As MIPCOM approaches we spoke to Beta Film’s International Sales Manager & Business Affairs, responsible for Scandinavia-Benelux.

Could you detail the current collaborations you have with Nordic companies? Justus Riesenkampff: As distributor of high end programmes, we’ve signed a volume deal for instance with the five Nordic public broadcasters in 2016 [DR, SVT, NRK, YLE, RUV] which included Tom Tykwer’s roaring 20s show Babylon Berlin premiering now on German pay TV and at MIPCOM, and Olivier Hirschbiegel’s spy drama The Same Sky starring Sofia Helin. As world distributor of Nordic content, we have a deal with NRK Super since 2014. Shame (Skam) was part of that deal.

Skam has become a cult teen series online across the globe, but how are foreign broadcasters responding to it?
JR: It’s a challenge because traditional broadcasters don’t have much experience yet in handling short format web series. One can only congratulate NRK for doing something for this genre and for the youth audience. The series has fans across the globe now. We are very excited of the demand for it and will make an announcement very soon with major territories. There is a huge potential for remakes in particular.

Last year Beta Film signed a joint venture with Stockholm-based Dramacorp. How is your collaboration?
JR: Dramacorp is developing the series Hamilton based on Jan Guillou for TV4/C More and other high-end drama such as Rare together with Isolani Pictures in Paris. We are confident that this partnership will be a great source for programmes with international potential. We also work with Nice Entertainment Group in Sweden. We’ve followed them carefully since The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed a Window and Disappeared as the film was a big success in Germany and are very pleased to collaborate on Hassel that we are launching at MIPCOM.

At what stage did you enter the project?
JK: Normally we enter a project based on a pilot and a bible. With Hassel, we came on board way before start of principal photography, and we put an MG against distribution rights.

How do you usually work with creators/producers to make their projects attractive to world buyers?
JK: For projects where we don’t have a broadcaster from the beginning, we give the input that we feel is the right one to make the series perform internationally, giving notes and feedback. But Scandinavian producers are used to looking outside their borders for financing due to their limited resources and small size of their national market. Whereas in France, Germany or Italy, commissioning broadcasters are more heavily involved financially and international sales do not represent such a big part of the financing. Nordic producers are therefore used to developing content that has a potential on the international market.

How is the German market today for Nordic drama series? Has it evolved?
JK: Yes it has. Traditionally, Nordic drama has been very big in Germany. We have slots mostly for the 90’ shows. The Killing is the typically closed episode series that work very well on public channels in Germany. But due to the international move toward serialised shows, it’s harder for free TV in Germany to programme those shows and pay TV tends to acquire them, but pay TV is not as strong as free TV. The needs of free TV German broadcasters are different than what Nordic commissioning broadcasters are aiming for today.

That must be problematic for you on the sales side…
JK: Of course. Free TV in Germany used to be the biggest export market for Nordic drama. We will see how it will evolve. If it makes sense for Nordic broadcasters to produce serialised show, they should obviously continue. Good shows will always travel and we have many other players –pay TV and SVOD- looking for those quality serialised shows. At the same time, public broadcasters in Germany are still looking for procedurals and Nordic noir is still going strong. Plus Nordic produces always find new angles for crime, for instance in Mammon, where a journalist is dragged into crime.

Mammon 2 is nominated for an international Emmy award. How is the series doing internationally?
JK: Season1 was on Germany’s ARD, in a prominent slot and both seasons were sold to about 30 territories. Season 2 was sold notably to France (NBC), HBO Central Europe, Sky in New Zealand, Hot in Israel, Lumiere in Benelux, Walter Presents in the UK. We are still working on key territories such as North America, Italy and Germany as ARD didn’t renew the order for season 2. That happens sometimes.

Mammon and Skam have been sold for remakes. How lucrative is the format market for scripted content?
JK: It can be very lucrative, but also a bit complicate as you have to harmonize different interests and sort out the rights. For producers, it’s a way to speed up or jump expensive steps in development.

You have also started picking up content from Finland such as the upcoming thriller Cold Courage…
JK: Absolutely. Finland is another interesting market for us. They struggle a bit more in Scandinavia to get their programmes to travel because of the language, but for us, language is not an issue and some Finnish programmes such as Nymphs have been successful internationally We are developing Cold Courage and working on the financing right now with Finnish production house Luminoir. It’s in the English language, based on a book by Pekka Hiltunen, translated into German and English among others. It’s about two Finnish women living in London, entangled in a murder mystery.

Do you feel the language barrier has almost totally disappeared today?
JK: English language drama certainly has a different exposure internationally than non-English language, but we’d rather have the best non-English speaking drama than the second best English-speaking drama. Danish series such as The Bridge, Borgen were the first to break the language barrier and now other non-English shows benefit from it. Plus thanks to streaming platforms that can try things and see with their algorithms what work or not and in what territory, non-English language drama travels much more, even in the US which wasn’t possible before.

So the drama bubble will not burst yet…
JK: It’s not a bubble for me. Serial drama is like serialised literature that is written to get people hooked. I feel we are still in a wonderful time for television. Viewers can dive deeper into characters than in a 90’ programme, producers can create a bigger volume of content, broadcasters/platforms can explore new ways to reach audiences and besides the main streaming services Netflix and Amazon, hundreds of local platforms compete for content so there are opportunities for everyone. When you hear the name of Netflix, you don’ think just of their logo, or the technical invention, you think of the great programmes available. Content is king.

What trends have you noticed in scripted content?
JK: Serialised shows are moving a bit from 12 episodes to 8-10 per season which is a good format. Skam will probably set a new trend, with its blog-like short format and quality drama. Otherwise there are still a lot of developments going on in Europe and potential for local content to internationalise. The UK and Scandinavia are very international and perhaps 50% of their shows travel. In Germany and France I would guess only around 5%, so there is a lot of potential for those markets and other European content to travel.