Filippa Wallestam Talks Viaplay Slate

Filippa Wallestam, executive VP and chief content officer at Viaplay Group, told TV Drama Festival viewers about her approach to curating the streamer’s slate of originals and acquired fare as it expands its global footprint.

Wallestam participated in a keynote conversation with TV Drama’s Kristin Brzoznowski at the virtual TV Drama Festival. You can watch the session here.

“We are very ambitious when it comes to our own drama productions,” Wallestam said. “This year we have the ambition to premiere 70 Viaplay originals across our markets. That is scripted shows and documentaries. It’s fair to say that we have had a very steep ramp-up. We started in 2016 when we launched our first scripted show. Since then, we have been increasing both in terms of volume and ambition and the quality of our shows.”

Drama plays an “enormously important role” in the overall original strategy, Wallestam added. Drama is synonymous with the Viaplay brand in the platform’s Nordic home market. “It is what people will associate with Viaplay, and it is in most cases what makes people sign up for our service. It is really important both as a sales driver and a brand builder. In our new markets, we have a slightly different strategy. In the Netherlands and Poland, we are now developing our very first scripted shows. We have a lot to look forward to in those markets. The ambition is that it should have the same role in those markets as well.”

The platform is currently present in 11 markets, Wallestam noted, covering the Nordics, the Baltics, Poland, the Netherlands and the U.S., with the U.K. coming online this fall. The approach to originals in each territory differs, she said. “In our core market, the Nordics, where we have been operating for the last 30-plus years, we are at a completely different level when it comes to our own local shows. We produce the most Nordic content in the world across our markets. That’s a strong foundation to stand on. That means we can afford to go broad in terms of genres and the types of shows we produce. In the new markets, we know the importance of local, but we also know the importance of building your slate in a credible way. We cannot come into the Netherlands and have ten shows next year. We have to grow slowly and credibly and focus on the right shows, working with the right creators and getting to know the markets.”

Wallestem then discussed the approach to scripted acquisitions. “Our local shows differentiate us—they are what gets you to sign up to Viaplay. But then, when you sign up, we need a lot of other fantastic content to make you stay. So if I simplify it, our shows are for driving sales, and acquired shows are for retention and preventing churn. We’ve done a lot of young adult shows here in the Nordics recently, so our programming team is searching for the very best acquired content to fit into that young adult segment. When they’re hooked on our shows, they’ll have a lot of other content to consume.”

On what she’s keeping an eye out for, Wallestam said: “I have been searching the market for diverse stories about minorities and different kinds of societies, told in an entertaining way. Especially in the Nordics, we portray different cultures and minorities, but very often in a bit of a depressing way. I want to do a light story in that sense; that’s something we’ve been working on for a long time. We have some cool projects now, and I’m proud to say that we are spreading diversity in different parts. And we’re always on the hunt for a good love story.”

Wallestam then discussed Viaplay’s flexible approach to co-productions, which she regards as one of the platform’s key advantages. “At a bare minimum, every show that we get involved in, we need to secure for our broad markets: the Nordics, the Baltics, Poland, the Netherlands. We don’t go into any shows if we cannot secure at least those. And then more and more also now the U.K., which is, of course, a little bit of a challenge when it comes to co-production setups. We can go in very early as a real co-production partner from development until the finished product. We can also come on board later and do it more as a prebuy setup. The ones that we are jumping on early are, in many cases, big-scale productions that need to have more partners on board to get the show funded. We sometimes do the prebuy option when it’s a really good show, but they could get it off the ground without us, and then we just come on board at a later stage.”

Brzoznowski then asked Wallestam about balancing the slate of returning shows, which help reduce churn, and films and limited events that can drive subscriber takeup. Original series, Wallestam said, help to keep “subscribers to stay longer, and you can have multiple seasons and start building a library. We only ventured into the world of movies and films recently in the last few years. This fall, we’re premiering five of our own movies. We’ve seen that they are great sales drivers. The beauty of producing 70 shows per year is that we can do both; that is our strategy now. We continue to produce series. The movie slate is now in a ramp-up development situation. We are very, very pleased with how it’s evolving.”

On preparing the scripted lineup as Viaplay continues to expand globally, Wallestam noted, “Regardless if you are in one country or if you are in 11, the main question you have to ask yourself is: What is our right play? Our ambition in new markets is to be as local as possible. But we also stay very true to our core values, our way of telling stories and how we’ve built our credibility in the Nordics. We know how we want to work with our creative partners. We’ve learned a lot from all the shows we’ve produced in the Nordics. We also have huge respect for the local differences. If you do local at an excellent level with good quality, it tends to travel regardless. That is very much our focus for the majority of our shows. But then, of course, we have the ones we do for global audiences. That’s a different strategy. There are also other areas we are not even attempting: sci-fi, fantasy, those sorts of stories where others are doing them extremely well. It is not our heritage from the Nordics, and it, in many cases, requires big global budgets. That’s not for us. We tend to stay very close to our core, which is not just Nordic noir—it’s authentic storytelling, story-first types of projects.”

On what Viaplay can offer creators, Wallestam said, “Our expansion is not just great news for the world and us—you now get to access more Nordic content—but, of course, for all the creators in the Nordics. We’ve seen the Nordics exporting talent for years, in front of and behind the camera. Our ambition is to help the creators; not to have to do the Hollywood loop, but do it together with us. When we do a show with extremely talented Nordic creators, we have discussions about maybe the next step for you is to do something in English. Shouldn’t we do something internationally? It could be that we work with them on a completely English show, or we introduce them to one of our co-production partners and help them travel. We need the creators to know that we should be their going-abroad partner. We have a huge responsibility when it comes to developing the creative industry in the Nordics. There is so much demand for Nordic content. No doubt, the quality has never been higher. But we need new talent, new creators. We have initiatives for that. We have the Viaplay Original Talent Awards, where we work with completely new writers to get projects off the ground from the beginning. Many of our most successful shows have been produced by new creators. We can do that in the Nordics because we produce so much and we know the market very well. It’s harder to do it in our new markets. The ambition is to get there, but we are not necessarily as brave in Poland and the Netherlands as in the Nordics. And then when we work with new talent, we ensure we have experienced teams around them.”