MIPTV: Honour Season 2 toplines Eccho Rights line-up

Managing partner Nicola Söderlund says the pandemic has boosted his company’s business, driven by a handful of Swedish Viaplay Originals.

Produced by Bigster, Honour Season 2 reunites top acting female quartet Alexandra Rapaport, Eva Röse, Anja Lundqvist and Julia Dufvenius who also serve as executive producers. In the new season, the four friends and partners in the legal firm Heder, are threatened by a ruthless serial rapist who might be aware of the women’s shared dark secret.

“Season one is the first and still only Viaplay Original to score international pre-sales and it has now been sold to over 60 territories, with multiple remakes in development,” said Nicola Söderlund for whom Season 2 makes a quality leap. The new season premieres on Viaplay April 25.

Korean conglomerate CJ ENM-controlled Eccho Rights is also presenting at this week’s online MIPTV conference and market, Viaplay’s successful crime show Hammarvik, produced by Nordisk Film TV, based on a screenplay by celebrated Swedish crime novelist Camilla Läckberg, as well as the Josefine Bornebusch -created relationship comedy drama Love Me, crowned Best Swedish drama at the last national Kristallen TV awards.

Another popular Warner Bros International TV Sweden production is Maria Wern, one of the longest crime drama series on TV4, with season 8 scheduled to air May 4.

Eccho Rights’ Nordic slate also comprises the Viaplay youth drama Threesome, co-produced by Nordisk Film TV and Yellow Bird, set to premiere later this year. Söderlund describes the show as “an incredible YA series about an unintended threesome and the consequences it has on the young couple”.

Non-Nordic series on Eccho Rights’ MIPTV slate include the coming-of-age series Chrysalis that has the potential to become “the first true breakthrough Turkish show in Western Europe” according to Söderlund.

Discussing genre trends, the Swedish-born sales executive said he has sensed buyers’ “fatigue towards dark series, given the troublesome times, as viewers are looking for escapism and more uplifting content.” Söderlund also underlined the sharp contrast on the market between streamers and linear TV stations. “Streamers are bolder, they need to acquire ‘louder’ content as they need to be ahead, in a very competitive marketplace. They are also to a bigger extent targeting younger viewers, which has opened many doors for that kind of series,” he acknowledged.

All in all, Söderlund is thrilled about the growing attention from new global platforms. “They need to connect to the local audiences via a local contact, also to be eligible for the European quota scheme, and therefore invest heavily in new series. It’s a very favourable business environment at the moment,” said the sales expert who also observes that the pandemic “has boosted” Eccho Rights’ business, at a time of global production slowing down.” The last months have been exceptional across all genres, primarily in Europe,” he said.

To bolster the company's activities, Eccho Rights recently announced the opening of a London outpost, headed by former NENT Studios commercial director Adam Barth, now in charge of broadening the company’s English-language slate, as director of development and co-productions. Barth’s former colleague at NENT Studios UK Lucy Roberts, has also joined Eccho Rights as director of sales.