As part of our round of interviews with Nordic Heads of Drama, we spoke to Jarmo Lampela (pictured) who oversees the Finnish national broadcaster YLE’s Drama Department since May 2015.

What have been your priorities since you joined YLE a year ago?
Jarmo Lampela: I have concentrated on reading projects and trying to improve our Drama set up. We have four Drama units under the same roof: - External TV Commissioning, in-house TV drama, Radio drama, then Feature film commissioning. I’ve focused on how to improve the dialogue and cooperation between the different units, including our drama strategy. 

What is your editorial strategy?
JL: Recently we did a survey, looking at the types of drama commissioned over several years, checking trends. We decided on editorial guidelines for the future and to produce 3-4 premium dramas a year - a crime, a drama - at least 1-2 comedies, and a historical drama approximately every third year. If we combine that with our external commissioning, we have around 6-9 series a year for YLE 1, YLE 2 and YLE Areena. 

One of my priorities at YLE will be to look for new online opportunities as YLE is quickly moving into digital. In the future, there will be online sub channels, specialised in comedy, nature, and a Drama channel will be launched early 2017. That will open up new models for instance for short form comedy such as 10X10’ or 12X6’ formats that we are working on, next to web series. There are so many exciting new ways to engage with audiences, wherever they are and whatever their age group. 

Will you have a bigger budget to finance the larger volume of scripted content for different slots?
JL: YLE’s total drama budget is relatively stable at around €30 million a year. If we take out foreign drama acquisitions, then it’s about €24 million a year, including radio drama, documentary and feature film commissioning. 

There is a tradition at YLE of commissioning drama based on books or existing IP. Are you going to commission more original content?
JL: We are very aware of the need to find strong original stories and have created for that purpose an industry event, ‘Drama Days’ in the spring and in the fall where our entire Drama department discusses scripted content with talents and producers. By exchanging ideas, we can commission a wider range of projects and get involved at the earliest possible stage. 

But our stronger focus on scriptwriting started already five-six years ago. The internationally-oriented YLE shows Bordertown [produced by Fisher King] and Hooked [produced by Moskito TV] for instance were commissioned by Olli Tola who did a great job in restructuring the development process at YLE. Experienced writers were hired as script consultants. Today we continue with the same model and we tell writers/talents: no matter what project you have. If you come to us, we will make sure we find the right expert to evaluate your project.”

What is your policy in terms of returning seasons. Do you wait for ratings to greenlight other seasons?
JL: That used to be the case, but today, when someone comes with an idea, we immediately ask him/her to think of the long term story arch and character-development across 2-3 seasons maximum.

Bordertown was the only Nordic project selected at the first MIPTV Drama screenings. That was a strong signal that Finland is catching up on its Scandinavian neighbors and quickly raising its stakes…
JL: We are facing a generational shift, and talented writers such as Miikko Oikkonen (Bordertown) and Laura Suhonen (Hooked) grew up with US shows. They are more influenced by TV drama than feature film, unlike my generation.
We are very proud to have great writers/show runners and many Finnish producers have the right connections in Europe to develop more ambitious shows for the international market. 

How do you see the cooperation with the rest of Scandinavia? What areas do you feel could be improved?
JL: Through Nordvision we already have great collaborations with other Nordic public broadcasters and we have a plan to co-finance a new high end production like The Bridge by 2020. We also want to solve the question of rights issues with unions and rights exploitation on linear and non-linear TV. 

Could you present YLE’s  premium dramas for 2016-2017?
JL Early 2016, we had the crime series Hooked that was very successful especially on YLE Areena. The entire series was launched the same day and people binge watched it. We are currently showing on YLE Areena the hospital drama Nurses, Season 3. Ratings have been amazing, even better than Season 2. We have already commissioned a Season 4 for next year. 

In the fall 2016, we will air on YLE1 the crime/family drama Bordertown (11X60’). Then on YLE 2, we will show the drama comedy Downshifters (10X27’) produced by Yellow Film & TV. It is our first co-production with the telco and online service Elisa who programmed it successfully last autumn. There is also Yellow Film & TV’s comedy Kimmo Season 3 coming up. 

For 2017, we have the series The President (10X60’) directed by Lauri Nurkse, about a 30-year old guy running for president in Finland. Kirsi Manninen and Antti Pesonen share the writing credits and Zodiak Finland is producing. We are also discussing new seasons for Hooked and Bordertown.