Virgin Media Television commissions its first vertical drama
The Irish commercial broadcaster announced Zero Focals Given, an Irish-language school comedy, in its autumn schedule on 18 August.
What this basis means: Reported by a named news outlet, and traceable to neither a filing, a research vendor, nor the company itself.
Virgin Media Television announced Zero Focals Given, its first vertical drama, in its autumn schedule launch on 18 August 2026. The series is produced by Vico Films for the broadcaster's Virgin Media Discovers strand and funded by Fis Eireann / Screen Ireland.
It is an Irish-language school comedy set at a fictional secondary school, shot in a 9:16 frame. Niamh Bryson directs and co-wrote with Heather O'Sullivan, who also stars. The series extends Trasna na Line, a Virgin Media Discovers short that won at the Dublin International Film Festival.
S4C, the Welsh-language public service broadcaster, has commissioned two vertical dramas from Mojo Productions and publishes them on TikTok. Virgin Media Television is a commercial broadcaster.
The broadcaster gave no start date, episode count, running time or distribution platform, so the scale of the commission and any monetisation are not established. Programme director Anthony Nilan framed the autumn season in terms of a broadcaster's duty to break doomscrolling.
Companies Virgin Media Television, Vico Films, Screen Ireland
Sources
Correction
: The report called Zero Focals Given Ireland's first vertical drama, the second commission of original vertical fiction by a European broadcaster and the first by a commercial one. Radio Bremen and Saarländischer Rundfunk had already released Between the Beats in June 2026, and the sources support only that it is Virgin Media Television's first vertical drama. The rankings have been removed.