.