CEO Morten Mogensen will be managing the 12 Nordic production outfits, now part of ‘this is nice’ group at Fremantle.

Under the deal, first announced in July and now greenlit by local regulators, RTL Group-controlled Fremantle has acquired from Nent Group the following 12 Nordic brands: Strong Productions (Denmark); Grillifilms, Moskito Television and Production House (Finland); Monster, Novemberfilm, One Big Happy Family, Playroom, Rakett and Strix Televisjon (Norway); Baluba and Strix Television (Sweden).

The 12 labels that operate across Entertainment, Drama & Film and Documentaries, plus branded content and event management, are now part of Fremantle’s existing group of production outfits in the region.

Those include Fremantle’s own production operations in Finland, Norway and Sweden, Scandinavian powerhouse Miso Film, creator of hit shows The Rain, The Interrogation, and entertainment specialist Blu, creator of local versions of X-Factor and Idols among others.

Mogensen, CEO of ‘this is nice’ group will work together with Daniela Matei, Fremantle CEO Nordics and Poland, and will be reporting to a newly created ‘Fremantle Nordics Board’ headed by Fremantle Group CEO Jennifer Mullin and COO Andrea Scrosati.

For Fremantle, which produces over 12,700 hours of original programming and distributes over 30,000 hours of content in over 180 territories, the deal strengthens its position in the Nordic region, at a time of media consolidation and ever-increasing streaming competition and appetite for local content and IP. In August, Fremantle’s parent company RTL Group - majority owned by Bertelsmann - announced its aim to increase Fremantle’s full-year revenue target to €3 billion by 2025.

For Nent Group, the sale of the 12 production labels is in line with its strategy to divest from non-scripted businesses to focus entirely on original content for its streaming service Viaplay, which will be available in at least 16 countries by the end of 2023.

Nent Group recently renamed its own studio operations in the Nordics and CEE - Viaplay Studios.

The most recent premium drama announced by Nent Group is the David Tennant’s vehicle Litvinenko, a four-part TV series commissioned together with ITV in the UK.

The drama is based on the real-life murder case from polonium poisoning of British-naturalised former Russian Federal Security Services and KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. The premium show written by George Kay (Lupin, Criminal) will focus on the 10-year investigation from Scotland Yard officers to prove who was responsible and on Litvinenko’s widow (played by Margarita Levieva) who fought for British authorities to officially name her husband’s killers.

The show will be distributed internationally by ITV Studios.