Wattpad and Mediaset Announce Major Entertainment Partnership in Italy
Mediaset will have exclusive first-look rights to develop Italian Wattpad stories for TV
TORONTO - June 25, 2019 - Wattpad, the global multiplatform entertainment company for original stories, and Mediaset, Italy’s leading entertainment company, today announced a historic first-look deal to develop and co-produce TV shows in Italy. The deal is Wattpad’s first Italian language deal and will bring Wattpad stories to TV screens around Italy.
Wattpad and Mediaset will use Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology to identify and co-produce projects for TV.
Wattpad has a massive community of millions of users in Italy. Fans of the platform catapulted Wattpad’s After film to a #1 open in Italy earlier this spring.
“Italy’s rich history of storytelling has found a new life on Wattpad, where a new generation of writers are building worlds and connecting with readers online,” said Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios. “Mediaset is embracing the future of entertainment: one that starts with data and audience insights. We’re thrilled to work with them to bring diverse new stories to Italian TV.”
“Entertainment is changing, and people want to see new stories from new voices,” said Alessandro Salem, Content Director General of Mediaset. “At the same time, data is driving a revolution in how projects get found and get made. Working with Wattpad, we can be at the forefront of these industry shifts, tapping into a massive community of incredible storytellers with built-in communities of fans.”
Wattpad works with some of Europe’s biggest entertainment companies, including Bavaria Fiction in Germany, Lagardere Studios in France, and NL Film in the Netherlands. The company also has significant American and international partnerships with Sony Pictures Television, SYFY, iflix, and Huayi Brothers Korea. Wattpad produces the Emmy-nominated series Light as a Feather with AwesomenessTV and Grammnet for Hulu. Light as a Feather Season 2 will stream on July 26. Based on Anna Todd’s international Wattpad sensation and best-selling novel, Wattpad’s feature film After is currently the highest grossing independent film of the year, opening number one in 17 international territories this past spring. Voltage Pictures and Wattpad recently announced the sequel to After.
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Wattpad
Wattpad’s vision is to entertain and connect the world through stories. Using the power of community and technology, the global multiplatform entertainment company is unleashing the full potential of stories to the world -- in any format. Wattpad’s flagship app is the world’s leading social storytelling platform, home to a community of more than 70 million people who spend over 22 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology allows the company to understand and discover stories among the more than 565 million uploads on the platform. Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Books are transforming entertainment and publishing, using data-backed insights to turn Wattpad stories into books, films, TV shows, and digital projects. Wattpad Brand Partnerships offers a full suite of advertising products to help brands build deep engagement with Millennial and Gen Z consumers. Tap by Wattpad, the company’s second storytelling product, offers immersive interactive entertainment experiences in over a dozen languages. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada. Learn more at: company.wattpad.com
MEDIASET GROUP
The Mediaset Group, the leading commercial television operator in Italy and Spain, is one of Europe’s biggest independent media companies. Mediaset Italia has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1996, and Mediaset Espana on the Madrid Stock exchange since 2004.
The group’s core business is generalist commercial TV and, in Italy, Mediaset has three national channels (Canale 5, Italia 1 and Retequattro), while in Spain the group has two national channels Telecinco and Cuatro.
In recent years Mediaset has launched 10 new free-to-air thematic channels: Iris, La5, 20, Focus, Mediaset Italia2, Mediaset Extra, Top Crime, Boing, Cartoonito and the all-news channel TgCom24.
In December 2013 Mediaset launched “Infinity”, an online video streaming service that makes available over 6.000 movies, fiction and tv series over the web.
In 2016 Mediaset debuted in radio publishing business. The new RadioMediaset society includes R101, Radio 105, Virgin Radio, Radio Montecarlo and Radio Subasio. RadioMediaset is already the first radio group in Italy.