The Swedish audiobook service Bookbeat has reached an agreement with Mondadori, one of Italy’s largest publishers. With this agreement, Bookbeat now has partnerships with all five major publishers in Italy, which account for the majority of the total Italian book market, according to Bookbeat’s press release.

The new partnership with Mondadori makes over 1000 new audiobooks available for streaming on Bookbeat. “Our long-term ambition is to reach at least 100 000 users on the Italian market. Offering a large catalogue with titles from the most popular authors plays a big part in reaching that goal. By working with Mondadori, our Italian users will now be able to enjoy books from major authors such as Ammaniti, Bignardi, Borzacchiello, Calvino, Christie, Follett, Gotto, Riordan, Volo and Zafón.”, says William Jakoby, head of expansion and business development at BookBeat.

In the press release, BookBeat also stays that it wishes to put an end to exclusive agreements between publishers and streaming platforms on the Italian market. Bookbeat believes that an open market for both publishers and users would help to further develop the Italian audiobook market.

“Exclusivity between publishers and other services is a practice that over time has fractured the Italian market and prevented it from growing to its full potential. We believe publishers are progressively moving away from it, as they recognize the importance of investing in the digital market. To support the publishers, we will work closely with them, helping distribute and promote their content” Jakoby comments.

Amazon Prime Video is expanding its offer in Sweden. The streaming service now enables users to buy access to several new subscription channels.

A total of eight channels has been added, and prices range from SEK 19 monthly for the channel Love Nature, up to SEK 95 monthly for Mubi. This means that some of the additional channels cost more than the subscription of the Prime video in Sweden, which is SEK 59 per month.

Among the channels added to the service is Hayu, which focuses on reality TV. Hayu’s content is also available on C More in Sweden. According to Hayu, the new partnership with Amazon Prime Video will not affect its current offer on C More.

The new addition of subscription channels is available through Prime Video Channels and is only available for Amazon Prime members.

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