'Star Wars' Producer Tommy Harper Launches VeYou, the 'HBO of Microdramas'
Backed by Google Ventures, the premium platform aims to raise the bar for vertical content.
Star Wars producer Tommy Harper has launched VeYou, a platform he describes as the HBO of microdramas.
Backed by Google Ventures, VeYou is positioned as a premium alternative to the volume-driven platforms that have defined the format: fewer titles, higher budgets, and a bet that an audience will pay more for better.
The premium thesis
The dominant vertical platforms compete on quantity. Hundreds of series a year, shot in days, with budgets that would not cover a single episode of network television. The model works because it is cheap and because the audience has, so far, not demanded more.
VeYou’s thesis is that the audience is ready to demand more, and that the first platform to offer HBO-grade production in the format will capture the viewers the volume platforms are losing to fatigue. Harper’s producing credits give the pitch credibility; Google Ventures’ backing gives it runway.
What it would change
If a premium tier emerges in vertical, it changes the economics for the people who make it. Higher budgets mean longer schedules, larger crews and rates closer to traditional television. It also means a competitive market for the format’s best leads, who have until now had nowhere to take their audiences.
The association’s interest is in whether the premium promise reaches the set. A platform that calls itself the HBO of the format should be expected to pay, credit and treat its workforce like one.