First of all, what is your budget for 2020? Is it still SEK 250 million a year for TV drama and SEK 50 million for feature film as for 2017-2019?
Anna Croneman: Approximately. Our budget has unfortunately been very stable over many years now. But it could of course be worse, looking at what’s happening with public-service in some countries in Europe. 

There are big challenges in the financing of local series, and in addition to that, we would want to increase the volume of content, especially for younger audiences. Let’s say it is an ongoing discussion internally.

Regarding TV drama, is your goal still to commission 2-3 long runners a year, one mini-series, and three 6x45 to 58' SVT exclusives geared towards linear and digital?
AC: Absolutely. The six-episode formats (more niche content-wise) has opened up new creative avenues for writers and attracted writing talents across the Nordic region. Currently we have a number of high-profile Danish, Norwegian and Finnish writers collaborating with us on Swedish projects.

The challenge is to find broad long-running returning series like The Bonus Family and The Restaurant.

The Restaurant/Vår tid är nu has been an astounding success for you. What will you do with the knowledge gained on viewers’ tastes and behaviour?
AC: We will definitely acknowledge the need for this type of series. In this day and age we need to think carefully about the audience’s need for things that other players don’t put forward and to develop series that stand out and create a buzz. 

The Restaurant did stand out. There was nothing like that in the market at the time it premiered. And it’s amazing to see how regular people - the audience - are organising screenings themselves, dressing up with period costumes, props and hats etc. The show’s influence has extended beyond the screen and into popular culture.

Are you moving away from dark drama/crime to a lighter palette of shows in the comedy/family/dramedy genre?
AC: We are really trying to do a mix, a repertoire over the year. We would love to do an update crime procedural, but it has to have something unique, fresh and new, and it’s very hard to find…

NRK has a procedural show coming up called For Life, which they call a happy noir…
AC: It will be really interesting to see how that plays out with its mix of humour and crime. That mix has previously been quite tricky, but audiences have developed their taste!

Another big challenge we’re facing is how to create awareness of our series. At SVT, we have an annual marketing budget of the size of the marketing campaign for one Netflix title!

Are you seeing a clear shift for some series that are doing better now on digital than linear?
AC: It depends on the show. With Before We Die for instance, the first season released two years ago had 1.5 million viewers on linear. The new season had 495,000. We’ve lost 1 million in linear and we’re unfortunately not getting all of it back on the player. We are at 1.2 million viewers now in total. So, there is definitely a change. But hey, did anyone not see that coming in this new highly competitive war on people’s attention and time?

Competition is fiercer than ever both from local commercial broadcasters and giant streamers. What is your strategy from development stage to secure the best talents and most solid projects?
AC: When I started in 2017 we had 180 projects in development. We have cut it down to around 60 now. We don’t passively sit and wait for people to approach us. We meet with producers, writers all the time and discuss ideas.

But in all Nordic countries, there is a real shortage of talents, so the next big thing is bringing in new talent. We have to train the next generation of writers, directors, producers through workshops, collaborate with film schools etc. I have massive faith in the coming generations.

Are you taking new co-production initiatives in the Nordics?
AC: We talk a lot especially with DR right now, with whom we’re co-producing a new series called Snow Angels. On the Nordic 12 level, we try really hard to find common projects to develop together. You need to come across a genuine idea, with an authentic feel, whatever the nationality. No puddings please! The way it works is we all share three projects a year, and we pay approx. €20,000 per episode. It’s very much a standard procedure, and different from making a collective Nordic project.

What effects has this initiative had so far?
AC: It’s still early to say. It’s more about each single title.

How is your collaboration with major streamers and how do you see 2020 with the second wave of disruption?
 AC: We have had great collaborations with the SVOD players. For instance, we co-produced all of the seasons of The Restaurant with Viaplay, and with Caliphate secondary rights were pre-sold to Netflix. But we can see this changing now as the streaming war escalates. This is making us more reserved, cautious.

Usually the strategy would be to try to keep all rights for titles that have a very strong SVT-DNA. It really is all about putting the financing together in the best way for each particular project (rights versus predicted demands from the audience). With new players entering and the business constantly changing we need to be open and see what can work for us. The question however is if we should use tax-money to fill other players libraries…

Funnily enough, with some titles, it seems like international streamers have helped us brand our own series towards the younger local audience, as we have seen them returning to us for following seasons. 

The streamers are immensely attractive to producers: with some of them, it seems like you can get a greenlight on a synopsis, while you have to wait sometimes three years to get a greenlight from us. But the latter is just true in a formal sense. We no longer develop things further if we don’t trust the shows will be put into production.

What is your goal for your annual output in film and how has the new Film Policy impacted your film support?
AC: We have just informed the Swedish film branch that we are putting the same amount of money into feature film for the coming three years as we promised after the Film Agreement, which means SEK 300 million in total for documentaries, feature films and shorts.

This time we intend to set aside around SEK 3 million to support the development of original storytelling.

Right now very few Swedish writers create original stories for feature films as producers tend to go for formula films, based on IP. It’s a real problem for Swedish film as there is basically nothing between hard-core arthouse films and the biggest commercial fare, when it’s actually the in-between films (that sometimes comes out as great films) that has worked best with our audiences. 

We have also told producers: we can no longer accept (on behalf of our audience) to pay a lot for TV rights and then wait 24 months to show a film. We are waiting for some innovative bold initiatives where the parties are willing to play with the window structure. 

We’re also open to collaborations with SVOD players to finance movies. It’s already happening and we want to try be part of that in some scale. Again, we understand the traditional money chain, but a short window or no window, can be beneficiary for specific projects.

We are all responsible for losing our audience in the cinemas. We need to act and the Swedish Film Institute has a role to play. They need to be clear and explain what they want to do about it.

2020 SVT Commissioned Swedish dramas

  • The Caliphate/Kalifat (January 12, Filmlance International)
  • Tsunami (February 3, Anagram Sweden) 
  • Swiping/Dejta (February 24, BR-F) 
  • We Got This! (Jarowskij) 
  • The Hunt for a Killer/Jakten på en mördare (Yellow Bird) 
  • White Wall (Nice Drama/Fire Monkey-SVT/Yle) 
  • Dreaming of England/Sommaren 85 (Art & Bob) 
  • A Hustler’s Diary/Måste gitt (Indian Summer Film) 
  • The Restaurant-Christmas Special/Vår tid är nu-Jul special (Jarowskij)