Skandinavia launches online film service

Danish pay TV movie network Skandinavia TV is rolling  out an international video-on-demand service after it inked deals with 125 Scandinavian filmmakers including Lars Von Trier’s Trust Film Sales.

The broadcaster, which is part owned by Danish shipping company Lauritzen, intends to launch the electronic sell-through service – Movieropa – in April starting in Denmark, Sweden and the UK.

Skandinavia managing director Niels Aalbaek Jensen told TBIvision that movies  including Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark prove that there is a healthy international appetite for  Scaninavian film. "There will be a very loyal audience for these movies," he said.

The company received €1million ($ 1.5m ) from the European Union’s Media program last month and  will use the cash to subtitle and encode its library of movies, which also includes Dogville, which stars Nicole Kidman and Lauren Bacall, and Pal Hollender’s United States of Afghanistan. "The money will be spent on getting the material  ready  for a global market," he added.

The service will be available online and Jensen is currently inking deals with telcos as well as settop box manufacturers to ensure that the on-demand service is preloaded on to settop boxes, particularly in Denmark and the surrounding Nordic countries.
 
Skandinavia, which broadcasts movies, documentaries and local series, launched in September 2006 and is carried by Telia Sonera Denmark’s cable TV and broadband arm Telia Stofa.