The pay TV channel has acquired UK rights for the Swedish/French thriller series created by Björn Stein and Måns Mårlind. The deal was negotiated by world distributor Studiocanal, adding to a number of sales already closed with Australia (SBS), Belgium (VRT), Benelux (Lumiere), Denmark (DR), Finland (MTV3), Germany (ZDF), Iceland (RUV), Israel (HOT) and Norway (NRK).

Zai Bennett, Director of Programmes, Sky Entertainment UK and Ireland, said: "Midnight Sun is a brilliant addition to our bumper line-up of Sky Atlantic programming in 2017, with new award-winning drama airing exclusively on the channel every month. I’ve no doubt that our customers will love this incredibly clever and thought-provoking thriller.”

The series produced by Sweden’s Nice Drama and France’s Atlantique Productions premiered on Monday on French Canal+. The two first episodes were watched by 850,000 people (20% subscribers share), making it the best start for an original series in terms of subscribers share since The Tunnel in 2013, according to Canal+.
In Sweden the series debuted on SVT on October 23 to a 39.7% share, attracting a consolidated linear audience of 1,550,000, plus 260,000 online viewers.

Average consolidated broadcast viewers after five episodes is 1.4 million and online viewers should bring the figures closer to 1.8 million, according to Stefan Baron, exec producer and head of international co-productions at Nice Drama. “I am very pleased that the Swedish audience seems to respond to the characters and the story in such a strong way” he told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

In the title roles are Leïla Bekhti (The Prophet) and Gustaf Hammarsten (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Midnight Sun will premiere on RUV on December 5. The series was backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.