{"id":15847,"date":"2021-03-17T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-03-18T09:07:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T13:07:53","slug":"waterbear-supporting-the-planet-through-streaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/waterbear-supporting-the-planet-through-streaming\/","title":{"rendered":"WaterBear: Supporting the Planet Through Streaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Walji, head of content and production at WaterBear Network, talks to <\/em>TV Real about the free VOD platform’s mission-driven agenda to address the future of our planet.<\/em><\/p>\n

A new entrant to the streaming landscape, WaterBear Network launched in December with a mission-driven agenda to address the future of our planet. The free VOD platform, backed by ZDF Enterprises and Off the Fence, has partnered with 100 NGOs from all across the globe to showcase campaigns and stories through a bespoke channel and establish ways for WaterBear members to connect with these organizations and support them in various ways via donations, subscriptions, calls to action, volunteering, purchasing sustainable products and travel.<\/p>\n

The mission and ethos setting the foundation for the service is \u201cto bring impactful storytelling to everybody,\u201d says Andrea Walji, head of content and production. \u201cIt\u2019s a free platform, so we hope that everybody will be able to access it as a result. It\u2019s all about stories with impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its content slate, WaterBear has been acquiring award-winning short-form films as well as features. \u201cThe exciting thing about WaterBear is that people come here to see films that have been shown at indie film festivals and that you might not find anywhere else,\u201d Walji says. \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of the films that we\u2019re acquiring. The lovely thing is that there\u2019s no format [restrictions]; we can take films of any length\u2014anything from one-minute shorts up to full feature documentaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The programming for 2021 falls within a set of four distinct pillars. WaterBear started Q1 with biodiversity as a theme and will shift the focus to climate-related content in Q2. The third quarter will center on the theme of circularity, and the fourth quarter is dedicated to community. \u201cBy the end of the year, without having spoon-fed our audience that we\u2019re doing this, you will have seen films that follow all of the sustainable development goals within those four different buckets,\u201d Walji says.<\/p>\n

The WaterBear platform introduces TVOD this month, with a partnership in place with the Resilient Foundation, which aims to increase global awareness and learning through storytelling and communications. \u201cWe will bring exciting new films for rental to the platform,\u201d says Walji. \u201cBy renting and watching the films in the Resilient Collection, you\u2019re essentially helping to fund the Resilient Foundation. So, you\u2019re watching it for a good purpose!\u201d<\/p>\n

With regard to originals, the plan is to make one film per month and one series per quarter within those four different themes. The first WaterBear original series, Not a Pet<\/em>, launched earlier this month. The five-part series focuses on the illegal pet trade and will be accompanied by an impact campaign.<\/p>\n

The WaterBear originals are short-form, and all are produced as low-impact as possible. They will be run through the albert carbon calculator, an initiative from BAFTA that provides an online tool to work out how much a TV production affects the environment. It calculates the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere as a direct result of making the program. Not a Pet<\/em>, for one, has just been awarded a three out of a three-star rating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what sets us apart as well,\u201d says Walji. \u201cAs much as we love to acquire films in a low-carbon way, when we\u2019re producing ourselves, it\u2019s definitely at the forefront. And that goes toward the ethos of WaterBear: walking the walk and talking the talk. We rely on a lot of archive footage or using a network of local crews around the world so that if we need to do a day of shooting, we talk to someone in that area, rather than flying our team around.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that for producers or distributors looking to land a project on the WaterBear platform, it\u2019s easy to get a feel for what the service is looking for by examining the current content on the platform. There are a set of editorial guidelines that must be followed, with an eye to \u201cimpactful storytelling and hopeful, uplifting, solutions-based films. We address the issues and then we try to show calls to action in the films so that it gives the audience something to aspire to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the content team will be working very closely with their impact team and looking at how to plot the stories going forward. \u201cThey map it out at the beginning of a quarter for us, and then the acquisition team goes out to purposely find stories in those areas. We\u2019ve been working on that in the biodiversity quarter and again in climate, so our aim will be to continue working closely with the impact team for each quarter to map out the films we want to acquire. As it\u2019s our first year with WaterBear, we\u2019re doing these four quarterly pillars for the first time. We\u2019ll then reassess and review how everything is going from an impact perspective and from what the viewers are enjoying watching, and then pivot accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrea Walji, head of content and production at WaterBear Network, talks about the free VOD platform’s mission-driven agenda to address the future of our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":15848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[5411,4967],"class_list":["post-15847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-andrea-walji","tag-waterbear-network","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nWaterBear: Supporting the Planet Through Streaming - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/waterbear-supporting-the-planet-through-streaming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WaterBear: Supporting the Planet Through Streaming - 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