Mediacorp to mine Wattpad stories

Singapore-based broadcaster Mediacorp has agreed content deals with web storytelling platform Wattpad and South Korea’s Spackman Entertainment Group.

Mediacorp and Wattpad will adapt scripted series and films for the broadcaster’s digital entertainment service, Toggle, and free-to-air platforms.

The two companies said they would identify Singaporean writers and stories that resonate with both local and international audiences.

Projects will be sourced from Wattpad, which claims it has 70 million monthly users. The platform says its technology can identify promising new IP and writers and provide audience data for the development process.

Mediacorp CEO Tham Loke Kheng said: “This partnership again demonstrates Mediacorp’s commitment to reinvigorating our content and formats and innovating the very way we source stories. A nation’s literature holds up a mirror for people to see themselves and what binds them.”

Meanwhile, Mediacorp and Spackman Entertainment Group’s first coproduction will be a 20-episode romantic drama featuring as-yet-unannounced familiar and new talent from Korea and Singapore.

Equity of Love (working title) is set among the luxury hospitality and fast-paced financial landscapes of Singapore, focusing on themes such as ambition, greed, forgiveness, love and friendship. It is due to begin production later this year and is expected to air in the second half of 2020.

The latest deals come after Mediacorp partnered with Hong Kong’s ViuTV for Toggle Originals thriller Bluetick in 2017 and with Taiwanese production house Eightgeman and Taiwan Television Enterprise to produce 40-episode action drama All Is Well last year.

Last week it was revealed that Wattpad had agreed a first-look deal with US studio Sony Pictures Television to adapt its stories for television.