Entertainment One Taps Wattpad for Original Content
Entertainment One is looking at Wattpad’s fountain of fan fiction for their next television hit.
The Toronto-based companies announced a new partnership today wherein eOne will dig through the 400 million stories uploaded to Wattpad to source ideas for future original television, feature film and virtual reality projects.
Wattpad’s user-generated fiction community boasts 60 million monthly users and more than 2.5 million monthly writers who churn out unique, creative content across written formats and genres. The platform also looks to data-driven insights to determine what stories are poised to be commercial hits—an element that hooked eOne.
“The powerful data and insights from Wattpad will allow us to tap into the new generation of authors and gives us early access to captivating proven stories and characters,” said Jocelyn Hamilton, President of eOne TelevisionCanada.
The online storytelling platform launched Wattpad Studios in early 2016 to connect the entertainment and publishing industries with the platform’s fiction-writing stars.
“Wattpad stories are adored around the world, and our passionate users spend billions of minutes each month reading on, and engaging with, our platform,” said Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios in a release. “We’re thrilled to partner with eOne to uncover new voices and insights from our global community and bring Wattpad stories to screens all over the planet.”
This isn’t Wattpad’s first foray into commercial television. Last December, Wattpad inked a deal with Universal Cable Productions to pull fresh ideas for the storytelling site to create original TV content.
