Wattpad partnered up with Universal Cable Productions to bring its stories to TV along with other Hollywood movies.
During the partnership announcement, Wattpad Studios head Aron Levitz said they will use Wattpad date to find compelling stories that has multitudes of built-in audiences, Tech Crunch reported. This means fans have a big role in deciding which stories deserve to get a TV series adaptation.
According to Levitz, there is no place for guesses and random choices on content development. He said that Data- and community-driven shows are the thing of the future, and they are leading the front.
The TV production company, UCP is a division of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, The Globe and Mail reported. NBC Universal has produced big hits in the past such as USA's "Mr. Robot," Bravo's "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce," and SyFy's "The Magicians."
The new deal between the social publishing platform and the TV production company aims to develop new shows out of the stories in Wattpad. There are no specific shows announced yet, but a spokesperson from Wattpad said they are planning to develop some five projects every year. However, there are still no guarantees whether those stories will be shown on TV.
Wattpad has 45 million users every month and its members have published over 300 million stories. In the Philippines, local media station, TV5, has already adapted some stories from Wattpad into their TV program called Wattpad Presents.
The online publishing platform has launched earlier in 2016 its Wattpad Studios division. Wattpad has also partnered up with Hollywood agency UTA to bring their stories to various media. Back in 2014, UTA agreed to represent "After," a breakthrough novel published in Wattpad.
Later on, the agency signed a movie rights deal with movie studio Paramount Pictures. The novel, written by Anna Todd, is about an optimistic young girl who falls for a boy with a dark side. It is a three-part series that has a solid 1 billion reads. UTA also represented Wattpad on marketing partnership for "Once Upon A Time" and "Jane the Virgin."
Wattpad's Head of Business Candice Faktor said their company is about entertainment, and their partnership with UTA will contribute to the unique and compelling story telling style of Hollywood.
