RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Local giant Globo streamer Globoplay aims to launch Cuando o Corazón Entra Em Campo, a vertical micro-drama about soccer players on the reserve list of the Brazilian national team, in August, just after the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, said Samantha Almeida.
Globo’s original production, Estúdios Globo, will be lensed in June and will include 50 approximately two-minute episodes. Casting is going well.
In the story, soccer player Rocca is a center forward for Rio’s most famous soccer team, and his career takes a leap forward when he is named in the World Cup qualifying list. He signs a multi-million dollar contract, upends his family’s life, and faces the challenge of dealing with the fame and pressure that comes with success.
Globo, one of the world’s most traditional telenovela production companies, currently has a catalog of 25 microdrama titles. Five original works, nine spin-offs of telenovela characters, and 11 internationally licensed works.
Globo’s Rio-based production center Estudios Globo and Indie Formata produced the original and spin-off films. The microdrama will be available on the Globoplay platform and TV Globo’s social media.
Streamer Globoplay tends to produce microdramas with original plots, while TV Globo, Brazil’s leading open TV network, focuses on spin-offs of characters from telenovelas that are simulcast in its lineup.
Almeida said that the pilot microdrama for TV Globo was released in June 2025 along with the final episode of the telenovela “Garota do Moment”. They released five episodes on TV Globo’s social media, including a short spin-off of the telenovela, which quickly became a hit with 5 million views.
“We realized there was room to further develop the stories of certain characters, who are often supporting characters, so we decided to create microdramas that included plots that were not part of the main plot of the telenovela,” Almeida told Variety.
“Tudo por uma Segunda Chance”, released on November 25 last year, was Globo’s first micro-drama. The production is a spin-off of the telenovela Dona de Mim, and local influencer Jade Picon played the lead role.
TV Globo’s blockbuster microdrama is “Loquinha,” about a young lesbian couple from the telenovela “Três Graças.” Lo, short for Lorena (Alanis Guillén), and Quinha, short for Juquinha (Gabriela Medvedovsky), are supporting characters in the TV novel, but they caught the attention of viewers on social media.
Lorena (Alanis Guillén – left) and Juquinha (Gabriela Medvedovsky – right) in “Rokinya” Credit: Beatriz Damy
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“While our microdramas are digital-first products, they are tied to the broadcaster’s overall telenovela business. They play a key role in attracting young social media users to watch telenovelas on TV Globo,” Almeida said.
Rio2C, Latin America’s largest gathering of creative businesses, will host an expert panel at this year’s event to discuss the rapid expansion of the microdrama sector in Brazil. Thiago Taitelroit, head of content and development at Tele Tele, will be one of the speakers on the panel “New ways of telling: fast and vertical storytelling”.
Indie Tele Tele plans to launch an app in June as Brazil’s first platform dedicated to the distribution of vertical microdramas and variety shows. Teiterreut, who has extensive experience as a producer at TV Globo, Sony and Netflix, founded Teletele last year with telenovela and series writer Antonio Plata and documentarian Camila Guerreiro to produce and distribute microdramas.
“TeleTele distributes microdramas produced in-house. Brazil has a long tradition of producing telenovelas, and we believe that content with Brazilian DNA is of high quality and travelable,” Teiterreuth said.
Tele Tele has already produced one micro-drama and has two others in the works.
Photo of Vitoria Strada from “A Boa, A Ma Eo Marido Gigolo.” Credit: Camila Guerreiro
“A Boa, a Má eo Marido Gigolô” (“The Good, the Bad, and the Gigolo Husband”) will feature 43 episodes of one to three minutes, starring Vitoria Strada and Jamie Matarazzo. In the plot, Strada plays the role of twin sisters Marcel (good) and Rayanne (evil). After Rayanne dies in an accident, Marcel pretends to be her sister to save their mother’s life.
“I believe we are experiencing a cognitive revolution. People are watching videos in fragments. In my house, the TV doesn’t turn on. The habit of gathering the family to watch a two-hour program is a thing of the past. Now everyone watches their favorite content on their mobile phones,” Teiterreuth said.
