Nordisk Film & TV Fond is proud to announce that the Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 has joined its group of Partners, bringing its total to 18 and the number of broadcasting members to 12.
"MTV Finland, the oldest MTV in the world and one of the oldest commercial channels in Europe, is proud to be a member of Nordisk Film & TV Fond," commented Jorma Sairanen, (photo) MTV3 Head of Programming. "MTV Finland is currently co-financing three to five feature films and at least 30 hours of original TV drama a year and will probably increase the number of hours in the coming years. Drama programming is the most popular genre in free television and future plans will also include original pay TV productions. We hope that the Fund will receive many good applications from the independent companies for our productions."
Hanne Palmquist, head of Nordisk Film & TV Fond welcomes MTV3's new membership. "MTV3 has been an active investor in Finnish feature films and TV drama for a long time and their membership in the Fund gives Finnish and even Nordic producers more options to seek financing for their projects." Petri Kemppinen, Head of Production at the Finnish Film Foundation also said: "The goal of the Finnish Film Foundation is to strengthen the Finnish audiovisual industry in all respects and TV stations are important partners. Having all three major Finnish broadcasters (YLE, NELONEN, and MTV3) as members of Nordisk Film & TV Fond gives both TV stations and Finnish and Nordic independent producers a larger variety of partners. I also see this as a chance to increase the possibilities of international co-operation and export of Finnish productions."
Recent feature films co-financed by MTV3 include Arto Halonen's Princess, Mika Kaurismäki's House of Branching Love, and the current top grosser in Finnish cinemas Kiss of Evil, part of Solar Films' new series based on private eye Jussi Vares. MTV3's viewer ratings and reach are the highest among Finnish TV channels, with the average viewing time totalling 5 hours a week.
Nordisk Film & TV Fond has an annual budget of just under €10Million - provided in equal parts by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the five Nordic film institutes and 12 Nordic broadcasters.