Love Island heads to Italy

The French version of Love Island

Discovery has commissioned a local version of reality format Love Island for its platforms in Italy.

Fremantle will work on the Italian version of the show, which will premiere next year, marking the 18th territory to adapt the dating format.

This deal was brokered by Laura Rhodarmer, senior VP of licensing global entertainment at Love Island’s international distributor ITV Studios (ITVS), which co-owns the format with Motion Content Group.

Maarten Meijs, president of global entertainment at ITVS, said: “Following another successful season in the US and recently announced new commissions in Nigeria and Spain, Love Island successfully travels the world at a fast pace. There is a high demand for this format, evidenced by already four new commissions this year.

“We look forward to working with Discovery as we have already seen that the show works equally well across linear, digital and catch-up platforms and we are very excited to roll out Love Island soon in Italy as well.”

Several versions of the format, which sees singletons living together in a villa and asked to couple up to compete for a cash prize, have been hit by Covid-19 restrictions, but the US and German versions are now back in production.