Orange, iflix Join Atrium TV’s “Commissioning Club”

Atrium TV, which is positioned as a drama “commissioning club,” has revealed its first members, among them Orange (France), Deutsche Telekom (Germany) and iflix (Asia/MENA).

Atrium TV was established by Sir Howard Stringer, former chairman of Sony and former president of CBS, and Jeremy Fox, chairman and founder of DRG, to create premium, high-profile drama content for delivery by regional OTT players and telcos. Atrium’s first round of members joining Viaplay (Nordics) now includes Sky New Zealand, Antenna (Greece), Yes TV (Israel) and NewFilm (Russia). Further members will be announced after MIPCOM.

Fox, CEO of Atrium TV, commented: “We are absolutely thrilled to have attracted such high-profile, market-leading OTT players and telcos to become the first members of Atrium TV. We thought we had hit on a good idea when we launched the business and it’s great to know that so many respected companies appear to agree—especially when all of these were on our wishlist for membership! Getting everybody together in Cannes will prove a major milestone for our fast-growing business and allow us to demonstrate just what club membership means.”

Stringer, chairman of Atrium TV, added: “We have some brilliant talent joining us on the day, presenting some very exciting new projects, and I am really looking forward to hearing member feedback. We believe we are developing a winning slate of ambitious, must-see drama and we are very much hoping that our members see these as perfect programs for their audiences and subscribers, to help build their brands.”

Alix Goldschmidt, VP, director of acquisitions for France and international at Orange Content/OCS, said: “As the market for scripted series becomes increasingly competitive and in an environment where global players have seemingly bottomless pockets, it is interesting to be aligned with like-minded services within a structure which could represent a substantive alternative to acquiring compelling new content. We hope that in this way, Atrium will prove to be an additional source of high-quality programming for our service.”