Miptv 2015 focus on nordics

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CONTENTS Look who’s watching...

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The Eurovision Song Contest routinely draws the biggest audiences across the Nordic region...

The people

10

Executives give an insight into regional content and the business strategies for their companies

Out of the darkness

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The Nordic nations can add Nordic Noir to their list of creative and cultural achievements

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS

How the Nordics came in from the cold

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How did these countries become arguably the most advanced media market in the world?

It’s all about sharing

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Partnership and collaboration are key to the region’s success with unscripted formats

Less is more

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The Nordic territories are significantly infuential according to a series of statistics analysed here

A talent for teamwork

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The Nordic countries’ talent for teamwork is demonstrated in the business of co-production

Who’s buying, who’s selling?

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This small but dynamic group of countries represents a busy market place for content

Taking the digital lead

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The Nordic region is a hotbed for tech-driven TV concepts

MTG calls for flexibility

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The new TV landscape requires a different approach to windowing, says Jacob Mejlhede

Television’s ‘best kept secret’

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Technical people can be creative too, according to Ericsson’s Magnus Mandersson FOCUS ON THE NORDICS – April 2015 – MIPTV News Supplement Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Sub Editor Joanna Stephens Contributors Marlene Edmunds, Andy Fry, Juliana Koranteng, Gary Smith Editorial Management Boutique Editions Technical Editor in Chief Hervé Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frédéric Beauseigneur Graphic Designer Carole Peres © Cover picture: In The Search of The Norhtern Light - NRK/Norway PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Publishing Co-ordinator Emilie Lambert Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France) Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557.

Contents © 2015, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 1st quarter 2015. Printed on 50% recycled paper

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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What’s the story up North?

Tuesday 14th MIP DIGITAL SQUARE Agora, Palais des Festivals 09.00-10.00 Show & Tell: The Nordic Innovators FOCUS ON THE NORDICS Auditorium A, Palais des Festivals 14.00-14.45 Reinventing Broadcasting 14.50-15.20 Reinventing Content 15.30-16.15 The Hottest Drama From The Cold THE NORDIC PARTY 22.00–02.00 Hotel Martinez – By invitation only

Come and talk to us, listen to us and do business with us. Or just come and see us in The Nordic Pavilion, C16.A4.

www.focusonthenordics.com

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS RATINGS

Look who’s watching...

In ratings terms, the Eurovision Song Contest couldn’t get further from nul points in the Nordics — the event routinely draws the biggest audiences across the region.

Juliana Koranteng looks at what caught viewers’ attention in 2014 ATA supplied by Eurodata TV Worldwide and its partners in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland show that free-to-air broadcasters reign supreme when it comes to airing the most popular TV programmes in the Nordic region between 2013 and 2014.

The finale of the Eurovision Song Contest held more than 80% of the audience share on Denmark’s DR1, where it was the most viewed show in the whole of 2014. The Eurovision Song Contest was also number one on Norway’s NRK1 (1.6 million viewers) and Sweden’s SVT1 (4.2 million viewers) in 2013.

Other ratings-busters last year were transmitted just before the last Christmas holiday.

These include Kalle Anka Och Hans Vanne, SVT1’s version of From All Of Us To All Of You, Walt Disney Productions’ seasonal animation compilation. Aired on Christmas Eve 2014, it bagged a 96% audience share.

In Norway, the top programme in 2014 was Kvelden For Kvelden. The family-targeted variety show, which was transmitted on December 23, won a 75% viewing share during primetime. And in Finland, the number-one honours went to public broadcaster YLE1, where Itsenaisyyspaivan Vastaanotto, which

D 6

covers the festivities held to celebrate the country’s Independence Day on December 6, commanded an 84% audience share in its 18:15 time slot.

opment of strong local and regional offerings from broadcasting groups, especially commercial ones, and from independent companies such as Magine.”

In an increasingly fragmented international media market, audience measurement in the Nordic markets is considered among the most reliable in the world. Wherever possible, all content delivered to traditional and digital screens is assessed.

In 2013, thanks to TNS Gallup, Norway was the first country to integrate online viewing into traditional TV ratings, according to accountancy services giant Deloitte. Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav recently told the Financial Times that, since overhauling its measurement system, Norway had seen TV viewing shift from “double-digit declines to a 15% increase”.

Sweden’s Mediamatning I Skandinavien (MMS) started measuring TV ads on internet-connected desktop and mobile devices in 2014.

Sahar Baghery, international TV formats and contents director at audience measurement specialist Mediametrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide, says: “This highly competitive market is favourable to innovation and to the devel-

Copenhagen-based Karoline Spodsberg, Nordic Group chief operating officer at Banijay Group’s Nordisk Film TV, believes the region’s efficient, multiplatform measurement systems help raise the profile of niche shows like The Expedition, Banijay International’s family-driven travel series on Danish state broadcaster TV 2.

“The Expedition has scored record-high ratings and record-high qualitative ratings of 4.7 on a scale from one to five [source: TNS Gallup TV-Meter], which has never been seen before for a Danish-produced factual programme,” she says.

However, Spodsberg advises content-sellers to the Nordics to bear in mind the region’s different local tastes in programming.

“In Sweden, shows need to be big, loud and high-concept,” she says. “In Norway, the pace tends to be a bit slower. In Finland, comedy is the main driver. And in Denmark, the very strong public-service tradition makes lifestyle and factual entertainment shows work extremely well.”

“This highly competitive market is favourable to innovation and the development of strong local and regional offerings”

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

Sahar Baghery

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As an international law firm with offices in Denmark, Finland and Sweden we have a range of legal expertise to advise clients across the media industry Bird & Bird & Media

Get in touch

Our expertise of the media industry means that we are particularly knowledgeable about advising at the point where traditional media meets new technology.

For more information on where we’re best placed to help with your commercial legal needs across the Nordics, please find us at the Nordic Pavilion during MipTV, or get in touch:

We understand that convergence means that broadcasters need to respond quickly with innovative technology-driven solutions that are reinventing the broadcasting sector and can offer genuine industry expertise to the wide range of media companies, broadcasters, content providers, digital platform operators, broadcast technology suppliers, rights owners, agents, distributors, film and television producers.

Henrik Bergström Partner, Sweden henrik.bergstrom@twobirds.com

Peter Lind Nielsen Partner, Denmark peter.nielsen@twobirds.com

Harri Hynninen Partner, Finland harri.hynninen@twobirds.com

twobirds.com

@twobirdsmedia

Abu Dhabi & Beijing & Bratislava & Brussels & Budapest & Copenhagen & Dubai & Düsseldorf & Frankfurt & The Hague & Hamburg & Helsinki & Hong Kong & London & Lyon & Madrid & Milan & Munich & Paris & Prague & Rome & Shanghai & Singapore & Skanderborg & Stockholm & Warsaw

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS DENMARK / FINLAND / NORWAY / SWEDEN Top three best performing programmes of 2014 (in number of viewers) Source: Eurodata TV Worldwide/TNS Gallup TV-Meter (Denmark)/Finnpanel Oy (Finland)/TNS Gallup (Norway)/MMS Mediamatning i Skandinavien AB (Sweden)

Denmark Year

Rank

Channel

Weekday Date

Start Time

Duration (min)

2014

1

DR1

Sat

10/05/2014

21:00

2

DR1

Sun

05/01/2014

3

DR1

Fri

28/03/2014

Year

Rank

Channel

2014

1

Individuals 3+

Programme

Genre

Rat%

Rat 000

Shr%

215

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2014 FINALE

Event

40,4

2181,1

80,9

20:01

55

ARVINGERNE (THE LEGACY)

Series

36,2

1953,6

67,6

21:30

55

X FACTOR AFGORELSEN

Reality show

34,2

1845,0

70,6

Weekday Date

Start Time

Duration (min)

Programme

Genre

YLE1

Sat

06/12/2014

18:15

135

ITSENÄISYYSPÄIVÄN VASTAANOTTO

2

YLE1

Sat

06/12/2014

20:30

7

3

MTV3

Sat

25/01/2014

19:27

Channel

Weekday Date

Start Time

Finland Individuals 4+ Rat%

Rat 000

Shr%

Event

42,7

2202,4

84,4

YLE UUTISET

News

41,2

2125,7

75,0

93

PUTOUS

Comedy show 33,7

1738,9

63,6

Duration (min)

Programme

Genre

Norway

8

Year 2014

Rank

Individuals 2+ Rat%

Rat 000

Shr%

1

NRK1

Tue

23/12/2014

20:11

140

KVELDEN FØR KVELDEN

Variety show

37,2

1731,0

75,4

2

NRK1

Sat

10/05/2014

20:59

215

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2014 FINAL

Event

31,3

1484,1

77,2

3

NRK1

Sat

18/01/2014

19:55

58

MESTERNES MESTER

Reality show

27,6

1307,0

67,0

Programme

Genre

KALLE ANKA OCH HANS VÄNNE

Cartoon

Sweden Year

Rank

Channel

Weekday Date

Start Time

Duration (min)

2014

1

SVT1

Wed

15:01

62

24/12/2014

Individuals 3+ Rat%

Rat 000

Shr%

39,8

3707,1

96,0

2

SVT 1

Sat

01/02/2014

20:01

90

MELODIFESTIVALEN 14 DEL 1

Event

37,0

3406,6

73,9

3

SVT 1

Sat

10/05/2014

21:00

215

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2014 FINAL

Event

36,6

3368,5

82,6

Methodology Top programme ranked by number of viewers in thousands (1st criteria) and market share in % (2nd criteria) on the target group “total individuals”.

COUNTRIES: Denmark / Finland / Norway / Sweden CHANNELS: All channels combined GENRES: All genres combined (except Sports)

PERIOD: 01/01/2014 – 31/12/2014 TARGET GROUP: Total individuals Programmes less than five minutes excluded

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS Executives from the Nordic territories give an insight into regional content and the business strategies for their companies, now and into the future...

Pil Gundelach Brandstrup Head of channel at DR1 Denmark

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PIL GUNDELACH Brandstrup believes that one of the factors driving the global uptake of local programming is, ironically, its lack of drama: “It’s a Nordic virtue not to over-dramatise, to go for a natural, authentic feeling in fiction and drama as well as in factual content. And that tradition of authenticity has struck a chord with audiences around the world during recent years.

Plus, over the past decade there has been a focus on the development of content in the Nordic territories. The TV business has been professionalised, the volume of locally produced TV content has increased significantly, and Scandinavian broadcasters have been brave enough to put original ideas on screen.” Domestically, her strategy is all about consolidation: “In the TV department we’re working closer than ever together with the digital commissioning people, supporting each other, and at some point in the future we are most likely bound to merge in some way.”

Petri Kemppinen CEO, Nordisk Film & TV Fond AS THE head of a regional production fund, Petri Kemppinen is ideally placed to have an overview of what is currently being produced in the region: “Denmark’’s DR premieres Funnel The Money at MIPTV, which, as the title suggests, is about corporate crime, while from Norway we will be seeing The Occupied coming out at the end of the summer.

It was developed and produced by Jo Nesbo and Yellow Bird, and it looks on a micro level at how individuals react to the occupation of Norway by Russia. In Sweden, Miso Film and TV4 are working with The Bridge director Lise Siwe on crime thriller Modus. Based on the novel Fear Not by Anne Holt, it centres around a female crime profiler whose autistic daughter witnesses a brutal murder. The Replacements from Finland’s Fisher King is about genetic engineering and is aimed very much at the teen and young adult audiences. Trapped, by RVK Studios in Iceland, is about a small town that is snowed-in. Body parts start to come ashore and the series follows the race to catch the murderer before the snow thaws.”

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

Risto Kuulasmaa Head of TV and online media, YLE Finland KUULASMAA’s hybrid role is one we are likely to see at more broadcasters over the next few years: “It’s a very interesting place to be and it’s the only way to make sense of this convergent world, where the irony is that kids consume more video than ever but mainly on YouTube. We organised a YouTube event in Helsinki which attracted 5,000 kids, and by way of a follow-up we are now planning to launch a youth brand which is owned

by YLE, but with a totally separate organisation. YLE already operates the youth oriented radio station YLE X and TV channel YLE2, but what we intend to do is create a structure and some core values, then let the kids play around and experiment, with the best ideas going into an arena of fame.

We will then be giving out monthly grants to get the best ideas produced, which turns the audience into stakeholders. YLE is also organising Arena 2020 in May this year, a forum to try to identify and understand the trends that broadcasters will have to deal with over the next few years.”

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS

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Anders Jensen EVP/CEO free TV/radio Scandinavia, MTG

Casten Almqvist CEO/president, TV4 Group and head of Bonnier Broadcasting

Thor Gjermund Eriksen Director general, NRK Norway

AS THE person in charge of 12 free-to-air channels across the Nordic region, Anders Jensen candidly describes his role as a combination of very exciting and — with user behaviour changing — a bit scary: “Our aim is to allow viewers to connect more intimately with our offer through digital extensions, but equally important is that we also find a route that takes them back to the big screen. It is, as always, down to the quality of the content, because there is a never-ending demand for engaging, innovative content. Our overall channel footprint is among the younger segments, so for example with reality series Paradise Hotel, we are now starting to see a large online audience for the live online exclusive broadcast after the show. Overall viewing for the show is also moving online. Last year it was roughly 50/50, while for the most recent season it is close to 60/40 in favour of online. Following the national and international success of Paradise Hotel we are currently looking to grow our viewer share both on linear and digital through a clear digital roadmap, with both our own productions and formats that are a good fit for our targeted segments.”

SWEDEN is rightly regarded as being ahead of the technological curve, its high percentage of early adopters being seen by outsiders as an indicator of future trends elsewhere: “The TV4 Group is quite some way into its digital transformation, and one of the most intriguing things about where we are is that thanks to this country’s tech-savvy reputation, we are challenged by companies from all over the world to try out their solutions for creating greater engagement and loyalty among viewers. And growing audiences is still possible; our Finnish channels are doing it through original ideas, great talent and quality content. One of the most important things that we are doing is investing in technology in a way that we have never done before because we believe that local content plus tech is king. And we need to do that because Sweden is the most competitive TV market in the world at this moment; we have some absolutely brilliant rivals. Alongside the technology, our other strategy is to invest in local content. Across our main channels we are now broadcasting 80% domestic content including sport, drama, movies and formats.

AFTER co-producing three highly successful seasons of Lilyhammer, now sold to 120plus countries, NRK is currently changing gear with Slow TV: “The philosophy behind Slow TV is ‘what happens, happens’ with programmes running for hours at a time.

Shows have included six hours of snow falling, as well as a tour of the fjords, and this year we’ll be showing live knitting, for which Steve van Zandt suggested we build a camera into one of the knitting needles.

The truth though is that Norway is one of the few countries that could do this, because it touches the core of our national character, and it is a bit like watching a day of test match cricket, which is the mother of Slow TV.” Eriksen is a believer in ‘being the idea’s best friend’: “The original concept of Lilyhammer was very modest but it grew into something exceptional thanks to great producers and writers and strong support from the production partners, and that links back to NRK’s philosophy which is that it’s all about good content, whatever the size of the screen. The Norwegian audience has very high expectations so we simply have to deliver great ideas.”

“We believe that local content plus tech is king” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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Watch the promo!

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Heikki Rotko CEO, MTV Finland

Klaus Hansen CEO, Danish Producers Association

THE LAST couple of years have been both a challenge and great fun for the Finnish broadcaster: “We have been producing several big shows using local talent, all of which were regarded as high-risk ventures, but thankfully they have really clicked with the Finnish audience. Comedy Combat took off in its second season and became a national staple, then we took another risk in the fifth season by changing all the cast. That wasn’t our decision, it was because they wanted to pursue other ideas.

So we brought in a new set of actors for Comedy Combat, and set up a show called Kingi for the old cast, and I’m delighted to say that both shows are doing well. Our other very successful self-produced show is Posse, featuring The Dudesons, which goes out on Saturday night. It had to establish itself against better-known shows and did so very well. We are currently establishing a pool of new local talent which, alongside our adventurous use of social media (MTV was named as Best User of Social Media by the Finnish Media Association), forms the core of our strategy going forward.”

ACCORDING to Klaus Hansen, the idea of a pan-Nordic identity is as much for convenience as it is reflective of a homogenous regional identity: “It’s a good brand that promotes the idea of Nordic unity. And from the point of view of the TV and film industries, local talent has been circulating between the Nordic countries for a long time and there are a few production companies who work across several countries.” After the success of Nordic noir series such as The Killing, Hansen is spotting ‘noir-alikes’ being made elsewhere: “Fortitude from the UK (Sky) is a good example of a show inspired by the local crime genre, but perhaps more excitingly we are also seeing local formats increasingly being picked up internationally, and that is driving investment by local producers as they see the international market opening up. They are more willing to take risks and very motivated to develop local ideas and local talent, and there is a lot of talent here. It’s also an exciting development that TV2 recently signed a deal with Netflix to co-produce several series.”

YOUR NORDIC PARTNER SANDREW METRONOME content management on movies, tv-series and music

If you need a local partner for distribution of your content in the Nordics, please contact us.

Per Dam, CEO/Managing Director E mail: per@sandrewmetronome.com

Michael Rosenkilde, Product Manager E mail: michael@sandrewmetronome.com

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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CREATED BY JEPPE GJERVIG GRAM

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Credits / Genre · Drama series — Production Year · 2014 - 2016 — The Main Cast · Thomas Bo Larsen · Natalie Madueño · Esben Smed · Nikolaj Lie Kaas — Creative Writer · Jeppe Gjervig Gram — Episode Writers · Anders August · Jannik Tai Mosholt — Concept Developing Director · Per Fly — Episode Directors · Jannik Johansen · Søren Balle · Søren Kragh-Jacobsen — Concept Developing Photographer · Jonas Alarik — Episode Photographers · Laust Trier Mørk · Eric Kress — Production Design · Jette Lehmann — Producer · Anders Toft Andersen — Production Company · DR — Co-Financers · Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Svt, Nrk, Yle5, Ruv — Artwork · Benny Box — Head of Drama · Piv Bernth — Duration Season 1 · 10 x 58.30 · Season 2 · 10 x 58.30

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS NORDIC NOIR Sofie Grabol in The Killing

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Out of the darkness

The Nordic nations gave the world Norse mythology, Henrik Ibsen and Ingmar Bergman. And now they can add Nordic Noir to their list of creative achievements.

Andy Fry reports ARK and edgy dramas such as Wallander, Millennium, The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge have won critical acclaim the world over, and led to a wave of similar style productions from other markets. In the same way Ibsen and Bergman left their mark on those that followed, acclaimed international series including True Detective, The Missing, Les Revenants and Fortitude all have a little Nordic Noir in their DNA. International interest in Nordic Noir — a term that refers primarily to the region’s gritty and atmospheric crime dramas — first emerged in the second half of the last decade. But the roots of the genre stretch back further and are primarily centred on Sweden and Denmark.

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In Sweden, there is a long tradition of crime writing — some of which has spilled over into TV, says Berna Levin, COO of leading Nordic Noir producer Yellow Bird. “Swedish audiences have been fascinated by crime stories for a long time, leading to popular long-running TV series like Beck [based on the novels by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo].

For our company, the story began in 2003 when Ole Sondberg teamed up with author Henning Mankell to create 90-minute TV films based on his Wallander books.”

In 2005/2006, Yellow Bird produced 13 Wallander films for TV4 Sweden, with Germany’s ARD Degeto on board as a co-production partner. “The ARD involvement came about because Germans also loved Hen-

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

ning’s books,” Levin says. “It was very important because it gave us bigger budgets and allowed us to put more quality on the screen. It definitely helped put Wallander on the international map.”

The Swedish version of Wallander subsequently saw two more series. Significantly, however, there was also a UK version starring Kenneth Branagh, made in parallel with series two of the Swedish production. “That was another factor which helped alert the international market to what we were doing. When the UK version aired on the BBC, they also took the opportunity to show the original.”

Yellow Bird’s success with Wallander was followed by adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium (a global publishing phenomenon), Liza Marklund’s Annika Bengtzon and

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters — Nesbo is Norwegian, underlining the company’s desire to work with talent across the region. The company was acquired by Zodiak Media in 2007, which gave it further access to the international market. Explaining the appeal of these series, Levin says: “I think there were several factors. One was the social realism of our stories — central characters could be just as mixed up as real people. Another was the way it showed another side of Sweden. Everyone assumed we were living in a kind of utopia — but we have crime just like everyone else.”

Finally there was the creativity borne out of budgetary constraints: “Working with ARD enabled us to increase quality but we still didn’t have the kind of money needed for complex set pieces or big explosions. So we worked on atmosphere and characters.

These are some of the key elements people now associate with Nordic Noir.”

The Danish story is similar. Danmarks Radio’s head of drama Piv Bernth, a key player in the emergence of Nordic Noir, says: “Our story really began in 1995/1996 when we were trying to develop a show inspired

by NYPD Blue. We came up with Unit 1, which was a well produced show that won an International Emmy.” A few years later another International Emmy came for the thirtysomething drama Nikolai And Julie.

“This was significant because I worked on it with Soren Sveistrup and we talked about how we were a bit fed up with procedurals.

So we decided to do The Killing, a 20-part series focused on one murder. Sofie Grabol, who we had worked with on Nikolai And Julie, became our lead.”

The Killing has taken DR and Bernth to the forefront of the international drama business. “The show was broadcast in France, Germany and Benelux but the real breakthrough came when it aired on BBC4 in the UK. It won a BAFTA and interest exploded from there, leading to a US remake by cable network AMC.” After The Killing came Borgen, a political thriller that showcased the Nordic creative community’s ability to work outside the crime genre. Then came The Bridge, arguably the region’s biggest single success to date: “The Bridge is interesting because it was a Danish-Swedish co-production, a development which took Nordic Noir to a new place.”

The original version of The Bridge was sold

by ZDF Enterprises to around 130 countries while the format was picked up by Shine International and successfully adapted for the

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The Bridge, which has “won critical acclaim the world over”

“I don’t think we’ll be straying too far from Nordic Noir. It’s one situation where crime really does pay” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

Berna L evi n

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Celebrating 25 years of collaboration with top-financing more than 1,400 Nordic films, TV-dramas and documentaries between 1990 and 2015 Subscribe to our weekly Nordic industry news and extras at nordiskfilmogtvfond.com

US and UK. The US version, which aired on FX, went worldwide thanks to a deal with Fox International Channels. Back home, “we are working on a third season of The Bridge,for transmission in 2016”, Bernth says.

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Like Levin, Bernth identifies social realism, deep character analysis and distinctive backdrops as key to the genre’s success.

But she also stresses the role Nordic public broadcasters have played in supporting creative talent: “We put a lot of trust in writers and the management of DR backed us, even when we were tackling ideas that weren’t obvious subject matter for TV drama. We built up a strong relationship with the Danish creative community which backed our mission to find and produce original drama.”

The Danes and Swedes continue to keep the Noir flag flying with series including Arne Dahl (SVT Sweden), Nordskov and Those Who Kill (both TV2 Denmark). The latter is a crime series that sold to 25 territories and was remade in the US by A+E. But Norway has also been making up for lost time in the last couple of years, says Espen Huseby, CEO of distributor Nordic World. “We have seen a run of strong titles from Norway in recent years. I think it is the next Nordic market that will have international success.”

Among the ground-breaking titles to have come out of Norway is Lilyhammer, produced by Rubicon TV for NRK and picked up

by Netflix. More recently, NRK production Mammon has been making waves. Beta Film sold the completed show to a number of broadcasters including Channel 4 UK and Universal in France, while distributor DRG sold the format into the US, UK and Eastern Europe, where HBO is planning Czech and Polish versions.

Also making waves is Acquitted, a Miso Films production for TV2 Norway that is distributed internationally by FremantleMedia International. Acquitted, which debuted to huge ratings on TV2, tells the story of a businessman who returns to his hometown in rural Norway after spending 20 years in Asia. However he has skeletons in his closet, having been acquitted as a young man of

©Sofie Silbermann

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS

Cross-border crime drama The Team

Henning Mankell’s Wallander, produced by Yellow Bird for TV4 Sweden

murdering his girlfriend.

There is a concerted effort by public broadcaster YLE and its commercial counterparts to emulate the success of their Nordic neighbours. Noel Hedges, senior vice-president acquisitions at Modern Times Groupowned distributor DRG, believes he has a show that suggests Finland is coming of age as a purveyor of Nordic Noir. “We’ve been doing very well with The Black Widows, a show from Moskito Films for Nelonen which tells the story of three women who murder their husbands and try to start their lives again. The format has been picked up by a number of buyers including CBS in the US. The completed show has also gone to Germany.”

writer of The Killing, I wrote Borgen and Meta has produced a number of films including A Royal Affair and Melancholia.”

According to Price, the goal is to create “high-quality edgy shows using Nordic talent that can appeal to a global audience. By teaming up with StudioCanal we get the support we need to take our ideas international. Currently we have more than 25 projects in development.”

Echoing Bernth, Price says: “A big part of the Danish success story was DR’s willingness to support writers and their ideas.

Once they decide to back a project they support it with a full budget and a declaration of creative confidence. I think that’s something StudioCanal understands. They know how to achieve commercial success while allowing the writer/producer to develop their particular vision.”

References to Zodiak, ZDFE, Shine International, FMI and DRG are all evidence of interest in the international potential of Nordic drama, both in its original version and as formats. Another interesting recent development in this respect is the news that Warner Bros.-owned Eyeworks has teamed up with SVT and GotaFilm on The Most Forbidden, a drama based on Kerstin Thorvall’s best-selling novel.

Elsewhere, StudioCanal is backing a new company called SAM Productions: “SAM is a writer-based production company named after its three principles: Soren Sveistrup, Adam Price, and Meta Louise Foldager,” says co-founder Price. “Soren is best known as creator and

Another high-profile firm to have muscled in on the market is ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE), which picked up the global distribution and format rights to two Swedish shows called Angelby and Jordskott. “Jordskott is a mystery crime story about the disappearance of a child,” says Ruth Clarke, director of acquisitions and co-productions, ITVS GE. “It is currently airing on SVT and getting similar ratings to The Bridge. For me, one of the enduring attractions of Nordic drama, is its strong female characters. But what I like specifically about

“I know that booms like this don’t last for ever” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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On Top of the World Denmark

Finland

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Jordskott is the way it introduces supernatural elements into the mix. It feels like an example of the Nordic Noir genre moving into a new area.”

Where next for Nordic Noir is a subject that DR’s Bernth has to contend with on a daily basis. “I know that booms like this don’t last for ever. But we just need to keep focusing on doing good stuff. We showed with Borgen that we could move beyond crime into areas that people told us wouldn’t make good TV. And we have another project coming up in 2016 called Follow The Money, which is set in the world of finance. I’m optimistic because of the quality of writing we are seeing coming up through the Danish TV system.”

One theme coming through at the moment is domestic and family relationships. DR deals with this in The Legacy while SVT’s Thicker Than Water, distributed by ZDFE, focuses on a trio of estranged siblings who have to jointly run a B&B for a year before they can get access to their late mother’s will.

SVT was also the home of Real Humans, a show set in a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a robotic servant called a Synth. The show has subsequently been remade for Channel 4 in the UK, with US cable network AMC on board as a co-production partner. Humans was produced by Matador, which also made crime drama Tusenbroder for SVT. That title has been picked up for remake in the US, where it will be known as Brothers In Crime.

The Nordic region isn’t well-known for period drama, but in this new era of creative confidence even this genre isn’t out of bounds. DR recently aired 1864, a period piece from Miso Film. Having debuted with 67.5% share on DR, the €23m production was licensed across the Nordic region and to the BBC and ARTE — and there are more sales in the pipeline.

Yellow Bird, meanwhile, is also broadening its subject base. A recent project, Levin says, is Occupied, a political thriller based on an idea by Jo Nesbo. The 10-part series, which is a co-production between TV2 Norway and ARTE, imagines a scenario in which Russia

THE GERMAN CONNECTION GERMAN broadcaster ZDF and its commercial arm ZDF Enterprises have played a key role in the rollout of Nordic Noir. Here Wolfgang Feindt, head of series and international co-productions at ZDF, and Tasja Abel, vice-president, drama, at ZDFE talk to Andy Fry about the nature of the relationship Andy Fry: When did ZDF get involved with Nordic Noir and why?

ZDF: We got involved about 10 years ago with the Henning Mankell Collection. We were looking for outstanding European crime projects and were very impressed by the great storytelling and creative talent we met. A mutual understanding of key creative values and a shared sense of culture were significant too. We got involved as coproducers (ZDF) and distributor (ZDFE) and were involved most of the time quite early in key decisions.

good creative teams. From a distribution point of view it also helps that there is a strong book market.

AF: Can you give me some examples of key Nordic productions you have been involved with over the years?

ZDF: The Killing was a milestone for new storytelling, The Bridge was a first ‘true’ coproduction on screen. Now we are working on (cross-border crime drama) The Team with a number of co-producers including SVT. The Team just aired and had fantastic results of nearly 20% market share AF: Which Nordic dramas do you distribute?

Can you see any trends as companies try to keep content fresh?

ZDF: ZDFE is the worldwide distributor of The Killing, The Bridge, The Team and Thicker Than Water. We invest in shows early and distribute remake rights for some of the shows as well as the originals. Thicker Than Water is a dark family drama that has been a great success for ZDFE. There is more of a mixture of genres to be found now.

AF: What is the appeal of Nordic drama?

ZDF: Great, innovative storytelling, deep characters and multi-layered stories, a selfestablished visual style — in all aspects,

Thicker Than Water, a dark family drama that has been a great success for ZDFE

stages a silk-glove invasion of Norway to stabilise global oil output. Produced in English, Norwegian and Russian, it’s a good example of how Nordic producers have developed the confidence to experiment with subject, process and language. But, Levin

says: “I don’t think we’ll be straying too far from Nordic Noir. It’s a genre that we know how to do and that travels well. It’s one situation where crime really does pay.”

“For me, one of the enduring attractions of Nordic drama is its strong female characters” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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How the Nordics c The Nordic media market has grown massively in influence over the last 25 years. So how did a small group of public broadcaster-dominated territories transform themselves into arguably the most advanced media market in the world? Andy Fry reports

H 24

ISTORICALLY dominated by a combination of public broadcasters and powerful newspaper publishers, the Nordic market is now a hotbed of media experimentation.

Blessed with high levels of pay-TV penetration and superfast broadband across much of the region, audiences have benefited from both channel proliferation and the rapid roll-out of on-demand services.

At the same time, the Nordic region — which consists of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland — has experienced a creative renaissance. Despite being home to a little under 25 million people, its crime dramas have conquered the world in both their original versions and as formats. There is a similar dynamism in the field of non-fiction formats, with Nordic audiences proving to be inquisitive and open-minded. This fact has been seized upon by leading international producers, which have established prolific creative businesses across the region.

In terms of historical development, the Nordic TV market was totally dominated by public broadcasters until the late 1980s, the key players being SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway, YLE in Finland and Danmarks Radio in Denmark. Indeed, it is an interesting indication of the mood at the time that one of the earliest moves towards competition in the TV market came with the launch of a second public broadcaster in Denmark (advertiser-funded TV2 in 1988).

Competition from the private sector was kick-started by Kinnevik-backed MTG (Modern Times Group), which launched the freeto-air ad-funded channel TV3 in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1987. This was a

radical move at the time, because MTG set up operations from outside the region’s borders. “The licensing rules within the region prevented MTG from launching an advertiser-funded TV channel,” says Morten Mogensen, chief content officer for MTG Free TV Scandinavia. “So the company set up its HQ in the UK and broadcast TV3 from there via satellite. This allowed it to circumvent the regulations in Scandinavia and changed the market forever.”

MTG launched its first pay-TV channel TV1000 in 1989. It then rolled out territory-specific versions of TV3 in Denmark and Norway and its pan-Nordic pay-TV platform Viasat in 1991.

“That was just the beginning of the shift towards greater competition,” Mogensen says. “If you look at the two decades that followed, the Nordic television market saw a lot of channel launches. In our case, we added a Swedish youth network called ZTV, which was then replaced by male-skewing network TV6 in 2006 (MTG has equivalent networks called 3+ in Denmark and Viasat4 in Norway). We also have female-skewing networks TV8 in Sweden and TV6 in Norway.

These complement the flagship TV3 and our portfolio of pay-TV channels.”

MTG was not the only commercial operation to identify the region as an opportunity for expansion. In 1988, Norway gained its first dedicated ad-funded TV channel, TV Norge, launched under licence by Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS), a company formed by media entrepreneur Harry Sloan.

Not long after, SBS opened for business in Sweden and Denmark.

Meanwhile, the Swedish authorities award-

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

ed a free-TV licence to Nordisk Television, which launched ad-funded channel TV4 in 1992. Subsequently, TV4 was taken over by the region’s most powerful publishing group, Bonnier, which later expanded its influence in Nordic free-to-air by acquiring MTV3 Finland from Alma Media.

The development of the free-TV market was followed by further expansion in the pay-TV sector (except in Finland, which lags in terms of penetration). Here, MTG/Viasat’s position was challenged by the 1997 launch of a Canal+-owned rival. After a few changes in ownership structure, this business ended up in the hands of Bonnier and is now known as C More Entertainment. Meanwhile, SBS also underwent changes, first being taken over by Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, before Discovery Communications acquired the Nordic elements of the business for $1.7bn in 2012. At the time of the deal, this included four television networks in Norway, with a viewing share of 34%, two networks in Sweden with share of 22%, four networks in Denmark, with a share of 19%, and two networks in Finland.

Interest from ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery illustrates the growing attention that has been paid to this relatively small region by foreign firms. Explaining the strategic rationale, Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav cites the Nordic territories’ unique combination of stability and innovation.

“SBS Nordic has a fully distributed portfolio of dual revenue-stream networks that will expand Discovery’s footprint across the Nordic region, which includes some of the most well penetrated and stable TV markets in the world,” he says.

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came in from the cold Between them, MTG, Bonnier and SBS/ Discovery changed the dynamics of the Nordic market. But the public broadcasters have not sat idly by. Continued investment in local content combined with the addition of new channels has kept them competitive. In Sweden, for example, the majority of SVT’s audience still tunes into flagship channels SVT1 and SVT2, but there are additional dedicated services for kids and factual content, according to head of SVT International, Stephen Mowbray. “SVT1’s average share is around 23%, but the overall portfolio is more like a 34% share, meaning that SVT is still the biggest broadcaster,” he adds. “There are times when the share gets much higher. Right now [March], the SVT family’s average audience is 48% while some of our individual programmes do even better. Melodifestiavlen, where we choose the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, had a 74% share, talk-show Skavlan regularly has 50% and game show Pa Sparet has 67%. Even the local version of BBC format Antiques Roadshow has 43%.”

It is a similar story in Norway, where NRK has three channels; Finland, where YLE has five channels; and Denmark, where DR and TV2 have a dozen services between them.

In Denmark, the combination of DR and TV2 takes an average 67% of the audience, while NRK and YLE command shares of 35% and 45% respectively. In every market across the region, pubcasters remain number one.

The expansion of channel competition, which also needs to take into account the pay-TV

players, inevitably led to an increased demand for content, both acquired and locally produced. “We buy a lot of movies and sports rights across pay TV and free TV,” MTG’s Mogensen says. “There is also demand for US series, British crime drama, lifestyle and factual. And some of the classic formats continue to do well, for example The X Factor, Got Talent, Paradise Hotel and Survivor.”

The Nordic market also saw the establishment of dynamic indie producers to address the increased demand for local production, both original and format-based, Mogensen adds. Echoing trends elsewhere in Europe, many of these have now been absorbed into larger international entities. In Sweden, reality specialist Strix (The Farm, The Bar) is now part of MTG’s pan-Nordic content division nice entertainment group, while Zodiak created a regional powerhouse by swallowing up well-established brands including Mastiff, Yellow Bird and Jarowski. Banijay made a similar move, snapping up the respected Nordisk Film TV in 2009.

Biggest of all is the Endemol Shine Group, which operates across the region via 11 companies, including Metronome. Shows to have been produced by the group include Big Brother, The Bridge, Clash Of The Choirs, Hotel Caesar, Lilyhammer, MasterChef, The Money Drop and The Third Eye. For Endemol Shine, the Nordic territories are important for three reasons. First, as a consumer of its big entertainment formats, including Big Brother, Deal Or No Deal and MasterChef. Second, as a source of formats that travel — examples being Minute To Win It and Clash Of The Choirs from one of our

“Significant is the rise of YouTube, which is the leading platform in the AVOD market”

FOCUS DESTINATION ON THE NORDICS ISRAEL ••APRIL APRIL2014 2015

producers, Friday. And finally, because of its long tradition of making high-quality scripted material, one example among many being Lilyhammer, which was produced by one of its companies, Rubicon TV, for NRK. For Endemol Shine and other international companies operating in the region, its innovative approach to the production process is a huge benefit, as well as the Nordics’ proven ability to deliver high quality on tight budgets.

Arguably, it is in the last few years that the Nordic market has become especially interesting. Alongside the Nordic Noir explosion and the intervention of Discovery, the region has seen a sudden shift in viewing towards OTT and on-demand, making it one of the world leaders in this respect.

“The Nordic territories were lagging behind,” says Natalia Borelius, an analyst at Swedish research firm Mediavision, “but a shift to high broadband and pay-TV penetration has changed that. The big story has been the launch of SVOD platforms by Netflix, HBO and the local players [for example MTG’s Viaplay, Norway’s TV2 Sumo, Denmark’s TV2 Play, Finland’s Ruutu+ and Sweden’s TV4 Play premium among others].

Consumers here crave US drama and the SVOD services have been an effective way for them to get that content. Also significant is the rise of YouTube, which is the leading platform in the AVOD market.”

Mediavision’s data underlines the point. “If you look at the daily reach of OTT now compared to 2011, there is a big shift, with around a third of the population using OTT, SVOD as well as AVOD and public service television

25

Natalia Borelius

Danish-Swedish co-production The Bridge

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daily,” Borelius says. “Netflix has been the game changer and market driver for SVOD. The SVOD business model is more challenging for local companies. They don’t have Netflix’s economies of scale and are not used to a new reality where people sign up to services for a particular show, then cancel their subscription when it’s over.”

Having said this, local players are becoming more aggressive and recently did a content deal with Nickelodeon that will help it reach family audiences. Borelius adds: “Its digital accelerator division, MTGx, is also trying to target the youth market. It recently acquired a stake in Splay, which is Sweden’s biggest YouTube MCN.” One aspect of the Nordic market that makes it challenging for content-owners is the abnormally high level of piracy, with close to 30% of individuals in Sweden pirating content on a monthly basis. However, according to Borelius, this isn’t all bad news: “Our finding is that pirates are heavy-users and watch more VOD altogether — legal and illegal, pay and non-pay. They are early adopters who have, perhaps surprisingly, helped the VOD services take off.”

As referenced above, MTG has taken the fight to Netflix and HBO. Bonnier CEO Tomas Franzen has also recognised that digital is the future for his company, which has so far managed a seamless progression from print to free TV and pay TV. “In markets where traditional revenue streams are under pressure, we need to increase our revenues from new, primarily digital, sources,” he says. “And we need to do it at a faster pace than we have done so far. In September 2014, Bonnier adopted a strategy to achieve this shift towards digital growth.

Our ambition is to drive the change process via investments in technology and business development.”

Down at the coalface, Casten Almqvist,

CEO/president of TV4 Group and head of business at Bonnier Broadcasting, claims to be excited by the arrival of “brilliant” rivals like Netflix. But his own company is doing well in the emerging digital space. Last year, TV4 Play delivered 262 million streams, double the 131 million delivered the previous year. TV4 Play Premium, the third biggest SVOD service in Sweden behind Netflix and Viaplay, also posted a 40% growth in subscribers and a 64% growth in revenue generated.

At the same time, Almqvist says that TV can continue to do well in the new environment: “Thanks to this region’s tech-savvy reputation, we are challenged by companies from all over the world to try their solutions for creating greater engagement and loyalty among viewers. And growing audiences is possible. Our Finnish channels are doing it.”

Almqvist is referring to Bonnier’s MTV channel in Finland, where success has partly been about producing great content, but also about harnessing digital to support TV, according to MTV CEO Heikki Rotko. “Our use of social media is very intense to keep shows top of mind, and all our channels are online. In addition, we have been offering online linear simulcasts for the last 18 months, plus a catch-up VOD service and a lot of clips of great moments from shows,” he says.

The resilience of traditional TV in the Nordic region is acknowledged by Eva Harrie, an analyst at Nordicom, the Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research. “Daily reach for the large TV channels shows a steady decline over a 10-year period. But still, there are a number of channels that reach a great part of the population. The three largest — MTV3 and YLE TV1 in Finland and NRK1 in Norway — are seen by almost half [48%] the population in each country on an average day. In Denmark, TV2 and DR1 dominate, each with a 38% daily

reach while, in Sweden, 36% and 33% respectively of the population watch the leading channels SVT1 and TV4 on a daily basis.”

As Harrie points out, it is the combination of channel fragmentation and SVOD services that has eroded the main players’ dominance in recent years. “But even though large generalist TV channels have lost market share to narrower ones, the leading channels maintain a considerable share of viewing time. The combined audience share for the two major channels ranges from 42% in Sweden to over 80% in Iceland, while the channels following them have audience shares of 4%-8% each, except in Finland where number three, Nelonen, has 13% of viewing time.”

Much of the above is good news for content distributors seeking a foothold in the region.

But the big buyers warn that deal-making is more challenging in the new landscape.

TV2 Denmark’s head of acquisitions and formats, Anette Romer, says: “Linear remains very strong, but we have to deliver the choice of delayed viewing/catch-up on all titles, because viewers expect to be able to view when and wherever they can. But VOD/OTT has made our deals more complicated. It seems every deal is done on a non-precedential basis at the moment when it comes to digital rights. We are all manoeuvring in uncharted waters.”

One other consideration when looking at the Nordic territory is the fact that it is actually made up of several countries. Because there are under 25 million people in the region, most companies regard it as a single market. This approach works up to a point, but cannot be taken too far, says SVT International’s Mowbray: “There’s good collaboration between countries and you can discern a certain Nordic watermark on content.

But if you really want to succeed in these markets, you need to become acquainted with their cultural differences.”

“It seems every deal is done on a non-precedential basis at the moment when it comes to digital rights. We are all manoeuvring in uncharted waters”

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

A ne t t e R om

er

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COMING SOON

AVAILABLE ON

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS

DENMARK

FINLAND

NORWAY

SWEDEN

5.7 million

5.5 million

5.1 million

9.8 million

$59,250

$49,920

$107,280

$57,930

98%

93%

96%

94%

85%

82.9%

87%

83.1%

82.6%

59.5%

73.9%

58.8%

8.7 million 155.7% penetration

10 million 190% penetration

6 million 116.9% penetration

15 million 153.9% penetration

Mobile phone subscribers (share of population 2014)

87.5%

90%

91.1%

83.5%

Smartphone users (share of mobile subscribers 2014)

70%

54.5%

68.4%

68%

62%

47%

70%

61%

2014: 8% 2018 (forecast): 65.8%

2014: 59% 2018 (forecast): 66.5%

2014: 64.6% 2018 (forecast): 69.3%

2014: 61.3% 2018 (forecast): 66.5%

12.4%

13.1%

18.5%

17.6%

15%

23.2%**

19%

2014: $380m vs. $991m vs. $2.27bn

2014: $372m vs. $418m vs. $1.63bn

2014: $641m vs. $1.06m vs. $2.74bn

2014: $904m vs. $1.67bn vs. $3.9bn

2017: $326m vs. $1.55bn vs. $2.67bn

2017: $432m vs. $584m vs. $1.76bn

2017: $637bn vs. $1.42bn vs. $2.84bn

2017: $856bn vs. $2.51bn vs. $4.44bn

No.10

No.1

No.3

No.4

NORDICS BY NUMBERS Population Gross domestic product per capita TV homes penetration of population Internet penetration of population (2014) Fixed-broadband penetration of homes (2014) Mobile phone connections (2014) of population

28

Computer tablet penetration (2014) Facebook penetration of internet users Twitter penetration of internet users (2014) Number of Instagram users (2014)

770,000*

Instagram penetration (2014): TV advertising spend vs. internet spend vs. total spend

Most secure countries for intellectual property (2014)

* This represents a 55% increase from 2013

** This figure rises to 55% among 18 to 29-year-old Norwegians

STATISTICS SOURCES: The Economist; Swedish Broadcasting Authority; International Intellectual Property Rights Index 2014; eMarketer; TNS Gallup; Internet Infrastructure Foundation (.se); Statista; ZenithOptimedia

DESTINATION ISRAEL • APRIL FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL2014 2015

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It’s all about sharing I “Fluid, open, democratic” is how one leading executive has described the Nordic media business.

And partnership and collaboration seem to have been key to the region’s success with unscripted formats. Joanna Stephens reports

Red Arrow International’s Married At First Sight

T COULD be argued that it was actually a feelgood format rather than a chilling drama that first focused the world’s attention on the Nordic talent for producing compelling television. In 1998, Mastiff Media’s The Big Class Reunion debuted on TV2 Denmark and was soon reuniting celebrity school friends around the globe. “I guess it was the first big Scandi break-out show — the hit that put us on the radar,” says Jacob Houlind, group CEO of Nordisk Film TV, who was himself involved as a rookie TV executive in selling the format internationally. At the last count, the show been sold into more than 20 countries, including the US, Australia, France, Spain and, most recently, Germany, where it was remade last year for RTL. At around the same time, a docu-soap on a paradise island called Expedition Robinson started pulling in huge audiences for SVT Sweden. Credited with launching the adventure reality genre, Expedition Robinson went on to spawn one of the most successful formats of all time: Mark Burnett’s mighty Survivor, now in its 30th season on CBS. And although the Strix show was based on a paper format from Planet 24, the UK production company owned by Charlie Parsons and Bob Geldof, Expedition Robinson was seen very much as Scandi success story by a content industry just waking up to the potential of formats.

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS “The only way to attract intelligent audiences on tight margins is to be clever, innovative and unafraid to take risks” The combination of Big Class Reunion and Survivor opened the floodgates. The next decade saw a steady stream of successful Nordic formats: Zodiak’s Friends Forever, which built on the success of Big Class Reunion’s celebrity-pals formula; Strix’s backto-the-good-life format The Farm, which made its way into some 40 territories; Minute To Win It and Clash Of The Choirs, developed by Friday TV/Metronome, which sold extensively across Europe and bagged US network commissions from NBC. “I call it the Bjorn Borg effect,” Houlind says.

“Before Borg, nobody had ever heard of a Swedish tennis player. After he won Wimbledon five years in a row, Swedish tennis players were suddenly everywhere. It’s the same with formats. If you have one show that really travels the world, you expand the opportunities for other shows from the same territory by positioning that territory as a creative hub. I think that’s happening now with Israel.”

In today’s brutally competitive, digitally disrupted marketplace, it is no surprise that the world’s eyes have remained trained on Nordic producers, with their gift for generating quality content on limited budgets, and their willingness to push the creative and technological boundaries. Moreover, the region has come to be seen as something of a testing ground for new formats. “Given our well-educated, critical audiences, if a format works locally, it’s likely to work globally,” says Jan Salling, chief operating officer and managing director of sales and acquisitions for TV2 Norway-owned Nordic World. “The only way to attract intelligent audiences on tight margins is to be clever, innovative and unafraid to take risks.”

Annie Wegelius, production veteran, former programming director at Swedish public broadcaster SVT and co-instigator of the Focus On The Nordics showcase with Titan TV founder Thomas Hedberg, agrees. “The Swedish audience in particular is very, very sophisticated and our market is one of the most competitive in the world,” she says.

“As a producer, your developers have to be very good, very clever and very tuned in to

the market mood to get a show on air.”

On the plus side, however, Wegelius says the Nordic industry is “a very fluid, open, democratic business” compared with the larger TV territories, with their impenetrable hierarchies and tangles of red tape.

“It’s not hard to get a meeting with a commissioner if you have something serious to sell,” she says. “There are not many layers of bureaucracy, which makes the process from creation to broadcast relatively quick and efficient.”

Like Salling, Wegelius has also been around the Nordic formats business since the late Eighties, cutting her teeth on reversioning hit UK formats — notably Love At First Sight — from Stephen Leahy’s Action Time for the Swedish market. “In those early days, the format trade was strictly one-way traffic,” Wegelius says, as Denmark and Sweden’s newly launched commercial channels scrambled to find large volumes of eyeball-grabbing, cost-effective content. For-

matted game shows, talk shows and dating shows, primarily from the UK, helped fill the schedules, while giving Sweden’s indigenous producers time to play catch-up.

Wegelius praises Leahy’s far-sighted model, under which the 15-odd partners in the Action Time collaboration could option each other’s formats, allowing them to create sizeable catalogues in their respective territories. For Wegelius, this provided “a great base” for her fledgling production company Wegelius TV — which merged with Mastiff Media before it then became part of Zodiak. And for Action Time, it provided a steady stream of licence and production fees without the trouble or expense of acquiring production companies.

Both Salling and Houlind, however, agree that after the glory years of the Noughties, Nordic formats have lost a little of their sparkle. “We’re in a bit of a flat time for non-scripted at the moment,” Houlind says candidly. He suggests this is because the format industry in general is running out of

Strix’s Anno premiered on NRK Norway in January to 40%-55% shares

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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“idea holes”. “You used to be able to sell a format because it was a unique idea,” he says. “Now, you don’t sell on the novelty of the concept, but on the novelty of the execution — by making it more interesting with new twists, like turning chairs, technology or interactivity, for example.”

Houlind is hoping that a format from his own stable — Banijay’s Something Special — will help the Nordic industry to rediscover some of its mojo. The humorous but heart-wrenching Danish format, which follows athletes with learning difficulties as they prepare for this summer’s Special Olympics in Los Angeles, has been sold across the Nordics and is “close to deals” in France and Italy.

“Something Special is a powerful show about the extraordinary lives of mentally challenged people,” Houlind says. “And it also has a double story, in that it doesn’t just entertain — it also inspires, educates and informs. That’s always been important in the Nordic territories, with our strong public-broadcasting culture. We like to feel our entertainment is doing us good.”

Another example of the double-story approach is Gry Winther/TV2 Norway’s award-winning format Dining With The Enemy, which sees a top war correspondent and a celebrity chef host a meal for guests from opposite sides of a conflict. Repped by Nordic World, the MY Entertainment-produced version of the format is currently winning critical acclaim on Travel Channel in the US. Renamed Breaking Borders, it is picking up glowing reviews from the likes of The New York Times, which praised it for its ability to “explain and illuminate” different countries and cultures. The Media Ranch-produced version of the format, which has also been optioned in the UK and Germany, is also doing well for French-language network TV5 Canada.

In a similar vein, Salling has high hopes for the Swedish factual entertainment show Dictator, a thought-provoking social experiment that has gone straight to license in

Belgium and Norway. “Dictator is a perfect example of the Nordic talent for creating ‘entertainment with a purpose’,” he adds.

“It’s not only compulsively watchable, but it also challenges you to think about the meaning of freedom and democracy — two privileges that we take for granted in the civilised world.”

Most certainly qualifying for the tag ‘compulsively watchable’ are two hit DR1 Danish formats, brought to market by Red Arrow International. Married At First Sight, which first aired on DR1 Denmark, centres on six unlucky-in-love singletons who take the radical step of marrying a stranger. The Snowman-originated format has now been licenced to the UK, Australia, Russia, Ger-

Nordic World’s Dictator: perfect example of ‘entertainment with a purpose’ many and the US, where it was A+E’s mostwatched telecast ever on the fyi and bio channels. Equally compelling is Fjernsynsforeningen’s Real Men, which succeeded in keeping more than half of Denmark’s TV population riveted to their sets when it debuted on DR1 in January. The reality format sees five everyday, overweight guys embark on an intensive five-month health transformation. “It’s hilarious, with great sportsmanship and camaraderie,” says Harry Gamsu, Red Arrow International’s vice-president of format acquisitions. “But it’s also full of universal themes and perfectly complements

our slate of real reality formats like Married At First Sight.”

Back at Nordisk, Houlind also points to another challenge for non-scripted: its lack of digital shelf-life. “Generally, reality formats have no inventory value — who wants to rewatch the 2006 season of Big Brother?” he says. “So we’re looking for shows that have popular appeal and are in vogue, but also have staying power.”

For Salling, it’s risk-aversion that’s been the major roadblock in recent years. “Very few people have been brave enough to take a punt on something truly different, even though that’s what everybody’s crying out for,” he says. However, Salling sees this beginning to change in the Nordics in the “aftershock of Netflix”. The SVOD giant, which launched in the Nordic markets in 2012, has taken the region by storm, the scale of its take-up exceeding even the most optimistic expectations.

“The instant and overwhelming success of Netflix has shocked our legacy broadcasters, who have been sitting on the fence for years about SVOD,” Salling says. “But it’s had a positive effect in that it’s triggered a much-needed rethink about the need to tap new revenue streams. One of the ways our broadcasters are doing this is to buy into the IP of new non-scripted ideas. Instead of the traditional broadcast model of renting x number of runs for x amount of time, they now want to own IP in perpetuity. That way, if the format’s a success, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.”

One example of this approach is The Shortest Straw, the first project off the blocks for Boxatricks, the UK format company set up by the team behind Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? with which Nordic World has an exclusive first-look partnership. Nordic World backer TV2 Norway has pledged to invest both money and airtime in the primetime game show, which goes into production this summer.

Over at another Norwegian broadcaster, NRK, Petter Wallace, head of commissioning, independents, believes the region’s

“You used to be able to sell a format because it was a unique idea. Now, you don’t sell on the novelty of the concept, but on the novelty of the execution” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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strong, well-funded public broadcasters — including NRK itself — can take much of the credit for the vibrancy of Nordic creativity.

“We have the luxury of experimentation,” he says. “There’s room in our schedules to take risks, because we don’t really have to think about the commercial aspects. That allows us to test-drive ideas that the commercial stations would shy away from.”

Such freedom from commercial imperatives not only results in braver television, he maintains, but also reduces the temptation to copy other people’s hits in an attempt to bottle success.

Wallace’s first brush with formats was in the early 1990s, when he produced the classic French adventure game show Fort Boyard for NRK. Echoing Wegelius, he says it took the Norwegians the best part of a decade to realise they should be selling ideas as well as buying them. “From 1995 until about 2005, I think we missed a lot of opportunities because we just weren’t in the mindset of exporting our formats,” he says.

Recent years, however, have seen several innovative Norwegian shows break out internationally, including Monster Format’s Babes On The Bus and Ultimate Entertainer.

Wallace is hoping to replicate this success with Strix’s epic social experiment Anno, which premiered on NRK in January to “astonishing” 40%-55% shares. He is also optimistic about another NRK launch, Monster’s Born On, which tells the very different stories of three people, one of whom is a celebrity, born on the same day.

Again, Anno and Born On — both distributed by newly created DRG Formats — tick the entertainment-that’s-good-for-you box.

Anno takes contestants back to an iconic year in history and challenges them to learn contemporary crafts and trades, while Born On views historical events through the prism of personal experience. “I think there’s a definite global appetite for shows that have a sense of learning, history and the story of humanity,” Wallace says. “These days, audiences want entertainment with

Red Arrow International’s Real Men: “full of universal themes” real substance.”

Up in Finland, Johanna Karppinen, CEO of FAVEX, the industry body that facilitates the sale and marketing of Finnish audiovisual content, ponders on the nature of her country’s famously left-field creativity — and what it has contributed to the region’s rise as a formats powerhouse. “We are definitely Nordic but we don’t quite fit into the pure Scandinavian mould,” she says. “There’s often an element of roughness in what we do and how we do it, and our approach tends to be pragmatic. There’s also a quirkiness to our humour. And one not-so-glamorous reason why we’re creative is that we work with small budgets.”

Finland has won itself a reputation for clever, zany formats — Aito Media’s Rescuing Santa and Your Mum Was An Ape; Yellow Film & TV’s Blind Chef and Comedy Combat; Intervisio’s The Wall; Tuotantotalo Werne Oy’s Blobo — many of them driven and inspired

by another Finnish forte: technology.

Karppinen singles out Rabbit Films’ Celebrity Home Invasion as exemplifying Finland’s ability to combine high entertainment with “a deeper dimension”. In every episode, a celebrity — or in the case of the original SubTV Finland series, stunt group The Dudesons — move in with a family in crisis.

The result is a mix of lifestyle, reality and extreme comedy. But underneath the hilarity, there is genuine emotion. “Both the family and the celebrities learn important life lessons from each other,” Karppinen adds.

For all the challenges ahead — and nobody is pretending that the next few years will be easy, as the content industry grapples with new players, pipelines and paradigms — the Nordic non-scripted community is upbeat.

As Annie Wegelius puts it: “Yes, I’m optimistic, because I believe that quality always wins. And we Nordics are genuinely very good at producing quality.”

“We have the luxury of experimentation. We can test-drive ideas that the commercial stations would shy away from” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS NORDIC NUMBERS

Less is more

The Nordic territories are small in terms of population, but massively significant in terms of how switched-on they are according to a series of statistics analysed here by Juliana Koranteng

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by Netflix (the world’s biggest streaming-TV platform), HBO (the world’s most successful entertainment pay-TV operation), Discovery Communications (the fast growing global TV conglomerate) and others, must have been influenced by research which says how digitally switched-on the people are in this region.

According to the Nordic Video Index 2015 published by international research and video-hosting firm Arkena, 45% of the total adult TV viewers in the Nordic region watch streaming videos via their PC or laptop.

Some 25% say they use their tablets, and 13% view via their smartphones.

Of the total surveyed, an average of 52% of those with streaming devices subscribe to TV services like Netflix or HBO Nordics. In Norway, the penetration of streaming devices reaches 69%. It is 59% in Denmark, 49% in Sweden and 32% in Finland.

Cord-cutting has been rising as the number of traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions gradually fall. An average of 10% of the cable and satellite TV customers questioned

by Arkena said they would terminate their subscriptions in 2014, compared to 7% who said they would do so in 2013.

The Arkena report is supported by the Digital Economy and Society Index published by the European Commission in February, which concludes Denmark is the European Union’s “most digital” country.

The criteria used are based on internet connectivity, digital skills, availability of digital public services, integration of digital technol-

ogy in daily life, and consumers’ online activities (including online video viewing).

Some 74% of Danish homes access TV-ondemand services via broadband internet, the EU survey concludes. After Denmark comes Sweden in second place and Finland in fourth.

In Sweden, the report states, 44% (of a much larger population) of TV homes view linear TV via the internet, while 57% of them listen to music, play games and watch videos the same way.

Although Norway is not an EU member, its digital credentials are at the very high end.

Like the governments in the neighbouring Nordic markets, Norwegian legislators invested heavily in a robust internet infrastructure early.

This has given the four countries some of the highest digital-media penetration compared to the rest of the world. With the four also ranked as some of the world’s biggest TV markets, in terms of local consumption and content licensing, it will be difficult not to include the region in business strategies.

Based on published estimates in the market, the average penetration of TV households in the four Nordic markets is more than 95%.

In the US, the world’s biggest TV market, internet reach is 87%, compared to 77% in the UK and 46% in China.

Nordic mobile phone subscriptions reach more than 80% of the population, rising to 91% in Norway. When it comes to smartphones, a healthy 70% of all mobile users have one in Denmark, followed by 68% in Norway and Sweden, while Finland has a 55% reach.

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

eMarketer notes that mobile connectivity (the number of devices used) outnumbers the population size with connections at 156% in Denmark, 190% in Finland, 112% in Norway, and 154% in Sweden.

Of the social media platforms adopted by Nordic consumers, Facebook is the most popular: an average of 60% of the region’s internet users are registered to the platform.

Although still small in total, the number of Instagram users is the fastest growing in the social-media sector.

Between 2006 and 2009, the four markets experienced some a severe slump in advertising expenditure.

TV will remain the biggest single category over the next couple of years, according to ZenithOptimedia data, but ad expenditure in that medium is declining.

Finland is the only country that will see a hike in TV ad spend between 2014 ($372m) and 2017 ($432m). But Finnish internet ad spend will get bigger and grow faster from $418m to $584m during the same period. Internet ad spend is also increasingly at a robust rate in the other three territories.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) agrees in its 2014 Global Media Outlook 2014-2018 report.

While TV accounted for 19% of total ads in 2013 in Scandinavia, digital advertising (including mobile) represented 32%. By 2018, the figures shift to 20% for TV and 42% for digital.

After dipping from $1.9bn in 2009 to $1.6bn in 2013, filmed entertainment revenues will grow to $1.8bn in 2018, driven by the video-on-demand and streaming media, PwC predicts.

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS CO-PRODUCTION

A talent for teamwork If there is one advantage that the Nordic television industry has over the rest of the world, it is a talent for teamwork. And nowhere is that better demonstrated than in the business of co-production, writes Marlene Edmunds

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NRK’s The Heavy Water War: Stopping Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

HE NORDIC countries have been involved in co-production of one form or another for more than half a century. “We have learned how to work together, how to listen to each other and how to respect each other’s opinions,” says Stefan Baron, executive producer for Nice Drama and head of international co-productions for the nice entertainment group.

Nice Drama is now in production with the second season of Thicker Than Water, whose co-producers

include public broadcasters SVT Sweden and YLE Finland, and Filmpool Nord. “While the idea originally came from Nice Drama, it was developed together with SVT and YLE,” Baron adds. SVT is the main financial backer, with distributor ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) also on board with financing.

“Even before the first season of Thicker Than Water had aired on SVT in early 2014, the pubcaster had already kicked off the process that would put a second season into play,” Baron says. He adds that the

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series has already sold to 10 territories, with ARTE premiering it in France in early April. A remake deal for the US is also in negotiation.

So what’s the attraction? “It’s a universal theme that explores issues of identity and guilt between siblings who are attempting to heal old wounds as they try to run a hotel they inherited from their mother,” Baron says. Also on the Nice Drama development slate is Midnight Sun, a co-production with France’s Atlantique Productions, with The Bridge team writers Mans Marlind

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS OUT OF NORWAY NORWEGIAN children’s public broadcasting channel NRK Super and Beta Film have launched a new partnership that gives Beta Film first-look rights to all NRK Super’s original productions.

The partnership, in which Beta Film will handle worldwide sales for NRK Super, kicks off at MIPTV with five or six ready-made productions and formats. NRK Super has a 5,000-hour library of children’s product, much of it generated by co-productions between various Nordic players.

“Beta and NRK Super are working on a list of future projects, for which we also want to partner with German or international

broadcasters,” says Eric Welbers, managing director of Beta Film. He adds that Beta Film is itself affiliated with a number of production subsidiaries, among them familyentertainment outlet Wunderwerk, whose portfolio includes The Little Medic, The Wild Soccer Bunch and Trenk, The Little Knight. ”Beta Film had quite a reputation for its big family-entertainment catalogue, which includes the Astrid Lindgren properties and Maya The Bee,” Welbers adds. “Since 2009, we have been developing a new kid’s catalogue with original Wunderwerk productions as well as licensed fare.”

NRK Super original productions’ All Round Champion

and Bjorn Stein on board.

NRK’s co-production Lilyhammer, starring Steven Van Zandt, became an international success even before Netflix came in for the second and third seasons as a major creative and financial co-producer.

When the story of a mob boss on the run in Norway sold to 130 territories, it made history in Scandinavia. “The first season was made on a relatively small budget,” says Tone Ronning, NRK’s commissioning editor of drama, independents, and executive producer of Lilyhammer. “But even with that stumbling block, it was fantastic for us to see that, with a really great and original script and superb actors, we could create an international hit.”

But Ronning cautions that an international theme does not mean that a project will be an easy sell to possible co-producers.

NRK’s The Heavy Water War: Stopping Hitler’s Atomic Bomb is a case in point. The series was a record-breaking hit on NRK when it premiered in January. But Ronning says that, even though the action takes place in the UK, Germany and Norway, “it was difficult to get co-producers on board with the

money we wanted. Everyone is on a tight budget and wants to sit on the fence but, for true co-productions, this is simply not a practical strategy.”

Among the co-productions currently on the table at NRK is Nobel: Peace At Any Price, a thriller about a returning soldier who becomes a pawn in an international political game; and medical thriller Valkyrien, which is now in the last stages of development and set to begin shooting in September.

Even with international co-productions, NRK’s strategy is to find stories that will win the hearts and minds of Norwegian audiences. “If we can’t find an international co-producer that will stick to the stories we want to tell, we fund projects out of our own pocket,” Ronning says. “A side effect of this strategy is that it stimulates more originality — and originality is what we believe attracts the best co-production partners.”

For Nordic players, creative vision is still a huge part of the reason for entering into co-production, Ronning adds. “Earlier in my career, co-production was less about co-financing and more about sharing experience and skills, and generously helping each oth-

er to develop ideas,” he says. “I find this way of working together incredibly inspiring and, frankly, have always considered my international colleagues as my vital think-thank.”

The long-term partnership between ZDFE and Swedish production outfit Tre Vanner, now part of Svensk Filmindustri, is an example of the intertwining of creative and financial input that is characteristic of the Nordic way of doing business.

Michael Hjorth, executive producer, scriptwriter and co-founder of Tre Vanner, says that shared creative vision is always the central issue when it comes to deciding whether to introduce an international partner to a project.

“ZDFE has been very supportive both creatively and in business intelligence,” he says, adding that Tre Vanner shares a lot of ideas with ZDFE’s creative teams and is in constant discussion about potential projects. At press time, Tre Vanner was working on Deja Vu, a thriller series created by Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge) and Hjorth (The Condemned) with ZDFE. Hjorth notes that the co-pro market is be-

If we can’t find an international co-producer that will stick to the stories we want to tell, we fund projects out of our own pocket FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS To truly share the vision and handle the everyday challenges, trust is the key — and trust is usually built over several projects

M i c hael H j or t h

coming crowded with new players. “For us, this means a lot of new conversations and opportunities,” he adds. “But because co-production for us is essentially a longterm relationship, we still tend to work with many of our previous partners. To our way of thinking, to truly share the vision of the project and handle the everyday challenges, trust is the key — and trust is usually built over several projects.”

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“Never let go of the project creatively,” is the advice from Berna Levin, Yellow Bird’s chief creative officer and the producer of all of the company’s English-language projects.

This, she says, is the most important thing she has learned in her years of working internationally. Yellow Bird was launched in 2003 when Danish producer Ole Sondberg and best-selling Swedish author Henning Mankell collaborated on the TV series based on the latter’s Wallander character. The adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Millennium Trilogy, Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, Liza Marklund’s Annika Bengtzon series and the UK version of Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh followed.

“One needs to stay passionately and actively involved in projects and be physically ‘in place’ in order to get them off the ground,” Levin says. She is currently responsible for the US Millennium remake; Headhunters; The Swede; the Will Trent series; Devil’s Sanctuary; and Infidels, among others. She is also involved in the development of all Scandinavian and non-English-language Yellow Bird projects.

“One also needs to respect and stay true to the original material and trust one’s creative instincts,” Levin says. She adds that, when working with US partners, “as a Scandinavian/European, one brings experiences and a point of view to the project that is unique and different. That experience and point of view is not only needed and respected but also sought after by most US partners.”

With international companies now on the hunt for Nordic talent, the territory’s enor-

DIVING FOR THE DEAD NORDIC drama may have been generating the headlines in recent years, but Nordic documentary co-productions have been winning international awards for decades.

At press time, Diving Into The Unknown, a co-production between Finland’s Monami Agency and Norway’s Fuglene, was just wrapping filming. The co-production is funded by Finnish public broadcaster YLE, the Finnish Film Foundation and promotion body for audivisual culture AVEK, with rights to the documentary already sold to NRK Norway, SVT Sweden and RUV Iceland.

mous success has also led to one of its biggest challenges: “finding those captivating characters and universal themes and stories that will break down all barriers — geographic, cultural, linguistic — and travel across borders”, Levin says. “We used to be able to find them in our books and novels but now, with all eyes on Scandinavian talent and authors, especially within the crime genre, we’re finding it difficult to hold on to our storytellers.”

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

The feature-length documentary tells the story of a group of Finnish cave divers on a sad but daring mission to retrieve the bodies of friends who have died in a cave.

“It was both physically and mentally the most challenging project our company has ever done,” says producer and scriptwriter Juho Harjula of Monami Agency. “The cave in question had collapsed, so going back in was extremely difficult and dangerous.

It meant dragging ourselves through narrow, dark tunnels for 350 metres with the constant threat of falling rocks.”

Ultra Sport Kids (working title) is a good example of how companies in the Nordic territories work together both creatively and financially. The project involving Norway’s Sant & Usant, Sweden’s Story and Denmark’s Final Cut For Real is a series of six high-end documentary films about children from across the globe engaged in intensive training for sports including sumo wrestling, fencing and ballet. Directors on the project include Denmark’s Simon Lereng Wilmont,

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS

Ultra Sport Kids (working title) is a good example of how companies in the Nordic territories work together Sweden’s Hanna Heilborn, Poland’s Ania Winiarska, Norway’s Erlend Mo and Russia’s Victor Kossakovsky.

“It all started with a documentary film I was trying to sell titled Chikara: The Sumo Wrestler’s Son by Lereng Wilmont,” says Monica Hellstrom, Final Cut For Real producer. “It was a great story about the struggle of the son of a former sumo-wrestling champion to keep up with the expectations around him. We felt so strongly that this was a universal theme — children trying to cope with parental and other pressures — that we decided to make this a high-end documentary series. Sport is the engine driving it, but it is also about the deeper subjects of parental pressure, shaping identity and friendships — all issues related to growing up.”

Final Cut For Real then invited Story and Sant & Usant to join them on Ultra Sport Kids. “Both are companies with very talented directors attached and a great track record for high-end documentaries,” Hellstrom says.

“The way the series was put together strengthens the network between creatives across borders and creates new partnerships that we believe will stay in place.”

Mille Dinesen as Rita Madsen, in Rita

RITA GOES OTT DIGITAL players are clearly eager to get into the Nordic creative stream.

The third season of the award-winning TV series Rita, a co-production between TV2 in Denmark and SF Film Production, picked up financial backing from online streaming service Netflix in a deal that means all three seasons of the beloved, but off-beat, school teacher Rita will be seen by Netflix users across Europe, Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

“Netflix wanted Rita so they got in touch with SF Film Production,“ says Katrine Vogelsang, head of fiction at TV2. “The third season had already been developed but we needed more financing.“ She adds: “It took some time to find a way to make the publicly-funded European system work together with Netflix but we did it.“ Rita is also additionally funded by the Copenhagen Film Fund and the Danish Film Institute’s Public Service Pool.

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Who’s buying, who’s selling?

BBCWW’s Wolf Hall, acquired by Sweden’s SVT

This small but dynamic group of countries represents a busy marketplace for multiplatform content, as Andy Fry discovers WEDEN, Denmark, Norway and Finland — the four main Nordic territories — have a combined population of just under 25 million. But despite this modest size they are regarded as key players in terms of content acquisition and sales.

Looking first at Nordic purchasing patterns, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution senior vice-president sales and development David Smyth says: “The Nordic region is a really key market for us — and not just

S

because of what we sell here. It’s the kind of market that buyers pay attention to. They want to know what works here and what doesn’t.”

US content does well in the region. Fox, for example, has a long-term strategic partnership with leading pay-TV platform Viasat (owned by Modern Times Group) and also sells a range of its shows to public and commercial broadcasters across the region.

“Comedies like The Simpsons, Family Guy and How I Met Your Mother all play well,”

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Smyth says, “as do crime and thriller series including Bones and Homeland. The latter has done well on channels like SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark) and TV2 (Norway).”

Smyth says there has been a trend away from output deals in the region towards a more selective approach to acquisition. “But with the growth in the number of channels and the expansion of SVOD there is a lot of opportunity for both our new and catalogue titles. We are still selling classic series such as MASH, for example.”

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS US content doesn’t have it all its own way in the Nordic region. A strong cultural affinity between the Nordic region and the UK has made British content extremely popular, especially with the public broadcasters.

Liza Thompson, senior vice-president international sales at All3Media International, says: “Broadcasters in the region are always on the lookout for British drama. We do extremely well with Midsomer Murders, which plays on DR, YLE, SVT and TV2 Norway.”

There is also a lot of interest in new British dramas as they come through, Thompson says. “DR was one of the first broadcasters anywhere to come on board our crime drama Hinterland and it has also picked up Indian Summers for a primetime slot (NRK and RUV Iceland also picked up this show).

One of our key titles at MIPTV, Safe House, has also been picked up by TV4 Sweden and TV2 Denmark.”

Looking at the same issue from a buyer perspective, SVT International’s Stephen Mowbray says flagship network SVT1 has a voracious appetite for US and UK drama: “We’re trying to fill six drama slots per week, year round. Titles we have acquired include True

Detective, Game Of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Downton Abbey, Shetland, Fortitude, Indian Summers and Cucumber. As you can see from that list, the Swedish audience has a broad-minded attitude to drama.”

Because Sweden is such a connected market (with a significant piracy problem), there is a lot of pressure from audiences to get access to shows as soon as possible after US or UK transmission, says Mowbray.

“You can’t let stuff sit on the shelf. Audiences want to see it quickly. Having said that, there are times when we are willing to come to windowing arrangements with other players. We have taken second windows on some HBO shows, for example, because they debut on HBO’s on-demand platform.”

Emphasising the strong relationship with the Brits, Mowbray says SVT also acquires a significant amount of factual content from suppliers like BBC Worldwide: “We take strands like Horizon and then top and tail them with our own presenters — so viewers think they are local.”

However, the Swedish audience is opening up to new influences, according to Mowbray: “We’ve acquired shows like Salamander (Belgium), Deutschland ‘83 (Germany)

Swedish audiences are opening up to foreign-language series, for example Jorg and Anna Winger’s new spy drama Deutschland ’83

and Un Village Francais (France). There is a growing acceptance of European-language drama that I expect will continue. Germany looks especially strong.”

It’s also important to note, adds Mowbray, that there is a significant amount of trade between broadcasters in the region. “Nordic drama doesn’t just do well outside the region, it also travels between the four countries. SVT is part of a public broadcaster alliance called Nordvison, which co-produces and exchanges programming. This gives us access to some of the great drama and documentary programming being produced across the Nordic region,” he says.

Echoing trends in other markets, the region’s leading buyers often acquire for a wide range of services. TV2 Denmark’s head of acquisitions and formats Anette Romer says: “I’m acquiring for TV2 (our main channel), TV2 Zulu, TV2 Charlie, TV2 Fri, TV2 Sport and our digital platform TV2 Play. On TV2 the key acquisition slots are off prime time but on our niche channels we acquire for all slots.”

TV2 Denmark primarily acquires content from UK and US distributors, a fair amount from Scandinavia (drama and lifestyle) and also drama titles from Germany, primarily for slots on TV2 Charlie. “If there has been a big change it is that the audience has turned away from viewing US drama series on a weekly basis on linear channels,” she says. “I believe this is a now an established trend in many territories and it naturally changes our acquisitions pattern, we are moving from output deals to more select and focused choices. It also changes the way we schedule drama series as we wish to accommodate viewers’ habits in the best possible way.”

In terms of drama, Romer says: “We have just launched British drama Fortitude with good ratings and are excited to be presenting the second season of Broadchurch this spring.” Formats are also key for TV2, Romer adds, with the big established titles continuing to generate audience. “Strictly Come Dancing worked really well for us — again — in autumn 2014. And Got Talent is working pretty well,” she says.

“Comedies like The Simpsons, Family Guy and How I Met Your Mother all play well” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS “British content is popular, particularly when it is not too violent”

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Nina Lorgen Flemmen, director of acquisitions & secondary channels at commercial broadcaster TV2 Norway, acquires content for TV2, TV2 Bliss, TV2 Humor and TV Zebra.

She says: “We are focusing on major scripted TV series and feature films for the main channel TV2. For Bliss it is female-skewing films, factual entertainment, reality and docs while for Zebra it’s the same but male-skewing. TV2 Humor only acquires US comedy sitcoms and some films.”

Reflecting trends across the region, Lorgen Flemmen says TV2 has shifted away from buying high volumes of scripted content towards a selective approach, mixing acquisitions with more local content. In terms of sourcing content, she says: “We acquire from the US, UK, Sweden and Denmark.

Shows that work well include Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy and Madam Secretary has started okay. We are excited about adding The Odd Couple with Matthew Perry.” In addition, TV2 also acquired Australian drama series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries from All3Media International.

Tarmo Kivikallio, head of programme acquisitions at Finland’s public broadcaster YLE, is also acquiring content for a wide array of services including YLE1, YLE2, YLE Fem, YLE Teema and online catch-up service YLE Areena. “We have a very broad requirement for content though I would say audiences tastes in Finland are a bit different from other territories in the region. US drama hasn’t been working that well here, even when it is excellent. We have more success with Nordic dramas like the original version of The Bridge. I also think we are seeing too much historical costume drama from the international market. I’d like to see more scripted shows set in our time period,” he says.

Kivikallio says YLE acquires content from around 50 territories worldwide including the UK, Germany, France, Australia, the US, Ukraine, Russia and Finland’s Nordic neighbours. “British content is popular, particularly when it is not too violent. Sherlock, Call The Midwife, Mr Selfridge and Midsomer Murders all do well in evening slots, and I’m pleased Luther is coming back. Heartbeat and Doc Martin perform well in daytime.”

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Fortitude, a hit for Denmark’s TV2 Big entertainment formats work as well in Nordic territories as any part of the world.

But All3Media format sales executive Jessica Cox says there are also “lots of opportunities for innovative factual formats. We have had success with Gogglebox in all territories in the region. Season two is on air on NRK Norway and comfortably winning its slot each week and the launch of the first Finnish season is imminent on YLE. In Denmark, a daily version of Great Interior Design Challenge did great business in the autumn for SBS and a second season is now in production.”

According to Cox: “Nordic broadcasters are keen on social experiments and pioneering programming. They keep track of British TV and pay attention to risk-taking channels like BBC3 and C4. They are less obsessed by track records than many of their counterparts and more likely to make decisions based more on concepts. A 10-episode series of Tell Me Why I’m Single was commissioned in Denmark last year based on a oneoff special from C4 in the UK and a series based on the BBC’s The Day The Government Left performed above average for DR.” Cox says Nordic networks are “comfortable to be first to adapt a format, as is the case with The Kitchen, which has received its first international commission from a broadcaster in the region. Also, we are finding that broadcasters are open to looking at old-

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

er formats. TV3 in Sweden is currently airing its first season of To Catch A Thief, a format that is over 10 years old. A licence for the classic makeover show 10 Years Younger to a Nordic broadcaster will also be announced around MIPTV.” This assessment is confirmed by a new deal for Viacom International Media Networks’ provocative dating series Ex On The Beach.

In the first local production deal for the MTV format, SBS Discovery in Sweden started airing the show on its entertainment channel Kanal 11 on the eve of MIPTV. In terms of Nordic exports, the country’s strongest areas are crime drama (Nordic Noir) and entertainment formats. However interest also seems to be growing in Nordic comedy. TV2 Denmark’s comedy drama about a politically incorrect school teacher, Rita, has been picked up by Netflix, which will offer it to customers throughout Europe, the US, Canada and Australia and New Zealand later in 2015.

Nordic World, which distributes a large slate of Nordic content from broadcasters and indie producers, has also had a recent success, says company CEO Espen Huseby: “Fox in the US has picked up format rights to Next Summer, a comedy that aired on SBS Discovery’s Norwegian channel TV Norge.

The show was one of the channel’s mostwatched programmes of the year and is be-

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS group of teenagers as they move into their first apartments; and Moran and Tobias, a comedy about a dysfunctional mother and son played by two of Sweden’s best known comics. We’ve built up a lot of expertise in this area now and have titles here at MIPTV.”

ing remade this year. It’s a good example of how international interest in Nordic scripted content is now going beyond crime drama.

We’re also getting interest in another Norwegian comedy called Dag. That’s now had four seasons on TV2 Norway which is good news in terms of selling the show.”

Huseby says Nordic World typically takes three to five new shows in each genre to MIPTV and MIPCOM. Key markets for Nordic World content include the UK, Germany, Benelux and Central Europe, though the rise of VOD/OTT platforms is expanding the number of potential outlets. While drama and entertainment feature most prominently, factual shows (outside formats) tend to have more limited appeal. “A lot of Nordic documentaries deal with local issues.

These can do quite well within the region but not beyond. Having said this, we sometimes have productions with broad universal themes and these ‘lighthouses’ can sell very well,” Huseby says.

© Neal Street Productions

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One example of a ‘lighthouse’ is The Future Of Water, a comprehensive analysis of water security by Norwegian expert Professor Terje Tvedt. “This series sold very well internationally and we are now working on a new project with Professor Tvedt called Nile Quest, which will focus on the River Nile’s economic, political and societal importance and is a headline title for us at MIPTV. It combines a fascinating story with many years of detailed research,” Huseby says.

While the import and export of programming into and out of the region is brisk, there’s no question that the rise of SVOD/ OTT platforms is making deal-making much more challenging. Lorgen Flemmen could be speaking for any network in the region when she observes that the arrival of OTT platforms and international channels “has turned everything upside down. Platform neutral rights are more and more key to making a programme brand yours.”

One interesting development as a result of the rise of internet-based TV is the creation of short-form programming by SVT, says Mowbray. “We have been making series for our on-demand platform SVT Play that are aimed at younger audiences. With episodes that are 15 minutes in length, they include Model Girls, Model Boys, which follows young Swedish models around the world to places like Milan, Paris, New York; Portkod 1321, a hugely popular drama following a

The BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) has always done good business in the Nordic region. Earlier this year, for example, it secured its biggest ever package deal with Swedish public broadcaster SVT. With a heavy emphasis on drama, the package included titles such as Cucumber, Wolf Hall, The Honourable Woman, In The Club, Our Zoo, Death In Paradise, Call The Midwife and DCI Banks.

Aside from programme distribution, BBCWW also sees the region as a big opportunity for its pay-TV channel business, says executive vice-president, Western Europe, Tobi de Graaff: “We are launching two of our three thematic channels on to platforms in the region. One of them is BBC Brit, which is based around flagship factual entertainment shows like Top Gear. The other is BBC

Earth, which offers a range of our fantastic blue-chip natural history and science programming.”

De Graaff believes the channels will do well in the region despite the tough competition from both linear channels and SVOD services. “We know that the Brits and the Nordic population share a sense of humour, so that will help BBC Brit. We’re also planning to make these channels the primary homes of a lot of our content in the region. We’re changing the way we window so that this programming won’t have already aired repeatedly on other channels,” he says.

De Graaff says it is also important to give key brands a 360-degree existence. “Fans will be able to access extra content via localised websites. We have also had live events in the region such as Blue Planet In Concert, in Oslo,” he says.

The two new BBC channels are on a range of platforms including Canal Digital, Get Norway, Riks TV, AltiBox, YouSee, Stofa, ComHem, Telesenera and Boxer. Delivery mechanisms include DTH satellite, DTT, cable and IPTV.

British content is popular in Finland, for example period drama Call The Midwife

“We have just launched British drama Fortitude with good ratings” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

A ne t t e R om

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We have a brand new �tele-vision�

Soon, 6 million viewers will be sharing it.

Want to know more?

Meet us in the Nordic Pavilion, stand C16.A4. Call Caroline +46 70 588 64 35 for contact with anyone in our team. www.flownetwork.se

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS THE DIGITAL SHIFT

Taking the digital lead Early government policies to install broadband internet into as many Nordic homes as possible have made the Nordic region a hotbed for tech-driven TV concepts. Juliana Koranteng reports Magine has been broadening the type of devices able to access its service

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ENMARK, Finland, Norway and Sweden boast rates of internet reach exceeding 90%, while mobile connections — mostly smartphones — now exceed 100%. That infrastructure formed the foundations of Rovio, Skype, Spotify and SoundCloud, Nordic media startups that have turned into global ventures with multi-billion valuations.

The same groundwork has inspired new thinkers in the TV space. These include Swedish internet-delivered platform FlowNetwork,

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in which global ad agency WPP acquired a minority stake in March; new international players such as Oslo-headquartered never.no and Stockholm-based Newstag; Sweden’s multi-territory, multiplatform TV-streaming service Magine; and Finland’s mobile-games developer Rovio Entertainment.

“The Nordics have experienced an earlier and more significant change in linear viewing than many other markets,” says Mattias Hjelmstedt, CEO and founder of Magine.

“This is partly due to a well-established

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

pattern of online behaviour and technology adoption, as well as a strong mobile and broadband infrastructure, but it is also [the result of] a highly competitive TV and online media market that stimulates innovation.”

Magine has spent the past 12 months refining the consumer experience and broadening the type of devices able to access its service to include smart TV and the Chromecast, Google’s removable dongle, alongside smartphones and tablets.

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www.ixonos.com/tv www.ixonos.com/tv

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS We invite viewers using social media to have their Andy Warhol moment on air, because audiences still find TV very compelling

50 Magine CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt

IHS analyst Merrick Kingston

Never.no, meanwhile, has taken the second-screen experience to a new level with its proprietary technology. It creates social TV and social commercials that aim not only to engage with viewers, but also to offer them a chance to be part of the TV content.

“We create videos that change context and content based on the social promotion of a show or commercial via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram,” says Kelly Moulton, never.no’s chief commercial officer. “We invite viewers using social media to have their Andy Warhol moment on air, because audiences still find TV very compelling.”

Never.no has worked with 50-plus TV networks, including Norway’s TV3. It created a social TV ad campaign for Norwegian travel-services group Apollo Norge in which viewers were invited to upload holiday snaps on Apollo’s Facebook page. Selected photos then appeared in the commercial.

A similar campaign for Psych, the US comedy drama on NBCUniversal’s USA Network, in March 2014 yielded dividends for the show. “We increased viewership by 48% among 18- to 34-year-olds during the final month of the season finale,” Moulton says.

In 2013, the company produced a Twitter-driven TV campaign for US telecoms group Sprint and its ad agency Leo Burnett during TNT’s coverage of the NASCAR motor race. “Throughout, our digital platform stays in the background because I don’t believe it’s just about the tech — it’s about the creativity,” Moulton adds.

Newstag has turned TV news coverage on its head with its ‘mobile-first’ crowd-curated video news service. Officially launched in March, the ad-funded free service enables users to tag topics of special interest, which in turn allows Newstag to deliver personalised news channels to them.

The multiplatform service is a 360-degree, 24/7, 365-days-a-year operation, according

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to Newstag CEO and co-founder Henrik Eklund. “We saw emptiness inside the content curated by the 1.2 billion people who watch news on Facebook every month,” he says. “So we created a technology that allows you to create your own news channel in your own language from the 600 to 700 stories a day we receive from the global news agencies.”

Reuters, Associated Press and Bloomberg are among the giant news service-providers working with Newstag. Users can share their personalised channels with friends via social media and collect points that help promote their channels to even more people. And the tags they select can be packaged and sold to the advertisers with which they want to be associated. Users can opt to donate the generated revenues to good causes.

After making history when its Angry Birds mobile games were downloaded more than two billion times, Rovio launched an online TV channel for shows based on the brand. It also has a feature film scheduled for a 2016 release.

Three silent animation series — Angry Birds Toons, Angry Birds Stella and Piggy Tales — air on the company’s multiplatform streaming channel ToonsTV, the content for which has also been sold to broadcasters in 40 countries.

Although smaller, revenues from Rovio’s TV and other media businesses (19%) are growing faster than revenues from gaming (16%), based on its most recent financial figures. Steve Pegram, Rovio Entertainment’s production executive, animation, says the company’s approach to on-screen entertainment has been influenced by the success of its mobile games. “We want to let the fans decide when, how and where they want to interact with Rovio’s content,” he adds.

The Nordic region has also seen the rise of localised YouTube networks, including

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS Sweden’s Splay, Norway’s Nordic Screens and United Screens, which has offices in Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.

Last year, United Screens announced a partnership with Maker Studios, the YouTube multichannel network (MCN) owned by The Walt Disney Company. United Screens will distribute Maker Studios content in the Nordic markets.

Splay hit the headlines in 2013 when Modern Times Group (MTG), the Swedish media conglomerate that owns the digital-terrestrial free-to-air TV3 networks in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, acquired a 35% stake.

That investment, made via MTG’s investment unit MTGx, also demonstrates how the Nordic region’s traditional broadcasters are embracing next-generation distribution channels and content-makers.

MTG’s Viasat pay-TV unit also operates Viaplay, a multiplatform VOD streaming service that Rikard Steiber, Viaplay’s CEO and MTG’s chief digital officer, says has accelerated the company’s access to millennial viewers. “At Viaplay, we could see that our mobile viewing increased by about 144% last year and our kids viewing by approximately 700%,” he adds. “The high adoption of kids’ content could be explained by the digital natives who watch wherever they are and whenever they can.”

MTG also owns Gossip, an internet entertainment channel that launched in Norway this year (it is called JuicyPlay in the Swedish and Danish editions). In addition, the group owns online networks linked to its broadcast brands, such as TV3play.se and TV3play.dk in Sweden and Denmark respectively, and an online video-game channel called Viagame.

Much of these activities are driven by fall-

ing TV advertising and growing satellite and cable-TV cord-cutting. In fact, cord-cutting has led to a large number of online pay-TV subscribers who do not own TV sets. That scenario encouraged mega US pay-TV operators, such as Netflix and HBO, to include the Nordic market in their strategy for the international rollout of their pay-TV services.

HBO Nordic, which launched in 2012, has struggled to make an impact brand wise, but Netflix has taken Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland by storm. By late last year, HBO Nordic and Netflix had a 4% and 29% TV-market penetration respectively, according to nScreenMedia.com.

Their presence, however, has forced local TV operators, including MTG and Swedish state broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), to intensify their digital strategies. Examples are SVT’s on-demand service SVT Flow, which commissions original short videos, and TV4 Group’s TV4 Play VOD operation.

Merrick Kingston, Norway-based principal analyst, connected home, at research company IHS Technology, says we can expect several trials with business models as Nordic media companies figure out their place in a potentially digital tech-dominated sector. “To my mind, that speaks to the significant experimentation that OTT streaming services continue to undergo, even in advanced markets like the Nordics where device penetration and willingness to pay for content is high,” he adds.

According to Magine’s Hjelmstedt, the Nordic lesson to learn is that technology is the means to a creative end. “Building on the experience of operating within an advanced online environment such as Sweden, this model of TV is something that we are confident will be embraced in new international markets,” he says.

Newstag CEO Henrik Eklund

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Rovio Entertainment’s Steve Pegram

We created a technology that allows you to create your own news channel in your own language from the 600 to 700 stories a day we receive from the global news agencies

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS A NORDIC STUDIO

MTG calls for flexibility The new TV landscape re uires a different approach to windowing, according to MTG’s akob Me lhede

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Fo has given MTG e ibility around a number of shows including 4, pictured here with its star Kiefer Sutherland as ack Bauer ODERN Times Group (MTG) is the nearest thing to a vertically-integrated studio in the Nordic region. It owns a pan-regional pay-TV platform (Viasat), payTV channels, free-TV channels, an online on-demand service (Viaplay), a production division (nice) and a distribution firm (DRG).

As such it is both a buyer and seller of content. From an acquisition perspective, Jakob Mejlhede, MTG senior vice-president of acquisitions & programming, says the changes in the landscape mean it is more crucial than ever to secure flexibility on rights so that shows can be utilised appropriately across platforms: “Some of the traditional volume output deals we used to do with US

studios don’t work in today’s market. We need flexibility so that we can play shows at the right time on the right platform.”

The problem comes, said Mejhede, when an output deal requires MTG to play shows on specific platforms, or when it is not possible to get the full suite of rights on a top show. “There are some shows that we are required to air on regular TV when they’d be better on our Viaplay platform. We know they won’t rate on regular TV so we burn them off at two o’clock in the morning, which doesn’t help anyone.”

This issue has been exacerbated by shifts in viewer behaviour, with audiences now choosing to watch US series via on-demand platforms rather than linear TV. “So we need deals

that have been adapted to meet this reality.”

An example of a sensible deal, in Mejhede’s opinion, is MTG’s partnership with SPT, which gives the broadcaster the flexibility its audience demands. “It allows us to premiere a show like Transparent on Viaplay while, for instance, Blacklist can launch simultaneously across free TV and online/ on-demand. Fox has also given us flexibility around shows like 24, The Strain and Tyrant.

My message to content owners is that we have a desire to buy but we need flexibility. Buy combining free, pay TV and SVOD I think that makes us an interesting partner.”

In terms of sales, DRG’s senior vice-president acquisitions Noel Hedges said there is a rich array of content to be had from MTG’s production division nice entertainment.

“Nice has production companies in each Nordic country producing across different genres. So from DRG’s point of view that gives us access to drama (completed and formats), high end documentary (eg wildlife) and factual formats,” Hedges says.

If Hedges has noted a particular strength it is that “Nordic companies are very quick at getting ideas to screen and are willing to take a risk on something a bit new. Combined with the audience’s appetite for new ideas, this means that it’s a great region for testing original formats.” One idea he expects to do well internationally is Anno, produced by Strix Norway for NRK. “It’s a show in which a group of people live as they did in Bergen in 1785. They live and work in a compound, learning the tasks they need to survive.”

DRG also has an NRK crime drama called Eyewitness that has already sold into Germany, Italy, France and Israel. “The story starts with a gangland killing witnessed by two boys having a gay affair. They don’t come forward because they are reluctant to reveal their relationship. It’s a show that demonstrates the way the Nordic producers are continuing to innovative around the Noir genre,” Hedges says.

“We need flexibility so that we can play shows at the right time on the right platform” FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

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FOCUS ON THE NORDICS ERICSSON

Television’s ‘best kept secret’ Technical people can be creative too, Ericsson’s Magnus Mandersson tells Juliana Koranteng

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Ericsson executive vice-president Magnus Mandersson RICSSON, the Swedish technology multinational, is at MIPTV where it will demonstrate its prowess as one of the few operations successfully crossing the divide between traditional linear broadcast and the emerging next-generation non-linear video entertainment.

As Magnus Mandersson, executive vicepresident and head of business unit global services, says, Ericsson “understands the evolving TV industry better than most”.

Via the Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services division, the 139-year-old conglomerate builds and operates the infrastructure that delivers TV shows and videos via cable-TV networks, internet-powered IPTV platforms, video-on-demand (VOD) services and mobile-phone wireless signals to viewers.

And now, as the demand for TV-everywhere grows from viewers who want to choose what, when, and how they watch programmes and other content, Ericsson feels more than

well-placed to serve the future of TV. “VOD isn’t about having expansive terrestrial, cable or satellite networks — it’s about being able to determine who wants to watch what and making the content available over the internet,” Mandersson says. “In recent years, new types of broadcaster have emerged that allow viewers to take a far more active role, and watch whatever they want, whenever they want. Traditional broadcasters need to adapt to this new reality and provide their viewers with some sort of VOD option, which typically involves using the internet as the means of distribution.”

He reminds us that despite its global reputation as a technology brand, Ericsson has been a significant player in the TV business since 2007, when the company bought Tandberg Television, the pioneering specialist in video compression, VOD systems and IPTV support.

The company has been busy ever since. A

FOCUS ON THE NORDICS • APRIL 2015

series of relevant acquisitions include Microsoft’s online TV-tech service Mediaroom and Red Bee Media, which specialises in managing everything a broadcaster or content-delivery network needs.

Red Bee Media’s services range from maintaining broadcasters’ behind-the-scenes technology to their on-screen branding, promotion, and channel ID (identity) as well as content marketing and TV production. “We are recognised for creativity as well as technical proficiency,” Mandersson says. “It’s true that we’re typically behind the scenes. Of course, we like to think that designing workflows and integrating systems require their own brand of creativity. But we understand that some people in the industry might not see it that way. That’s why we encourage our customers to leave the technical stuff to us.”

Currently, Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services distributes more than 2.7 million hours of programming in 90-plus languages for more than 500 TV channels internationally. It also provides in excess of 200,000 hours of subtitling each year, 80,000 hours of which are live.

Since 2007, it has signed a series of groundbreaking deals with major broadcasters, including C More (formerly Canal+) in the Nordic region. In 2009, Swedish commercial-TV conglomerate TV4 Group (now C More’s owner) started using Ericsson to manage the total chain of its TV services.

Other broadcasters working with Ericsson include NPO and NOS in the Netherlands; Canal+, TV5 Monde and France 24 in France; and HBO Nordic in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Via the Red Bee Media acquisition, Ericsson has also clinched deals with major UK players, including public broadcaster the BBC, BSkyB, BT Sport, and ITV. As the internet’s role in TV-content delivery grows, Ericsson has announced plans to connect 50 billion devices by 2020.

Not many people in production and sales will know these facts, making Ericsson, as Mandersson puts it, “the best kept secret in television”.

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CRIME / REALITY

BIG GAME SHOW

A big money primetime game show. Can you guess what the object is worth? If so, you might end up with a treasure in your hands and walk home with it’s value in cash.

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A hard-hitting investigative format where a former FBI agent comes to your nation’s rescue and takes the lead in investigating and solving cold cases.

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Photographer: Johan Paulin/SVT

FAMILY / KIDS

An Emmy-Awarded kids adventure show which takes brave ten year-olds into the wilderness in an exciting survival competition.

The prize? A real safari adventure in Africa.

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A 10-part drama series based on an orginial idea by Jo Nesbø.

The series examine what happens to an occupied nation when life seems to continue as normal and when nothing has changed on the surface - Will they rebel? Will they fight?

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