‘Disko 76’ Launches End Of March On RTL+
Starting March 28, the TV series “Disko 76,” produced by UFA Fiction, can be seen on the streaming service RTL+ – a joint project under the Bertelsmann Content Alliance umbrella. “Disko 76” takes viewers into a world full of rousing music and tells a story that is characterized by joie de vivre, a spirit of optimism and romance. BMG provided musical advice for the series, Goldmann is publishing a book, and the original playlist of all the songs can also be heard on RTL+.
1976: The disco wave has reached Bochum. An overwhelming desire for freedom collides with bourgeois conventions, disco beats with old-school German pop, glamor with coal dust. The new TV series “Disko 76,” produced by UFA Fiction and available on RTL+ from March 28, tells the story of Doro and her siblings – who want more from life than to live up to their parents’ expectations – set to a soundtrack of unforgettable disco hits by Boney M., Donna Summer, ABBA, Kool and the Gang, and many other stars and bands. In the glittering light of the disco ball, they can be young, rebellious, and wild, turn night into day, fly high and fall low.
“Disko 76” is a prime example of cross-divisional content collaboration within the Bertelsmann Content Alliance (BCA), which comprises RTL Deutschland including G+J and RTL Radio Deutschland, UFA as well as BMG, Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe and the studio and talent agency We Are Era. Bertelsmann’s German content businesses work closely together in the BCA to offer creatives the largest possible cross-media platform for developing new formats and marketing them. In addition to the series on RTL+, the “Disko 76” project package also includes an eponymous novel by Dorothee Fesel, to be published on March 13 by Goldmann Verlag, part of Verlagsgruppe Penguin Random House. BMG’s Music Supervision team also supported the production with musical advice. The original playlist with all the songs from the series is to be released at the same time the series debuts on RTL+.
‘Competitive edge in a highly dynamic market’
“The ‘Disko 76’ project is an impressive demonstration of what good ideas can turn into when the creative units in the Bertelsmann Content Alliance join forces,” says Stephan Schmitter, CEO RTL Deutschland and Chairman of the BCA. “So much cross-media content has been created around the must-see content of the RTL+ series that will inspire our viewers and users and bring back the good feeling of the disco era. ‘Disko 76’ shows how BCA can give projects a unique scale and thus create a clear competitive advantage for its divisions in a highly dynamic market.”
Ulrike Leibfried, Managing Director of UFA Fiction, comments: “‘Disko 76’ is a wonderful high-end series that takes us back to the Seventies and the beginnings of the disco sound. In addition to the numerous historical stories that UFA Fiction has already told, such as ‘Ku’Damm,’ ‘Charité,’ and ‘Faking Hitler,’ here we present a modern homage to the late 1970s. Together with a fantastic team in front of and behind the camera, we celebrate the story of Doro and Robert, who escape their humdrum daily routine by diving into the colorful world of disco. We are proud to be screening our production as part of the Berlinale Market Selects series, and at the Séries Mania Festival in Lille even before its release. In addition, ‘Disko 76’ is a Bertelsmann Content Alliance (BCA) project. It will precipitate a lot of other cross-media content on the disco era that our audiences will love. We would like to thank RTL for believing in our story and are excited to see how ‘Disko 76’ will go down with viewers.”
Advance recognition
The six-part TV series stars Luise Aschenbrenner (“Brut”), Jannik Schümann (“Sisi”), Vanessa Loibl (“Unsere wunderbaren Jahre”), Jonas Holdenrieder (“Schlafschafe”), Emma Nova (“In Berlin wächst kein Orangenbaum”), Merlin Sandmeyer (“Die Discounter”), Natalia Wörner (“Die Diplomatin,” “Wahrheit oder Lüge2 – Die Macht der Frauen”), Farba Dieng (“Toubab”), Julia Jendrossek (“Freibad”), Jule Böwe (“Tatort: Die Kalten und die Toten”), Aljoscha Stadelmann (“Fabian oder der Gang vor die Hunde”), Moritz Jahn (“Dark,” “Wir könnten genauso tot sein”) and Jacob Matschenz (“Babylon Berlin”).
“Disko 76” is produced by UFA Fiction for RTL, with Sinah Swyter as producer. The series is directed by Florian Knittel and Lars Montag based on an idea by Benjamin Benedict and scripts by Linda Brieda (head writer), Dorothee Fesel, Judy Horney, Antonia Rothe-Liermann, and Janosch Kosack. Executive Producer at RTL Deutschland is Sylke Poensgen under the direction of Hauke Bartel, Head of Fiction RTL Deutschland.
In advance of its release, “Disko 76” has already garnered significant praise and was selected for screening by the judges of the Berlin Film Festival and Lille’s Séries Mania. The Berlinale Series Market is the central industry platform for serial content from all over the world. The tenth edition took place from February 19 to 21. A total of 15 titles were chosen to be screened under the “Berlinale Series Market Selects” label. From Germany, “Disko 76” was included on February 20. As a further laudatory tribute to “Disko 76,” a “Special Screening” is planned for March 16 as part of Séries Mania in Lille. The Séries Mania festival has established itself as the leading event for series in Europe since 2018.
