Eight European public service broadcasters have united on New8, a collaboration through which they will co-produce eight drama series annually.
Starting this year and on an initial three-year agreement, the broadcasters will work with each other on the series; with broad distribution of the created projects a key tenet of the deal. The first series will be greenlit in 2023 for broadcast in all participating territories in 2024.
The participating broadcasters are ZDF (Germany), NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RUV (Iceland) and NRK (Norway).
The deal was unveiled today (Tuesday, October 10) at MIA (International Audiovisual Market) in Rome. Simone Emmelius, SVP of international fiction at ZDF, Anna Croneman, head of drama at SVT, Elly Vervloet, international drama expert at VRT and Hans-Jorgen Osnes, head of international facing drama at NRK presented the deal to media.
The collaboration is an expansion of the understanding that has existed for many years between Nordic broadcasters, through which each broadcaster decides which of their series is best, to be distributed by their counterparts in other countries.
Osnes described the connection as “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.”
Emmelius said New8 “will strengthen the public service broadcasters throughout Europe and hopefully unite the audience and strengthen bonds between Europeans.”
“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 Vervloet.
The selected series will be broadcast in the three German-speaking territories (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), plus the Netherlands, Belgium (in Flemish), Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway.
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