Walter Presents for Discovery Italia
May 2, 2018
SVoD service Walter Presents, which has won plaudits and a loyal following for delivering foreign-language dramas to UK, US and Australian audiences, will be teaming up with Discovery Italia, in the next stage of a planned global roll out, to bring its award-winning dramas to Italian audiences from September 2018.
Discovery Italia will now also deliver exclusive and original first run drama series with subtitles, to a wide Italian audience, by exploiting its fast growing digital Dplay service, where customers can watch series on demand. Dedicated slots for Walter Presents titles will be aired also on its Nove and Giallo channels.
Capitalising on the growing demand for world drama, Discovery Italia aims to host over 500 hours of premium foreign language drama across two years and will include a diverse range of series which have been blockbuster hits in their native countries.
Walter Presents launched in the UK on Channel 4’s on-demand service All 4 in January 2016. Since then the service has garnered rave reviews and millions of views to a broad range of high-quality foreign language TV drama. Walter Presents is named after its Italian curator and host Walter Iuzzolino, a passionate drama fan who uniquely hand picks each show and provides introductions for each series.
Marinella Soldi, Chief Strategy Officer Discovery EMEA & Managing Director Discovery Networks Southern Europe commented: “Partnering with Walter Presents is another bold move which is typical of our success in this business: anticipating consumer trends and applying successful and creative models from other countries. Our aim is to replicate and build upon the phenomenal success the service has enjoyed in the UK with Channel 4. It’s an innovative model which perfectly converges linear and VOD to create a sweet spot for viewers and broadcasters alike.”
Iuzzolino said: “Discovery Italia has an impressive track record and has proven to be an astute, decisive and successful group of channels – I couldn’t hope for a better partner to embark on this drama adventure together. As an Italian, this is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time – it’s a personal dream come true for me and I can’t wait to get started.”