Sun TV is turning old serials into two-minute dramas

Its 65,000-hour content library could become a major advantage in India’s growing micro-drama market.

Sun TV Network has entered the micro-drama business.

The company launched Sun NXT Shorts in August with more than 150 titles across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The catalogue includes original short-form shows, dubbed international content and, more interestingly, old Sun movies and TV serials re-edited into bite-sized episodes.

Old TV, new format. Sun is taking films like Endhiran, Ayan and Thiruchitrambalam, along with serials such as Ethirneechal and Kayal, and remastering them for shorter viewing sessions.

That puts Sun in an increasingly crowded market. JioHotstar has Tadka, Amazon MX Player has MX Fatafat, Balaji Telefilms has Kutingg and ShareChat is expanding QuickTV.

But Sun has one big advantage: around 65,000 hours of existing content.

A micro-drama platform usually needs to keep spending on writers, actors, production crews and new stories. Sun already owns decades of films and TV shows, many of which have already earned money through television, syndication and streaming.

Now the same content can be re-edited and monetised again. And the audience is showing up.

A Meta-Ormax study found that 65% of Indian micro-drama viewers discovered the format only in the past year, while 89% find these shows through social media feeds. A median viewer spends around 3.5 hours a week watching them.

The catch: people are watching more than they are paying. Only 28% of Indian micro-drama viewers have ever spent money on the format.

That makes Sun’s strategy useful. It does not necessarily need Shorts to become a massive standalone business immediately. The product sits inside Sun NXT, and much of the underlying content already exists.

If short-form episodes bring younger users into the app, increase viewing time or revive old shows, Sun can benefit without building an entirely new content machine.

The company is even adapting the same stories differently for phones and television, with tighter mobile framing and separate TV versions.

For years, Sun’s library was valuable because people were willing to sit through long TV episodes. Now the company is betting those same stories can work for an audience that wants the drama much faster.

Sun TV is turning old serials into two-minute dramas

Its 65,000-hour content library could become a major advantage in India’s growing micro-drama market.

Sources

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