Jan Salling to Head Up Formats at Nordic World

COPENHAGEN: The former VP of Zodiak Television World and head of sales at Banijay International, Jan Salling, is to join Nordic World as sales director and COO, along with heading up a new format division.

Salling will report to CEO Espen Huseby in Oslo, but will still be based in Copenhagen. He joins Nordic World in December. Salling started his career in TV more than two decades ago, as a production and floor manager on Wheel of Fortune at Nordisk Film. He moved on to become the assistant producer on the first Norwegian and Danish series of Fort Boyard. He later took on the managing director post, from 1998 to 2001. Salling then joined Zodiak as VP of distribution. He left to join Nordisk as head of sales, then when Nordisk was acquired by Banijay, he took over the role there.

Chairman of the board, Malte Andreasson, commented: "Jan has an outstanding and impressive reputation and track record in the Nordic and international TV industries. We are very excited and look forward to deploying his abilities to build our slate and head our new format division. With Jan on board, our team will have greater broadness and depth.” 

Salling added, “I have an unrivalled passion for Nordic formats and my vision both at Zodiak as well as at Nordisk Film/Banijay was always to prioritize these and unite the range and depth of Nordic creative talent and bring that to the global stage. Without a united, professional sales effort, many brilliant Nordic TV formats end up drowning in a sea of mainly English speaking content. In Nordic World, I feel I have found the right home to be able to exploit this passion and am therefore genuinely excited to continue working with the very best Nordic producers and broadcasters”

Huseby concluded, “With Jan on the team we have all we need to be the leading provider of Nordic content, and we will be the only distributor in the Nordic region which will be able to provide a very unique combination of full-scale distribution services, consultancy, co-financing and direct access to leading broadcasters in the Nordic region.”