Walter Presents offered in Belgium

Globomedia’s Spanish thriller Locked Up (Vis a Vis)

Belgian broadcaster Medialaan will launch foreign-language drama service Walter Presents on its fledgling streaming platform later this month.

VTM Go and Walter Presents will make dramas from around the world available to subscribers from mid-April, adding to Walter Presents’ presence in the UK, the US, Australia and Italy.

VTM is the main commercial television station in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium, and forms part of a network of channels owned by Medialaan.

VTM Go aims to host more than 500 hours of premium foreign-language drama across two years, including subtitled shows from the Nordics, South America and Spain.

Walter Presents launched in the UK on commercial public service broadcaster Channel 4’s on-demand service All 4 in January 2016.

It is named after its Italian curator and host Walter Iuzzolino, who handpicks every show, provides introductions for each series and never uses computer algorithms to select titles, according to Walter Presents.

Ricus Jansegers, Medialaan’s television director, said: “Walter Presents is a quality label. Walter peruses drama series in every language and selects only the best for Walter Presents. We know that our viewers love intriguing fiction, so by introducing Walter Presents we are extending our range even further.”

Among the titles launching on Walter Presents in Belgium later this month are The River, about a girl who disappears close to the Finnish-Russian border; Spanish prison thriller Locked Up; Chilean action thriller Fugitives; and Danish comedy drama Veni, Vidi, Vici.