With over 150,000 orders for the first episode in its first week on the platform Sjónvarp Símans Premium, Stella Blómkvist beat the previous record held by the Emmy-award winning TV show The Handmaid’s Tale and it averaged more views after its first weekend than The Handmaid’s Tale in five months. More than 33,000 households in Iceland or 1/3 of the population subscribe to Síminn Premium.

"Never before has an Icelandic TV Drama Series been released locally on an SVOD platform with all episodes available on the premiere. We knew the quality of the content was high so we took a chance and the reception has far exceeded our expectations" said Magnús Ragnarsson, Managing Director of Entertainment at Síminn.

Kjartan Thor Thordarson, Executive Producer of the show and CEO of Sagafilm Nordic added. “We are glad and honoured by the reception Stella is getting from the viewing public, seeing these incredible ratings and the elevated interest in local content at home has given us wind in our sails to continue introducing the world to Icelandic storytelling.”

Based on the best-selling crime novels Stella Blómkvist by the anonymous writer of the same name, the 3x90’ or 6x45’ series is directed by Óskar Thór Axelsson (Trapped, Black’s Game) and written by Johann Ævar Grimsson, Nanna Kristin Magnusdottir and Andri Ottarsson.

Icelandic rising star Heida Reed (Poldark) plays the hard-nosed lawyer and femme fatale Stella Blómkvist who takes on mysterious and often dangerous murder cases. The show was the first Icelandic original drama commissioned by MTG Group that will launch it exclusively in Scandinavia on Viaplay and Viasat Series early 2018.

Red Arrow International handles world distribution.

Sagafilm has the potential to create a long-running franchise as Stella Blómkvist is based on the first of eight books.