Izzy, a streaming service that specializes in Israeli-produced content, has tapped David Levine (pictured) as a consultant to help strategically broaden its offering.

Underpinning this move is a big investment and push into daily dramas, catering to what the company sees as a strong “serialized storytelling” appetite among audiences of all ages that should also help boost Izzy’s international growth.

The five-year-old streamer is available globally and provides multilingual subtitles for viewers abroad as part of its mission to bring “authentic Israeli stories to worldwide audiences.” As per the company’s internal data, Izzy currently has roughly 45,000 paid subscribers and a library of more than 1,000 hours of content.

Levine is working with the streamer through his company Lightboat Media, and he’ll be channeling much of his kids industry experience—gleaned from recent stints in leadership roles at Disney EMEA and Moonbug Entertainment—into this new consulting gig. “My primary focus is to help Izzy start serving the kids & family demographic, as well as programming and marketing daily/serialized shows,” he tells Kidscreen, adding that he will be working closely with company CEO and co-founder Nati Dinnar to evaluate opportunities. 

Some work already seems to be underway on this front, with Izzy closing a deal to acquire multiple teen dramas from Tel Aviv-based Ananey Studios, a local label owned by Paramount. More licensed titles will be revealed later this year, but one of the first to hit the streamer is going to be Rising, a live-action adventure series that launched on TeenNick Israel in 2020. Other teen dramas produced by Ananey include The Hood, Sky, Greenhouse Academy and Spell Keepers.

“At this stage, we are looking at higher-volume series to create daily and longer viewing experiences for the audience. We are open to other formats as well, including specials, movies and non-scripted/documentary,” Levine adds.