Electrifying entertainment

Danish broadcaster TV2 is doubling down on weekend entertainment and is on the hunt for reinvented primetime formats that appeal to the whole family.

By Gün Akyuz

Hot on the heels of its local version of international format hit Traitors, Denmark’s TV2 is on the lookout for the next big entertainment formats for its weekend line-up.

The commercial public broadcaster is currently underway with a new season of X Factor on Friday evenings.

The veteran singing competition format brings in one million viewers across linear and on demand.

“It’s a big show on both streaming and linear TV, which is also live viewing on our VoD platform, so it really ticks a lot of boxes,” says Marianne Bjørn, TV2’s manager of unscripted formats. “Very few shows nowadays cross that magic line in Denmark.”

TV2 has been rolling out a digitalfirst strategy for a number of years with SVoD platform TV2 Play. While on-demand viewing is growing steadily, live streams of the group’s linear channels account for 50% of TV2 Play’s consumption, driven by content such as news, sports and live events, which all attract a broader demo. In Denmark, 50- to 60-year-olds form the largest demo in terms of minutes consumed across all streaming services, according to audience research group Nielsen. shows. We need to studio elements or a X Fa format hit for TV2 he X

While X Factor does well across linear and on demand, other TV2 entertainment shows, such as its local version of Dancing with the Stars, work better on linear.

This is down to a combination of factors, explains Bjørn. “The entertainment shows that don’t work on demand are those that are too focused on the result, such as quizshows, or are very much live shows. We need to soften up the studio elements or shake things up a bit,” she says.

The Great British Bake Off, Denmark’s biggest entertainment show. Bjørn says she’d happily snap up format rights to the latter should they ever become available.

The exec, who was head of content and acquisitions at Banijay Nordics before joining TV2 in 2021, describes herself as the broadcaster’s “international eyes and ears” for formats.

Recent changes to TV2’s acquisitions team, led by Anders Leifer across scripted and content partnerships, resulted in acquisitions being embedded within the broadcaster’s centralised commissioning department. Previously, acquisitions sat within TV2 Play’s content department.

Alongside X Factor, another big format hit for TV2 is its adaptation of UK show Taskmaster, from Avalon, airing locally as Stormester. The programme succeeds across linear and ondemand, says Bjørn.

Avalon, a Stormester The Bj Made local Sto to six seasons TV2’s version 20.0 up against DR

Made locally by prodco Metronome, Stormester has run to six seasons so far, with two more already in the pipeline.

TV2’s version airs on Saturday nights at 20.00, when it goes up against DR1’s adaptation of

“We work closely together and have genre-focused meetings where commissioners and the heads of content and rights departments discuss their needs and what the opportunities are in entertainment, reality, lifestyle and factual,” Bjørn says of the new setup.

On the factual entertainment and reality front, TV2 is a window for a variety of international and local formats. More recently, however, there’s been an increased focus on paper formats developed locally by prodcos and tailored closely to TV2’s needs.

This year has seen the launch of local fact ent format Til salg i 100 år (For Sale for 100 Years, 8x30’), in which two realtors are tasked with finding buyers for houses that haven’t sold for a century combined. Bjørn says the format, created and produced by local prodco Laud People, is being prepared for a big international launch. Meanwhile, premiering in February was Petra slukker strømmen (Petra Cuts the Power). In the two-part factual experiment from Nordisk Film TV, high-profile local TV2 host Petra Nagel and her family cut the power in their home and tried to live off-grid for 20 days.

With all of TV2’s latest reality-driven commissions for 2024 sourced locally, and all of them high-concept, Bjørn observes: “We need certain values and we’re not always finding what we need internationally. There are so many reality and adventure formats, driven by the big streamers, that no one is focused on entertainment.” space has to work on linear and streaming. For the flagship TV2 channel, this rules out quiz formats, as they’re too closed-ended and focused on the result to work on-demand. However, on entertainment-skewing TV2 Charlie, quizshows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Wheel of Fortune still bring in linear viewers, Bjørn notes.

When it comes to reality and lifestyle formats, a key concern for TV2 is how contestants are treated, says Bjørn. “With reality, we’ve worked a lot on our values and history, and we treat contestants with solidarity, with purpose and meaningfulness,” she notes, adding that TV2 won’t do dating gameshows that feature prize money, for instance, and instead takes formats like The Bachelor, which is more focused on finding true love. A local version of The Bachelorette is due to join the line-up this spring.

“In lifestyle, we look for unique and engaging takes that can tell stories in a new way, as seen in All3Media format Sort Your Life Out, which is coming back for a second season,” says Bjørn. In terms of new lifestyle ideas, TV2 is searching for fresh takes on health and economy, she adds.

Top of Bjørn’s list is a new show for Friday nights, and formats will need to have the scale of its Friday night juggernauts Dancing with the Stars and X Factor, she says. “It’s really a challenge to find what’s next in that genre, because we tried The Masked Singer and it didn’t become the big success we hoped for. For TV2’s Friday night entertainment, it’s really important that it feels relevant to the viewers and there’s something at stake for the contestants. It also has to be packed with emotions and bring together the family.” reality and entertainment, with a large diverse ensemble cast,” says Bjørn. Made by Fremantle-owned Blu, TV2’s version of the Dutch format is due to start recording later this spring and is expected to launch in the second half of the year, in a yet-to-be-decided weekend slot.

Bjørn envisages that TV2’s next big Friday evening format could be a shiny-floor show, but asks: “Is there a different way to do Friday night entertainment?”

Danish producers have already been briefed over TV2’s entertainment requirements, says Bjørn. “Historically, those kinds of slots often go to something with a track record, but we could be open to a paper format, especially since we know our needs are a bit different from what the market can offer.

Distinguishing the different tones of TV2’s entertainment across the weekend, Bjørn says: “Friday is more ambitious and bigger in scale, whereas on Saturdays it’s a bit more fun, with lots of laughs.”

The exec attended the London TV Screenings in March with a specific mission around “cracking entertainment.”

“It’s very much about entertainment for me,” she says. “There are so many reality shows on the market right now. Yet another survival adventure show isn’t going to make me excited. Instead, I’m really curious about reinventing entertainment.”

As well as TV2’s big Friday night entertainment brief, Bjørn flags up weekday entertainment needs for TV2 Charlie and feelgood Sunday night entertainment on flagship TV2.

In terms of advice to producers, Bjørn says: “We are open to listening to ideas, and from a very quick pitch, I can tell you if it’s for us or not. It’s very much about hitting the DNA of how we see our viewers and how we treat our contestants, and also understanding that we are both VoD and linear. It needs a special kind of storytelling to hit both.”

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With the big focus now on renewing its entertainment slate, finding new entertainment formats of scale remains the holy grail for TV2. “It’s very expensive and we’re relying heavily on tried and tested formats,” says Bjørn, though she adds: “We’re searching for fresh ideas.”

Moreover, while a number of TV2’s biggest formats, such as Farmer Wants a Wife, and Dancing with the Stars still going strong, they’re now ageing. Bjørn says: “We need fresh storytelling and we need to stimulate the creation of new shows globally, within the worldwide ecosystem.”

TV2 will be aiming for fewer, bigger shows across its entire content slate, Bjørn continues. Moreover, everything TV2 commissions in the entertainment a number of s, such as The Block Stars, are ey’re We need we need eation within the .” for fewer, its entire continues. ing TV2 ntertainment

Traitors, a hit for the BBC in the UK last year, is one example of this new direction. “It ticks a lot of boxes, firstly as a non-studio-based show, but also as a crossover between

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“The biggest difference is that we need a ‘why’ in our entertainment shows. We want shows that are embracing and warm, and not just for the fun of it. We need there to be something at stake, lots of emotions g, and preferably a fascinating jo j urney that you can follow as a viewer week after week.”

Foreign producers and/or format creators who don’t already have a Danish prodco attached can come directly to Bjørn, who will be able to advise on local Danish producers to work with. “If the idea is really right for us and it’s a strong paper format, we could develop it together and couple up with a producer, because we don’t produce anything in-house,” pg she says.

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The current climate of economic uncertainty is making broadcasters even more risk averse in their commissioning than they were already – and a lack of risk in commissioning was a frequent criticism even when the going was good.

For new indies without a track record and/or companies trying to pitch a paper format in the current market, the outlook is tough. A spate of reboots and remakes is currently underway, with BBC One doing Survivor and Gladiators, ITV bringing back Big Brother and so on.

Two of the most experienced format execs, Frapa board members Hayley Babcock, who left A+E to form her own consultancy last year, and Lisette van Diepen, who advises All3Media in Germany and Benelux, have been outlining their strategy for getting a paper format off the ground as a new company.

“In my current role, the people who approach me most of the time are based in the Netherlands or Germany,” van Diepen says. “In the Netherlands, you’re in the lucky position that Talpa, a major broadcaster, has a specific fund for indies and single creatives to pitch their paper format ideas for potential investment. In Talpa’s case, it would result in sharing the IP 50/50.”

Babcock points out that other territories have similar funds for pitchers, via Fox in the US or ITV in the UK, for instance. This is the best route to take if you don’t have tape or a sizzle reel and are purely pushing a paper format, because the fund is there to pay for the development of such materials.

“Barring that, if you’re an individual, go to a production company,” Babcock says. “If you have a cooking idea, go to production companies that are established in that area. Be willing to share, because you want to walk into a broadcaster or streamer and have their trust that you will be able to produce the idea you brought to them.”

A common mistake, according to van Diepen, is pitching an idea similar to one already in existence, or one that would compete with something else in the broadcaster, producer or distributor’s catalogue. “Before you go there, make sure you do your research into the IP in house,” she says. “It’s disappointing for me as a buyer to be pitched something with all the passion in the world and have to say, ‘Did you see this show in the All3 catalogue that has been airing in this territory for six seasons?’ It must be difficult to be an indie in Estonia to pitch to an international company, but there are cheap ways to make sure you’re aware what’s going on internationally. C21 has a searchable database.”

A format is a definable, repeatable, protectable thing that has certain rules and structures. Your pitch needs to have materials that lay those things out. “It’s like a recipe book. You want the recipe to be understandable and easy to follow. You want people to get the rules of the show, the beats of the game, and understand the structure of an episode and the arc of a series, what the stakes are,” Babcock says.

This does usually mean creating a sizzle reel, though the expense of this development stage