NENT Group’s Filippa Wallestam

Filippa Wallestam, executive VP and chief content officer at Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), tells TV Drama about the strategy for original content as Viaplay expands its footprint and the continued need for acquired shows.

Among the most successful homegrown European streaming players, NENT Group has built a loyal subscriber base for its Viaplay platform in the Nordic markets and has set its sights on expanding its reach. Already available in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, it arrived in Poland last week and will come to the U.S. toward the end of the year. For 2022, a Dutch launch is on the planner, with at least four additional territories earmarked by the end of 2023. Alongside its robust lineup of sports and acquired international films and series, Viaplay has carved out an impressive reputation for its successful—and growing—slate of originals, which currently includes The Swarm, The Kingdom Exodus, Trom, Adi Hasak’s The Box, new seasons of the critically acclaimed Partisan and Wisting and three recently announced out of Poland: Polish Murderesses, Black Dog and Freedom of the Swallow. While long known for its series—which have sold well around the world—the streamer has now entered the movie space, unveiling plans earlier this summer to produce two English-language films every year. The first is Hilma, a biopic of the Swedish artist and feminist pioneer Hilma af Klint, written and directed by Lasse Hallström and set to premiere in 2022. It will star Lena Olin as af Klint in her later years, with Hallström and Olin’s daughter, Tora Hallström, cast as the artist in her youth. Other films based on well-known Nordic personalities will follow.

TV DRAMA: How did the movies initiative come about?
WALLESTAM: We are working on the Viaplay expansion and what markets to go to and in what order and what stories we need to reach these new markets. It’s becoming clearer to us that as part of this, we should look at Nordic stories with global interest. We have announced a few series already in this area. We also realized we want to do movies as well because there is something special about movies. We think streaming has a new role to play in the world for movies. Lasse and Lena are, of course, on the top of our list of people to work with. So we had a meeting with them where we were discussing opportunities. Lasse presented this movie. He was thinking, ‘I don’t know if you do movies, but I have this project,’ and he shared a little bit about it. It was very much love at first sight. It ticks so many boxes of what we want to do.

TV DRAMA: Are movies more of an acquisition or retention tool?
WALLESTAM: It’s more of an acquisition and brand-building tool to make people aware of who we are. If we get it right and can build a portfolio of original Nordic movies, they can hopefully drive retention in the same way our original series do, but that will take some time.

TV DRAMA: How are you managing this expanding slate of originals?
WALLESTAM: It’s fair to say we have a fantastic team! We’re all very passionate about what we do. That’s the key. And we’re structuring more around what we really believe in. What projects are we prepared to fight for? Nordic stories like the Hilma story are just pure joy for everyone involved. If a potential project is a bit unclear in its fit with our strategy, we’d rather focus more on unique Nordic stories and big brand-building tentpole shows. We announced Billy the Kid recently; that’s a fantastic project for us to be part of [alongside EPIX in the U.S.]. We’ll continue to do those. We know the Nordics, so it’s relatively easy. We know the production companies. That’s why it feels natural for us when we’re expanding to work with Nordic talent like Lasse and Lena. Even though they are super international and well-known, they are Swedish. It’s easier for us to get those connections. As we’re entering new markets, we are relying on local talent that we recruit. Those are markets we haven’t been in. That is a new challenge, but the way of telling the stories is the same, and even in the new markets we go into, we want to stay true to our values. You need to adapt locally and tweak things in different ways, but there are many similarities.

TV DRAMA: You’re doing English and local-language productions. How do you determine what direction to take?
WALLESTAM: It’s something we assess on a project-by-project basis. Some stories should be purely local. Other projects are naturally in English. It could be a location where they need to speak the language. For Hilma, we discussed if it should be in Swedish. We agreed that she is such an international person who is well known across the globe, so it makes sense for us to do it in English with a combination of Nordic and international stars. Lasse can work with both. It is on a case-by-case basis, but these big projects we do with big budgets, where we will finance most of it ourselves, will usually be in English.

TV DRAMA: There must be a lot of series potential in some of these historical figures. How do you determine if a life story would be better suited to a limited series versus a movie?
WALLESTAM: That is something we work on with the creators. In recent years, so many streamers have turned movies into series. All of us have done it over the years and some stories are told better as series. Maybe it’s not just one season; perhaps it’s something you can continue for multiple seasons. Other stories are more suitable to be told as movies. We are so happy we’ve decided to do both because then we can look at it project by project, together with the creator, and say, What makes the most sense? That is much stronger than telling a creator who had a vision for a movie to turn it into a series. My creative team is so excited that we can finally go out to the production companies and say, We’re also looking for movies.

TV DRAMA: What role do acquisitions play on Viaplay?
WALLESTAM: It’s changing. We’re creating our own productions and of course they become increasingly important. Our own content is starting to drive sales. Having said that, we have a lot of very strong, long-term relationships with the U.S. players. Those are collaborations and operations we intend to continue. They fill different purposes. We want to have a broad service, and we want to have something to offer everyone. It has been challenging to understand what we’re going to get from the U.S. But I’m excited about our output deals. We are working on our own and building up that layer, but we really value the strong relationships we have with the studios. Many are going D2C, which means we are working even closer with the ones that aren’t. There are many ways we can collaborate.

TV DRAMA: Does being a regional versus a global player give you more flexibility in creating partnerships?
WALLESTAM: For sure. That is one of our main advantages. Also, we don’t take the full upside. We’re interested in the markets we’re in and even though they are increasing—we will be in at least 15 markets by the end of 2023—there is a lot of the world left. It leaves room for more collaborations and for the creators to get their shows financed but still have a significant upside in the back end.