NRK Drama has also just hired Skam producer Marianne Furevold Boland as new Executive producer. 

Who are your current in-house producers at NRK Drama?
Ivar Køhn: We have three exec producers, newly appointed Marianne Furevold-Boland, Vegard Stenberg Eriksen and Tone Rønning who are responsible for both in-house and independent drama productions at NRK. They commission the project for development and follow them all the way through, but the final decision to greenlight the series are taken by myself and NRK Head of TV Arne Helsingen.

What does it mean to have Skam producer Marianne Furevold-Boland full time on board?
IK: It’s great. She’s used to working at NRK on low budget productions, targeting a specific group. Her experience in producing and delivering outstanding productions is unique.

What lessons did you learn from Skam?
IK: The Skam success confirmed two things: firstly that doing research during development, talking to the audience, is very important. We do not ask them what they want, but what they need, what their concerns are, to then incorporate that information in the development of our projects. Secondly, to be successful with a show, you need a creator with a strong know-how, ambition and vision, such as Julie Andem on Skam.

Skam was also marketed and platformed in an innovative way, live on the web and social media and then on tradition TV…
IK: Yes and that was based on the conclusions of the research among youngsters that said that NRK was not on their top viewing list, and associated to their parents’ choice, not theirs. So when the show was marketed, we didn’t say it was an NRK production and just let the audience and the community take ownership of Skam. Each show needs a tailor-made strategy and distribution.

How does your drama budget look like for 2018?
IK: This year we’ve produced drama, comedy, kids and adult shows-for around NOK 180 million. In 2018, we’re raising our budget by NOK 100 million so we’ll have NOK 280 million in total. This is because drama is a cornerstone of NRK’s strategy, as drama drives audiences.

We were also able to get this substantial budget rise for drama following a crucial deal that NRK signed with Skuespillerforbundet (Norwegian Actors' Equity Association) and Dramatikforbundet [Norwegian Screenwriters’ Association], allowing us to get unlimited rights exploitation of our drama shows.

Another important agreement was signed between Norsk Filmforbund (Norwegian Filmworkers Association) and independent producers, giving the TV companies ten years unlimited rights exploitation to drama productions.  This has made our investment much more reasonable and safer as audiences can now watch the shows on NRK TV net, the way and when they want, whereas before, the shows were available online only for a few weeks or months. Basically we have obtained similar unlimited streaming rights to our shows as Netflix or HBO which is why they invest so heavily on high end drama.

With such a bigger budget for 2018, what is your editorial strategy?
IK: We want to produce 2-3 big long running series, with budgets between NOK 60-100 million. The goal is to reach a wider audience nationally and hopefully foreign audiences as well. This includes crime shows like Monster, family shows like Heimebane [Home Ground] or historical shows like Lykkeland (State of Happiness] or contemporary shows like 22 of July.

Then NRK produce humour series with smaller to medium budgets, such as Vikingane (Norsemen) as well as children’s programmes. These are targeting more specific groups. Viewers use their devices and drama in different ways and we simply have to adapt to them, not make the audience watch the shows we want them to watch.

Nobel’s director/co-creator Per Olav Sørensen believes in bigger budget drama productions, above NOK100 million to have a better chance to compete against BBC, HBO or Netflix. Do you agree?
IK: It’s very difficult for us to go above NOK100 million for our flagship serials and at the same time keep a necessary repertoire of new drama. To compete, we also need more volume of new drama and we have to combine the mega shows with low-medium budget quality shows. Nobel was a big success but Skam as well, which cost NOK1.2 million an hour, compared to NOK 10-13 million for our flagship shows. So it’s not only a question of budget.

What slots are available for NRK dramas?
IK: The great thing is that we create our shows based on our strategy but we’re not producing for a specific slot. It’s very flexible. We tend to decide on the date at the last minute, looking at the best slot for each show, which means that we can send some shows twice a week, or with a premiere on NRK.no, maybe the entire show, then just one episode a week on linear TV.

What is your strategy to stay ahead of the game in today’s competitive market, when viewers’ patterns and production models are shifting?
IK: We want NRK to be the best place for Norwegian and Nordic drama in Norway, which means that we are very aggressive to come on board attractive projects as early as possible. On the Nordic level, we work with Nordvision and have direct contact with other producers working with commercial channels. We see that collaborations are floating around, with Nordic pubcasters co-producing between themselves or with streaming services and commercial channels. Everyone just tries to work on the best projects at the earliest stage.

Norwegian drama is very hot internationally and some of your shows are co-produced or pre-bought by foreign broadcasters even before airing on NRK such as Monster. What is the next step?  
IK: Our national market remains limited, so it’s important to attract co-producers/co-financing; this will allow us to continue to raise the quality level and volume of our shows. But we will continue to cater first and foremost for Norwegian audiences.

Are you working on returning seasons?
IK: Home Ground and State of Happiness do have potential for returning seasons and as well most of our humour shows. But we want to offer an eclectic slate and not invest all our money in a few projects.

This week during ‘Nordiske Seriedager’ (Oslo - September 20,21) you will discuss how you use dramaturgy in your everyday life. Can you explain what this means?
IK: For me dramaturgy is the essence of life. Aristotle even said: “Drama is an imitation of men involved in a piece of action, in life”. You can live your life and see time passing through dramaturgy. It’s about representing yourself in the theatre of life, and recognising your own and other people’s actions through dramaturgy. This is why when we see a TV drama or a film, we recognise the DNA of life through dramaturgy. And in a way, applying this dramaturgical model makes life a bit less scary.