Danish creatives and producers’ unions involved in a streaming dispute have extended by six months their temporary deal with Viaplay, and are finalising a long-term pact with TV2.

As promised last week by Jørgen Ramskov, head of the Danish Film Producers Association and Benjamin Boe Rasmussem, spokesperson of Create Denmark (union representing directors, writers, directors among others), (see story CLICK HERE) major progress has been made to end their on-going dispute with streamers over digital rights.

Viaplay that had halted all productions of scripted content in June, has agreed to extend its interim agreement with the unions until June 30, 2023, allowing projects in development and production, greenlit before that date, to start rolling again. The initial interim agreement signed in July was due to expire later this year.

“All three parties are committed to finding a long-term and sustainable solution and will continue their constructive dialogue,” said the Nordic-based streamer.

The trade unions’ spokespersons refused to say on what specific points the parties had compromised , but according to TBI (CLICK HERE)
one of the main bones of contention - the ‘success based model’ of rights payment has been replaced by a fixed-price model’.

Regarding TV2 Denmark, an agreement has now been signed with the commercial pubcaster, "which still needs to be formally approved by the trade organisations”, Ramskov told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. This should happen “within the next weeks and then development and production for TV2 can resume”. Ramskov points out that the deal with TV2 is long term, in contrast to the interim deal with Viaplay. Meanwhile negotiations with Netflix continue.

According to an open letter signed by Miso Film, Apple Tree Productions, Nordisk Film, SAM Productions and Tall & Small, the streaming dispute has already cost the Danish industry up to DKK 1.5 billion. Over 2190 people across the Danish industry (of which 194 producers, 82 directors and 162 actors) have signed a petition imploring the parties to end the streaming dispute.