Orange bets on vertical micro-dramas from ReelShort to pull more users into Max it 📱

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Your phone is about to double as a TV. On October 15, Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA) announced a partnership with ReelShort, a vertical micro-drama platform owned by Crazy Maple Studio. The deal is meant to boost Max it, Orange’s super app (a single app that bundles several services), by bringing ReelShort’s catalog to Max it TV, its entertainment hub, across 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East. The common thread: short-form video built for smartphones.

Micro-dramas: series designed for the phone 🎬

Micro-dramas are short videos built around a story, following classic storytelling principles. Their vertical format is made for phones, not TV screens. Press coverage describes a catalog of dramas, romances and thrillers.

With ReelShort, Max it TV adds the format to its lineup. Access would reportedly require a subscription and an internet connection, so the experience depends on streaming and on the quality of mobile access. For users in Cameroon, the cost of mobile data may weigh as heavily as the subscription price.

Max it TV wants a bigger digital offer 🌐

For OMEA, the deal fits a broader goal: turning Max it TV into a platform that mixes international and local content. Ben Cheick Haidara, OMEA’s deputy managing director, describes it as “the best of international and local content for millions of customers,” and adds: “This is only the beginning.”

The agreement leans on a mix of Orange’s distribution muscle and ReelShort’s catalog to reach a mobile audience spread across several markets. Joey Jia, founder and CEO of Crazy Maple Studio, says the appeal is “directly reaching a young, mobile audience with high potential.”

A phased rollout across 17 markets 🚀

According to press reports, the launch is planned for four markets in 2026, followed by a gradual rollout elsewhere over the life of the deal. The sources we consulted do not say whether Cameroon is among the first markets.

For ReelShort, it is a milestone. Jia says that in less than a year, its reach through operators has grown to nearly 450 million mobile subscribers, Orange customers included, and he calls the 17-market rollout the platform’s first significant breakthrough in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

For Max it, the goal is to make the app more attractive by packing more uses into one place. The target of 39 million users in the coming years.

A bet still to be proven in Africa 🔍

Orange is turning the smartphone into its gateway to digital entertainment, while ReelShort gains a new distribution channel. But success hinges on two things the announcement doesn’t settle: whether audiences warm to the format, and whether they’ll pay when mobile data isn’t free.

Could micro-dramas watched on a phone become a real alternative to traditional TV series in Africa? Tell us what you think in the comments.