In an earlier micro-drama, creator Hannah Stocking played a supporting role as a scheming bad girl; in the new series co-produced by TikTok, she has the lead role, a co-creator credit for the concept and an executive producer credit. She thus moves from the cast to the producers of the series; who owns the rights to it, however, TikTok's press release does not say. The series is being made exclusively for TikTok and its micro-series app PineDrama, which is not in the Czech App Store.
Micro-series, known in the industry as micro-dramas, are series shot vertically for mobile, with episodes roughly one to two minutes long. The series in which Stocking stars is called Player and is a romantic revenge thriller. Its lead had 29.7 million followers on TikTok in October 2026. In the second series, the genre piece The Knock, creator Adam Rose, with 7 million followers, stars. Its executive producer is the company Spooky Pictures, which TikTok's press release links to the horror film Paranormal Activity.
The creator-led series are co-produced by Made By Us, a studio of Made By All, a company that represents creators. The company founded the studio in May 2026 and in a press release described the move as a transformation from a marketing agency focused on social media into a premium studio for the creator economy. TikTok and the studio presented the deal on 14 October 2026 at the Cannes trade fair. "Together we have the opportunity to build franchises with creators who arrive with audience, community and cultural relevance already built in," studio co-head Tanya Cohen said of it.
The deal is the second of its kind for TikTok. It concluded the first in April 2026 with HOORAE, Issa Rae's production company, and it produced the series Screen Time. It begins with a double date at the cinema, interrupted by a mysterious character. The character takes over the screen and forces the couples to confess their secrets, or else reveals them. According to the platform, the series has had almost 580 million views since its April premiere and is the most successful show in the history of TikTok and PineDrama. Viewers get it for free with ads.
Micro-series grew on cheap production outside the unions
The micro-drama format had won viewers even before these co-productions, in the apps ReelShort and DramaBox. According to TechCrunch, they succeeded where the Hollywood service Quibi ended after about half a year. They shoot cheap stories that hook the viewer in the first seconds and carry on with constant cliffhangers. In October 2025, the budget of micro-dramas used to be below USD 300,000 for an entire series. Many productions are made without union contracts. Some writers and actors work on them under pseudonyms to avoid sanctions from their unions.
In a format where some writers and actors hide their names behind pseudonyms, Hannah Stocking's name stands by the lead role, the concept and the production. The actors' union SAG-AFTRA announced contracts for low-budget vertical dramas by October 2025 to address the pseudonym problem. Playback, in which Stocking previously had a supporting role, was among the first micro-dramas shot under a SAG-AFTRA contract.
The studio's contract with TikTok is multi-year, according to TheWrap. Series made under it are exclusive to TikTok and PineDrama. In its founding press release, the studio casts creators as partners who share from the start in the ownership of the rights to the stories (IP), in their monetisation and in long-term value. Whether that promise also applies to the series for TikTok, and who finances them, TikTok's press release does not say.
PineDrama is not in the App Store in the EU or Britain
Besides TikTok, the series from the deal are to run in PineDrama, a standalone micro-drama app. According to TechCrunch, TikTok quietly launched it in the US and Brazil in January this year. Today it is in the App Store in other countries too, such as Mexico, but in no European Union country or in the United Kingdom. According to the analytics firm Omdia, the UK was in 2025 Europe's leading micro-drama market, with 8.2 million monthly active users. Germany had 4.4 million.
Micro-dramas for the Czech market are being prepared by the service MovixBox, which was founded by Michal Deus and a partner with whom he owns a casting agency. Episodes in it are to be unlocked with tokens or by subscription. Deus imagines viewing in batches. "On the way to work you play four episodes, on the way home another four, and during your lunch break you play three."
MovixBox's talks fell through with a potential strategic investor from the television world, who ultimately decided not to join the project, and the launch slipped from summer to October or November 2026. "We know exactly how much each video earns, so creators get much better terms and a fairer split of profits with us," Deus told MediaGuru. How much of the series Player Hannah Stocking gets, TikTok's press release does not say.
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