K-drama fans will be able to dig into new series of “micro-stories” on the Yarn app — embroidering on the narrative arcs of characters from popular Korean TV shows — under a partnership between DramaFever and Mammoth Media.
Mobile-entertainment startup Mammoth Media is launching serialized short-form fiction content on Yarn, inspired by shows on DramaFever, the streaming-video service that is part of Warner Bros. Digital Networks.
The DramaFever-based stories on Yarn kick off Thursday (Sept. 27) with a six-part series called “Immortal,” aimed at fans of supernatural Korean dramas. The first two episodes will hit Thursday, with the rest released through the following week. Each Yarn episode lasts about 2 minutes, comprising mostly text with some images and occasional video.
Mammoth Media plans to launch five additional series with DramaFever over the coming months under the pact spanning dramas, romantic comedies and thrillers. Mammoth’s team of in-house writers is producing the stories in collaboration with DramaFever.
“We’ve never tested K-drama in Yarn before, but it’s an audience that will consume everything around these shows,” said Mammoth Media founder and CEO Benoit Vatere. K-dramas are typically just one season, so “we get many requests from people to stay engaged in the storylines.”
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Yarn’s app offers a weekly $4.99 subscription access, which grants customers access to the full library of content. Users can also access single stories for free, with interstitial ads.
For DramaFever, the hope is that by tapping into Yarn’s user base — the app has around 3 million monthly active users — it can attract new paying members to its subscription VOD packages. DramaFever GM Rena Liu said the pact will extend “our characters’ life cycles beyond our series’ traditional viewing and provide our growing fanbase with a unique experience through their devices.”
Mammoth Media has previously struck similar entertainment partnerships for Yarn, including for AMC’s “Into the Badlands” and Archie Comics’ “Riverdale,” “Betty and Veronica” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” In addition, the writers of the “Saw” horror movies collaborated with Mammoth Media to create the exclusive series “HACK’d.”
Barry Blumberg, the former Defy Media exec who joined Mammoth Media as chief content officer earlier this year, led the deal with DramaFever and is working with other studios on partnerships, according to Vatere. DramaFever handled all applicable rights clearances for the characters included in the new Yarn content.
Yarn includes only original content — there’s no user-generated material. Mammoth Media’s Yarn writers room in L.A. includes a mix of people ranging from those fresh out of film school to industry veterans who are between movie or TV show projects, Vatere said.
Users of Yarn, which is available on iOS and Android devices, have read more than 80 million stories and 8 billion messages to date, according to the company. Mammoth Media operates two other apps: social-polling app Wishbone and Arena, a live-trivia game show patterned on HQ Trivia.
Founded in 2015, Santa Monica-based Mammoth Media has raised $16 million in funding to date from Science Inc. and Greylock Partners. The company currently has 42 employees, all based in L.A.