TV 2 Denmark beefs up staff to brace for fiction offensive

Executive producers Lea Løbger and David C.H. Østerbøg will join Head of Drama Katrine Vogelsang’s team, as TV 2 puts into place its ”Strategy 2025”.

Denmark’s commercial public broadcaster TV 2 has announced it will increase its investments in local TV series by 20% starting this year, as part of its ambition to roughly double TV 2 Play’s subscription base, from the current 700,000 to around 1.3 million by 2025.

The move announced earlier this month is part of TV 2 Denmark’s strategy to make its streaming activities and TV 2 Play at the heart of its business, in the context of a declining traditional TV market, and viewers’ rapid move to the digital space, as explained by TV 2’s CEO Anne Engdal Christensen.

“In the traditional TV market, clearly declining, TV 2’s family [of brands] is strong, with a viewing share of 45 percent. But on the streaming market - which is growing rapidly, TV 2 accounts for about 10 percent of consumption. Therefore, the growth of Play is absolutely crucial for TV 2 to be able to reach out wide in the future with its Danish quality content,” she said.

Christensen also pointed out the unique position of TV 2 as a provider of strong Danish content, that puts it in a competitive position against the foreign streamers and other Danish commercial services.The commercial pubcaster has steadily surfed at the top of the Danish TV ratings in recent years, notably with its long running blue-sky period drama Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet), a success which doesn’t wane. Indeed season 8 which premiered February 1, has garnered 1,968,000 consolidated viewers for its opening episode, making it the best result for an episode of a drama series on Danish television since 2014, according to Kantar.

Going ahead, TV 2 Denmark’s Fiction department headed by Katrine Vogelsang, (SEE INTERVIEW) will deliver one major TV drama a month for TV2 Play and TV2’s channels (see separate interview), within the 6X40’ format, putting an end to its commissioning of shorter formats, such as SEX (6X12’), which was selected at last year’s Berlinale Series.

New executives have just been recruited to beef up TV2’s Fiction department:

• Executive producer Lea Løbger will be joining March 1^st from Creative Alliance. Her production credit includes Viaplay’s series Hand i hand, Mikkel Serup’s film Pound for Pound and the Antboy trilogy films.
• Executive producer David C.H. Østerbøg, will take on his new TV2 position on April 1^st. He is currently working at Deluca Film where he oversaw the production of the Christmas movie All I want for Christmas 2-King Winter’s Crystal and TV2’s upcoming premium romantic crime White Sands.
• Three new project managers will also move to TV2 Fiction to support the team of executive producers: Janne Nygaard Mogensen, Sally Jo Ringhof and Isabella Lemvigh Westphal.

TV 2’s TV drama slate for this year includes:

• Crime series The Sommerdahl Murders season 2 - premiere Feb 28.
  The series is written by Lolita Bellstar, with Janni Helleskov serving as concept director. Sequoia Global Alliance is producing, in co-production with ZDF and Dynamic Television, handling sales.
• Dark comedy Mink Breeders season 2 (Minkavlerne 2) - premiere in April.
  Created by Jonas Mogensen & Kasper Gross for Falster Inc. The dark comedy about legacy is set in a mink farm in Northern Jutland.
• White Sands (Hvide sande) - premiere in May.
  Crime drama with romance, based on a screenplay by A.J. Kazinski (best-selling writing duo Anders Rønnow Klarlund and Jacob Weinreich). Deluca Film is producing, with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
• Clown season 8 - (Klovn 8) - premiere this summer.
  Latest season from the hit comedy brand from co-creators Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam. Season 7 was one of TV 2 Play’s most successful series in 2018.
• The New Nurses season 4 (Sygeplejeskolen 4) - premiere in the fall.
  Created by Nordisk Film & TV Fond prize nominees Claudia Boderke and Lars Mering.
• Christmas Calendar Kometernes jul - premiere December 1^st.

Meanwhile Thomas Vinterberg’s first long format drama Families like Ours, produced by Zentropa for TV 2 is set to start filming late 2021/early 2022.