Stories of Successful Co-Production in 2015 – Jordskott and The Team Series

KIEV CoProduction Meetings is an accessible, convenient and efficient starting platform for producers intending to present their projects planned for international co-production to a professional audience. By inviting broadcasters, investors and producers interested in co-production, Media Resources Management, the event’s organizer, implements the international experience of co-production forums in our country. 

In 2015, one of the participants in the panel discussion Television Co-Production in Europe is Frédéric Pittoors d'Haveskercke, a consultant for the selection commission of Series Mania Festival European Co-production Forum (France), the biggest international platform for series co-production development. Apart from getting involved in the discussion panel, Frédéric  will present a case study of Jordskott series co-produced by Palladium Fiction, a Swedish company, and Kinoproduktion, its Finnish counterpart, with the participation of SVT (Sweden), TV2 (Norway) and YLE (Finland) TV channels, as well as ITV Studios Global Entertainment, a British company. In 2013, Palladium Fiction producers presented Jordskott project at a co-production forum held annually in Paris under the aegis of Series Mania festival. At that time the project was in pre-production; 40 per cent of the financing and the participation of SVT were confirmed.  

In spite of the fact that the events of this 10-episode criminal drama series take place only in Sweden, in a small town of Silver Height where children are disappearing under mysterious circumstances, which leads to a chain of tragic events, the project spurred interest; with time, the TV channels from other countries also joined. Besides, ITV Studios Global Entertainment acquired the rights to UK broadcasting and took up international distribution of the series. Jordskott  was premiered in Sweden at SVT in February 2015.The first episode was watched by 1.6 million viewers. In June, the series was launched in the UK at ITV Encore, and in early July, in Finland at YLE Fem. The premiere in Iceland at RUV is scheduled for this autumn.  

Jordskott trailer:

The other, no less brilliant co-production case will be presented by Heinz-Georg Voskort, a German producer from Network Movie Film- und Fernsehproduktion company which has been responsible for the production of a real European TV hit in 2015, The Team series. Apart from the said company, the 8-episode criminal drama series on the Europol joint team investigation of a range of murders committed in various European countries was produced by Lunanime (Belgium), Nordisk Film (Denmark) and Superfilm (Austria), with the additional involvement of C-Films AG (Switzerland), BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance (Belgium) and such TV channels as ZDF (Germany), SVT (Sweden), ORF (Austria), VTM (Belgium), and ARTE (Germany). After a successful Danish premiere in late February , where the series had a 55 per cent share at DR channel, The Team confirmed its success in other countries ensuring high ratings for TV channels who had participated in the co-production. ZDF Enterprises, which worked on international distribution of the series, sold the rights to Norway and the Netherlands. The series characters speak different languages, which seems to have become a widespread practice of European international co-production for the series. When broadcasting at different territories, subtitles are added.

The Team trailer:

The examples of successful joint projects of TV channels and production companies from different countries transforming into long-term mutually beneficial cooperation testify to the advantages of international co-production. This direction for development has been chosen by many leading players of global content industry.

Co-production is trending. Follow the leaders, opt for co-production, and register for KIEV CoProduction Meetings.