Eight European public service broadcasters have teamed for a joint TV drama commissioning initiative called New8.
New8 brings together eight public service broadcasters from North-Western Europe: ZDF (Germany), NPO (The Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RÚV (Iceland) and NRK (Norway).
The partners in the collaboration will co-produce eight TV series annually as part of an agreement that will initially last for three years. The first series will be greenlit in 2023 and available in all participating territories from 2024.
The move to pool resources comes as broadcasters are struggling with the rising cost of TV drama production.
New8 builds on a long history of collaboration between Nordic PSBs. For years the Nordic public service broadcasters have exchanged their best dramas such as Exit and The Thin Blue Line.
New 8 expands this to add broadcasters behind drama hits like The Twelve (VRT), Red Light (NPO), ‘The Swarm (ZDF co-produced).
The collaboration was unveiled at Rome’s MIA Market.
“New8 is a unique achievement for European public service broadcasters and their audiences. New8 with the strong drama partners attached, will be the largest drama collaboration in Europe. It will be extremely exciting to see it come to life and evolve”, said Hans-Jørgen Osnes, Head of International Financing Drama at NRK.
“New8 will 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. With ZDF on board, New8 gains one of the most experienced international co-production partners for its network. Hopefully New8 will also unite the audience and strengthen bonds between Europeans”, added Simone Emmelius, SVP International Fiction ZDF.
“The Nordic public-service companies have a long history of successful collaborations and in these turbulent times we want to take this way of working to the next level. At SVT we are incredibly happy to join forces with such powerful partners as ZDF, VRT and NPO to be able to offer our audience even more high-end drama”, said Anna Croneman, Head of Drama at SVT.
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