NBCUniversal is writing an $80 million check to Indian startup EloElo, a bet on the country's surging microdrama market, TechCrunch reports.

The prize is scale: EloElo's StoryTV draws more than 33 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower figures cited in the report. Microdramas — serialized, vertically shot episodes built for phone-first viewing — have become one of the fastest-growing content formats globally, and India's mobile-native audience makes it a natural battleground.

For NBCUniversal, the deal buys exposure to a format that legacy studios have largely watched from the sidelines while Chinese and Southeast Asian players built billion-dollar microdrama businesses.

For EloElo, the capital and a major U.S. media partner arrive as competition for India's short-form attention economy intensifies, with local and international platforms all chasing the same screen time.