Distributors of Nordic TV shows discuss brisk pre-sales market and Mipcom deals

Present physically at Mipcom in Cannes, DR Sales, Reinvent, Yle Sales, About Premium Content reported brisk business in a booming drama market.

The first-post-pandemic Mipcom (October 11-14) was a quiet and slow back to physical business last week in Cannes, with around 4,500 on-site reported participants against 12,000 in 2019.

But global distributors interviewed were ecstatic over the drama boom and proliferation of buyers, looking for subscriber-pullers - whatever the genre and format - rather than slot fillers, and entering projects at the earliest possible stage.

“These are exciting times,” stated Laurent Boissel, joint CEO and founder of About Premium Content (APC), which handles the Finnish dramas Deadwind, Man in Room 301 and Shadow Lines among others. “Global streamers are bringing a lot of growth and are a source of opportunities for content creators, producers and even distributors who have been forced to adapt to the changing market,” argued the French TV executive, whose company itself has morphed from a traditional distributor to a mini-boutique studio encompassing production, co-financing and distribution of scripted, non-scripted and kids content.

For him major streamers are filling a very interesting gap in the market, notably as co-financiers of high-end Scandinavian drama where escalating production costs are putting pressure on content creators and traditional distributors, sometimes struggling to close pre-sale financing. Global streamers’ eclectic taste and appetite for edgier projects and genres viewed as riskier by traditional broadcasters-including comedy and dramedy, is another positive trend, fuelling new opportunities, observed Boissel.

Helene Aurø, Sales and Marketing Director at Reinvent International Sales concurs with the French TV executive. “Demand across all genres has been going through the roof due to the mushrooming of streamers and platforms. It’s all becoming super competitive. Our role in such a context is to give our shows the best life possible, by optimising sales, carefully evaluating the best window to make the best puzzle,” said the seasoned sales expert, who is launching on average 10-12 new long running series a year plus short formats.

For Aurø, New streamers entering the drama market are putting pressure on traditional broadcasters who need to react quickly and up their game. “What we see today is that most series are pre-sold on a pitch, even before production starts. It’s all about pre-sales, especially when buyers are familiar with a company’s credentials, or in the case of crime shows" she said, mentioning Viaplay’s TROM, pre-sold to ZDF and Arte at an early stage.

Maria Kivinen, Yle Sales Manager also underlined the heating up of the pre-sales drama market. “We used to have a more balanced trading across scripted and non-scripted. But at this year’s Mipcom it was all about scripted and discussing projects in early stages.”

Freja Johanne Nørgaard Sørensen, sales executive at DR Sales underlined streamers’ flexible deal-making.

“It’s more and more common for streamers looking for Nordic content, to ask for a non-exclusive deal or second windows to launch a title in a domestic territory before the global rollout,” she noticed.

DR Sales’ own pedigree and high-end in-house shows such as Cry Wolf, the upcoming feel-good Carmen Curlers combined with prestige pick-ups such as the Norwegian period drama State of Happiness, are other pullers on the market, while the remake market is more buoyant than ever, according to Sørensen. “My colleague Camilla [Sabye Krog] who handles formats said it’s amazing how interest is coming in. She has 10-15 remake options open right now across our catalogue. Due to budget or time restrictions for production under Covid, foreign buyers want Nordic IPs that are risk-averse and successful at home,” she noted.

Sørensen also underscored the popularity across all platforms of YA (young adult) shows of about 30 minutes. “A few years ago, it might have scared off some broadcasters. But today, people are looking for the right content, whatever the length as they are buying for their VOD players. We will see this more and more,” predicts the DR Sales executive.

Here under is a list of recent deals closed around Mipcom:

• REivent Film Sales has pre-sold the Swedish psycho thriller The Dark Heart by Gustav Möller (The Guilty) to Spain and Poland. The anticipated series is due to premiere early 2022 on discovery+.
  
  Elsewhere, the Swedish drama A Royal Secret from creator Lisa James Larsson (Britannia, Victoria) was pre-sold to Lumiere for the Benelux.
  
  Australia’s SBS picked up the Swedish spy thriller Max Anger-With One Eye Open as well as the Norwegian crime thriller Catch and Release. The low budget series created by Arner Berggren and Kristine Berg, will also screen on C More/TV4 starting in November.
  
  In a triple deal, AMC Southern Europe also acquired Snow Angels, Fractures and TROM for Spain / Portugal.
• DR Sales has sold the Danish short format Guilt to Japan (Wowow) and registered strong demands for remakes.
  
  The event drama in production Carmen Curlers teased at Mipcom and major upcoming documentary series Why Plastic from the Why Foundation, attracted a lot of interest. Meanwhile BBC and Topic in the US who picked up the first season of State of Happiness have signed up for the second season.
• About Premium Content sold the Finnish show Shadow Lines season 2 to AMC Networks' streaming service Sundance Now for the US and Canada, International broadcaster Viasat World for Epic Drama across Central & Eastern Europe and CIS, AMC Networks International Southern Europe (Spain and Portugal) and Filmin for Spain, SBS for Australia, Okko for Russia and Proximus for Belgium.
• Yle Sales has closed the Prix Europa contender Piece of My Heart to AMC Iberia and is in discussions for the social drama with France and Benelux.​