Stronger Nordic collaboration on drama

The Nordic public service broadcasters have in recent years been renowned for outstanding Nordic drama productions. High quality drama with a clear local anchoring and strong public service ambitions has become one of the Nordic broadcasters distinguishing trademarks.

With the rise of international streaming services, the availability of strong American fiction is, however, greater than ever. To increase the competitiveness of Nordic drama, in TV and online, the Nordic public service broadcasters – DR, NRK, RUV, SVT and YLE – has decided on a new joint strategy for increased co-production of drama.

A clear promise to our users
Marit af Björkesten, director at Swedish YLE and chair of the Nordvision, the cooperation between the Nordic public service broadcasters says: “A clear focus on drama that reflects a Nordic culture, reality and identity fits naturally with the public service mission, and it provides a genuine and recognizable promise to our users that sets us apart from other content providers”

The new strategy is a substantial strengthening of the broadcaster’s collaboration. The ambition is to increase both the volume and the quality of Nordic drama, not the least through the broadcasters’ popular streaming services.

Stronger international competition
“Nordic drama series are competing with the best international fiction. Our new joint strategy and increased cooperation is a step towards an even stronger public service drama portfolio than we have today, drama series that one day will be part of our joint cultural heritage”, says Maria Rørbye Rønn, Director General at DR.

The strategy consists among other things of a planned increase in the number of Nordic co-productions, a joint vision for the outcome, and the setup of a new coordination team that will be able to take faster decisions on new productions with co-production potential.

“With the recent track record of high quality drama from the Nordic public service broadcasters we are convinced that a strengthening of our drama collaboration will be a benefit to all our audiences”, says Hanna Stjärne, Director General at SVT.

The homes of the best Nordic drama
The Nordvision partnership is already generating a huge amount of Nordic content within all public service genres. “A close long-term collaboration such as the new drama strategy is built on trust, says Thor Gjermund Eriksen, Director General at NRK. Our companies have a long history of working together and have a profound trust in each other’s ability to produce world class quality drama content”.    

Magnús Geir Þórðarson, Director General at RÚV summarizes the vision for this stronger drama collaboration: “Our goal is that throughout the Nordic countries, the public service broadcasters should be recognized as the homes of the best Nordic drama”

More information can be provided by The Nordvision Secretariat in Copenhagen:

Henrik Hartmann, hrh@remove-this.dr.dk, +4524248305, www.www.nordvision.orgThe Nordvision partnership cooperate to strengthen Public Service Media in the Nordic region. The partners co-produce, exchange programs, co-develop formats and share knowledge, yearly generating more than 4.500 tv programmes.

Last year saw a record number of Nordic co-productions with 1626 co-produced episodes. Within drama, the collaboration resulted in 267 programme episodes. Some examples of current and upcoming titles are – Broen (SVT og DR), Herrens veje (DR), Monster (NRK), Vår tid är nu (SVT), The Independence day (Yle), Prisoners (RUV)