Wattpad Strikes Development & Production Deal With Germany’s Bavaria Fiction
Wattpad, the Toronto-based storytelling app that combines crowdsourced content and original IP, is heading to Germany after striking a development and production deal with Bavaria Fiction.
This comes after numerous deals with Hollywood studio partners including Sony Pictures Television and eOne and broadcasters such as Hulu and Netflix.
The deal will give Bavaria Fiction, which is a joint venture between Bavaria Film and ZDF Enterprises, access to more than a million German-language stories on the platform and its 1.3m community in German-speaking territories. Germany users apparently spend an average of 10 minutes on the platform every day and Bavaria Fiction is keen to take a more data-driven approach to its slate.
“Entertainment companies around the world are recognizing the importance of data-based decision-making,” said Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios. “Development doesn’t need to rely on guesswork or instinct. The new model we’re building across the industry uses real insights from millions of users and billions of data points, resulting in more wins. We’re thrilled to work with Bavaria Fiction to bring our game-changing model to the German market.”
Jan Kaiser, Managing Director, Bavaria Fiction, added, “In this continuing competitive era in which ‘content is king’ we have decided to not only seek viewers, but views. Getting on board ideas earlier, using existing data and B2C channels are a key part of production businesses like ours evolving in the digital age, with the added bonus of bringing more of German-speaking creators’ talent to screen.”
Related stories
Sony Pictures Television Acquires Wattpad Story 'Death Is My BFF'
'Cupid's Match' Trailer: CW Seed Sets Supernatural Romance Pilot For Valentine's Day
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
