Vurt launches Apple TV and Android TV apps for its vertical microdramas, with 675,000 users since March

The way Hilmon Sorey tells it, the request was small. People already watching Vurt's vertical series on their phones wanted to send them to the television ^[5]. Sorey, a Vurt cofounder and angel investor ^[13], said the team built the obvious thing first.

"At first, we first developed the ability for folks to cast to smart TVs," Sorey said. "But we decided that wasn't the best experience because we could leverage all of the technology in those large-screen devices to bring features like HD / 4K video, and the ability to do really high-quality audio." ^[6]

Users asked for a bigger screen for a show they were already watching. The team took that to mean those users wanted a television product, with its own picture and sound ^[5][6]. Both readings fit the request. The second costs more to build and maintain.

Vurt's userbase grew from 10,000 at its March launch to 675,000, The Verge reported, a 67.5-fold rise ^[2][14]. That count covers the whole service, and the TV apps are recent ^[1]. The report does not break users out by device or include retention, watch time or series completion rates.

The library averages fewer than 35 episodes a show ^[15]. Sorey described how each episode is built. "You've got to have your hook to begin and at the tail end of that, you've got to thrust them into the next episode by virtue of a cliffhanger," he said ^[11].

Before the TV launch, Vurt asked creators how they like to watch films and TV. Many preferred theaters and big screens, but according to Sorey they also insisted microdramas can feel as engaging on a television as on a phone with earbuds in ^[10]. Those are the creators describing how their own work feels. Whether viewers stay is a separate measurement: completions per series on TV, set against the same figure on phones.

Instagram added Reels to its TV app in June, alongside disappearing Stories and horizontal video ^[8]. For any team weighing the same move with short vertical series, we'd use two axes. One is demand: whether users are asking for the television, as Sorey says Vurt's were ^[5]. The other is whether the big screen adds something beyond size. Vurt's answer is picture and sound ^[6]. With both, a native app makes sense; with demand but no real TV-only gain, casting is enough; a TV-only gain with no demand is a roadmap item; and with neither, there is no case to build.

We think Vurt's native app is a defensible call on demand and an open one on the second axis, because sharper video does not by itself keep someone watching to the end of a series. The tradeoff is a second product to build and maintain, when casting already put the shows on the television. If TV viewers finish series at the phone rate, the app is justified. If they drop off sooner, casting would have done the job for less.