Eight European pubcasters launch co-commissioning group New8

Thin Blue Line

Eight public broadcasters across Europe including Germany’s ZDF and the Nordic five have joined forces to create a new co-commissioning club that aims to coproduce eight scripted projects each year.

New8 is seeking projects across genres and will pool the resources from ZDF (Germany), NPO (The Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RÚV (Iceland) and NRK (Norway).

The collaboration, unveiled at MIA in Roma today, will see producers pitching shows into drama chiefs at their local broadcaster who will then present projects to other members.

Shows targeting the 18-45 demographic are being sought, with the model an expansion of the existing collaboration between Nordic piblic broadcasters, which have exchanged dramas such as Exit and The Thin Blue Line to broaden their reach.

The deal will initially last for three years with the first series to be greenlit in 2023 and available for broadcast in all participating territories from 2024.

LR: Hans-Jørgen Osnes; Elly Vervloet; Simone Emmelius; Anna Cronemann

The scheme comes at an opportune time for producers across north-western Europe, which have seen streamers – both local and global – slashing spending in the region over the past year.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max ended its spending on local originals last year and local streamer Viaplay cut back sharply on its drama output earlier this year, and Anna Croneman, head of drama at Swden’s SVT, told TBI that the scheme would provide a more stable foundation for regional producers.

“When we started talking about this it was more about competition,” she admitted following the unveiling of the collaboration.

“Now it is about sustainable partners for our local industries – they can rely on us staying and not disappearing, that is now more important than anything.”

Scripted heft

The new scheme has been labelled as the largest drama collaboration in Europe by NRK’s international drama financing chief Hans-Jørgen Osnes, who added that the scheme would provide distribution to a market of 150 million people (across all demos).

He added that there would be four meetings annually between member broadcasters, involving their respective heads of acquisitions and heads of dramas who will present projects “at an early stage”.

Simone Emmelius, SVP of international fiction at ZDF, added that the scheme would “strengthen the public service broadcasters throughout Europe and give their audiences a unique access to bold, modern and innovative high-end drama from all the partners.”

“By exchanging content that is built on the partners’ public service ambitions, we can strengthen our offer to our local audiences and create a bigger impact in the international media sector,” added Elly Vervloet, international drama expert at VRT.

“In a time when there is increasing competition for the eyes and ears of European viewers, this feels like a logical step that we have to take as public broadcasters, especially when it comes to efficient use of public money, said Frederieke Leeflang, chair of the board of NPO.

“We are convinced the quality of European fiction will benefit from the exchange of knowledge and experience between all these partners.”