Outdoor Channel and 18-month-old digital platform, the WaterBear Network, have partnered on a three-day programming marathon to mark this year’s Earth Day.

The event, which extends last year’s Outdoor Channel/WaterBear Network content partnership, kicks off on 22 April with coral restoration film, "A Coral Love Story". 

Shows involved in the Earth Day marathon span biodiversity, climate action, food waste, and sustainable fashion, as well as impact productions around wildlife protection produced with NGO partners.

WaterBear’s original titles include "Defenders of The Deep", in which Greenpeace boat driver, Jetske Nagtglas, talks about fighting whaling in Antarctica; "Food For Thought", about food waste management; and "Redress The Future", about the fashion industry. 

There’s also "Wildlife Ranger Challenge", which follows conservation enforcement officer Benson Kanyembo and his team training to take part in the challenge. 

Outdoor Channel content in the special includes exclusive environmental documentary, "It’s In Our Nature", which tracks what Singapore stands to lose if more of its wildlife becomes extinct; "Ocean Plastic Clean Up Hong Kong", about five young people who go out to sea; and "Wildlife Heroes", the backstory of Ivan Carter engaging with anti-poaching teams and spending time on the front lines of conservation.

A long-time environmental campaigner and veteran factual producer, WaterBear Network founder and chief executive, Ellen Windemuth, says WaterBear’s trademark content qualities are shows “that inspire action to address critical socio-environmental issues”.

She says the platform “aims to drive significant positive impact by telling stories that build emotional connections” with audiences around the world. 

“We specialise in atomic stories: small in scale but explosive in impact, these stories activate the masses, and shift perspectives while driving engagement,” she adds.

So far, WaterBear has partnered with more than 140 NGOs around the world and is available on various platforms and devices in 194 countries. 

The most engaged audiences so far are in English-speaking markets such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia. The first branded linear channel recently launched on Samsung TV Plus across the U.K., Netherlands and Sweden. 

WaterBear’s slate tracks global environmental awareness content trends.

“There has been a significant increase in sustainability programming in the last few years raising awareness of key socio-environmental issues,” Windemuth says. 

“The pandemic strengthened humans’ relationship with the environment, even as the climate crisis grows more urgent,” she adds. 
Style and tone are also changing. 

“We’re seeing a shift from programmes based on facts to more emotive and empathetic stories with a sharp focus on individual characters that people can connect to,” she says.

18 months into the streaming platform’s existence, Windemuth says WaterBear is “doing exactly what we set out to do: we are an impact platform using storytelling to educate and inspire, which we hope will ultimately drive impact using actions and content to do so”. 

For 2022, Windemuth is focusing on growing brand partnerships, which she says are key to the platform’s business model. 

“We aim to drive significant positive impact by working with like-minded brands, from SMEs to large corporations, and form long-term impact-led partnerships based on shared values and mutual objectives,” she says.