Walter wins Creative Europe Media grant to promote drama in UK, US
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 24 August 2017

Matching its ratings success with its business vision, the Walter Presents foreign language video-on-demand (VOD) drama service has secured a grant of €458,000 from Creative Europe Media.

The Creative Europe Media sub-programme supports film, television, new media and video games, offering funding, training and networking opportunities. Creative Europe Desk UK also provides information on other EU programmes that offer support to the audiovisual, creative and cultural sectors.

A joint venture between Channel 4 and Global Series Network (GSN), Walter Presents launched in 2016 by former TV executive Walter Iuzzolino, and claims to find and curate the best foreign TV series in the world and make them available in one place. The combined Walter Presents catalogue currently features over 83 series of world TV drama from 17 different countries. The company says that the grant will be used to promote European TV drama in both the UK and the US where the VOD offer launched in March after enjoying success in the UK.

Walter Presents was one of 14 applications submitted from the UK for the promotion of European audiovisual works online, seven of which were successful. Six out of the seven grants were awarded to UK-based VOD platforms that programme a significant percentage of European content. Commenting on the award, GSN director of marketing and communications Jo McGrath said: “The Creative Europe grant comes at a crucial stage of Walter Presents’ planned global roll-out and will help us put foreign-language drama even more firmly on the world TV map. It will allow us to introduce award-winning European drama to an entirely new audience in the US and to attract wider viewership in the UK, particularly amongst younger audiences, for our exciting, upcoming series.”

Added Creative Europe Desk UK director Agnieszka Moody: “VOD is the new frontier of global content distribution and I'm really happy to see successful UK applicants, highly established brands in this space, prioritising European content. The range and quality of submissions this year was extraordinary but what made Walter Presents stand out was its ambitious marketing plans and its exclusive focus on premium foreign language TV drama, as opposed to feature films.”