YouTube orders first SVOD drama original

YouTube has ordered a series adaptation of the Step Up movie for its Red service, marking its move into SVOD original drama series.

Lionsgate made the movie and will produce the Step Up series. Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot and Meredith Milton, producers of the original films, will exec produce the series, along with Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum, who both starred in the original 2006 film.

Billed as a sexy, music-filled drama, Step Up follows a group of dancers in a performing arts school.

The series will bow on the paid-for YouTube Red service next year. It has already put out original reality content and features, but this is the first original scripted show on the platform.

In April it said it will ramp up the volume of original content on Red. The US$9.99 per month service launched last year. It is available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, with plans for additional international expansion throughout 2016.

“I’ve been a fan of the Step Up movies for years and always believed the films would translate into an awesome original series,” said Susanne Daniels, global head of original content, YouTube. “We know that dance is a hugely successful global category on YouTube, so I’m excited to have a series rooted in such an enormously popular genre on our platform.”

Former MTV programme chief Daniels joined YouTube last year to oversee a push into original content.

Lionsgate Television Group chairman Kevin Beggs said: “After five exciting andsuccessful movies, we’re proud to partner with YouTube Red, a major new force on the programming landscape, to adapt the films into an adrenaline-filled original drama series driven by its non-stop energy, spectacular dancing and A-list creative talent.”