Sweden checks into Love Island

The UK version of Love Island

MIPCOM: Sweden’s TV4 has become the latest broadcaster to commission a local version of ITV Studios (ITVS) dating format Love Island.

Maria Kyriacou, president of the show’s distributor ITVS Global Entertainment, announced the deal at a press briefing here at Mipcom in Cannes. The series will be produced by ITVS Sweden and will air next year.

Sweden becomes the fourth territory to launch the format, following recent announcement that Australia’s Nine Network had commissioned the show and last month’s launch on RTL2 in Germany.

Love Island, which sees singletons move into a mansion on a paradisiacal island in search of a romantic partner, is leading ITVS’s Mipcom formats slate.

Mike Beale, MD of the Nordics and global creative network at ITVS, told C21 the show is “reaching an audience that channels were struggling to get to.”

“It’s also reaching them on the devices where they consume content. The linear screen does well, but the catch-up services and the VoD services do very well. But the structure of the show, the daily turnaround, means they have to consume it in that 24-hour period to be part of a conversation. That’s what channels are starting to realise now – it’s more than a dating show on a beach, there’s a whole construct which is revolutionising the way that audience watches content.”