{"id":10790,"date":"2019-02-19T08:45:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T13:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-02-19T17:32:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T22:32:33","slug":"premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium Drama in Focus at Elisa Viihde"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elisa Viihde Head of Content Ani Korpela and Alan Sim, executive producer and commissioner at the platform, talk to <\/em>TV Drama about their investments in premium Finnish drama.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like SVOD platforms the world over, Elisa Viihde in Finland is using distinctive, original programming to drive its subscriber-acquisition strategy. Owned by Finnish telecommunications company Elisa, the platform, which marks its tenth anniversary this year, has upped its investments in local content over the last few years, with strong results to date. Of note, its thriller Bullets<\/em> won the Coup de Coeur at the MIPDrama Buyers Summit last year, up against its own Arctic Circle<\/em> as well as shows from Movistar+, ITV and Sky Germany. \u201cWe’re an SVOD service and we’re competing against much bigger budgets, much bigger companies\u2014and little old us pulled it out of the bag!\u201d says Sim.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The platform\u2019s original scripted efforts started about five years ago with comedies. \u201cThey were quicker to produce and less expensive to make, while we figured out what possible models we could use in terms of getting the budgets higher,\u201d says Korpela. Elisa Viihde then tapped into its relationships with the local creative community, as a leading buyer of Finnish movies, to attract production companies and directors eager to enter the new golden age of television. However, \u201cwe needed [partnerships] to get the budgets bigger,” Korpela notes.<\/p>\n

At first, \u201cwhen we started talking to people, asking if they wanted to co-produce or distribute [our shows], they were very polite but not that into it,\u201d Korpela says. That has all changed in the last two years, with Elisa Viihde working with a variety of distributors, including Sky Vision, About Premium Content and Lagard\u00e8re Studios Distribution. \u201cThe message is, the\u00a0Finns\u00a0are coming!\u201d Sim says.<\/p>\n

The platform plans to keep its original drama output at a manageable size, Korpela says, rolling out five new shows last year and two series with returning seasons. \u201cWe need to concentrate\u00a0on\u00a0the quality. There’s marketing as well. If people are getting something new every week, they won’t notice anything anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company is, however, \u201cexperimenting more,\u201d Sim says. \u201cArctic Circle<\/em> and Bullets<\/em> are both mixed language. All the Sins<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0all Finnish. As a Finnish service, we want to make things that are Finnish and attract local audiences. We don’t want to make a Europudding. The stories have to feel organic. There has to be a real reason for doing it. Something like All the Sins<\/em>, which is set in a religious community, is very particular to Finland. We read the scripts and thought it felt particularly Finnish, but it could equally feel like a [show set in] deep south Mississippi.\u00a0So, it feels very local, but a distributor can sell this, and could probably also sell the format.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team at Elisa Viihde is also balancing how it uses big data and algorithms to determine the content lineup. \u201cData tells you what they have been watching, but it doesn’t tell you what they might be watching in two\u00a0years,\u201d Korpela says. \u201cWe try to mix the data, the insights of our executive producers, focus groups. At the end of the day, it’s a creative decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have a gut instinct,\u201d Sim adds. \u201cIt\u2019s about using the data cleverly, but also\u00a0having\u00a0a feeling about shows, about people, and talking to producers, finding out what they’re making and what people are up to. You have to have your feet on the ground with what’s going on. You can only do that by building relationships with people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elisa Viihde’s Ani Korpela and Alan Sim talk about their investments in premium Finnish drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":10791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[2944,2945,2602],"class_list":["post-10790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-alan-sim","tag-ani-korpela","tag-elisa-viihde","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nPremium Drama in Focus at Elisa Viihde - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Premium Drama in Focus at Elisa Viihde - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elisa Viihde's Ani Korpela and Alan Sim talk about their investments in premium Finnish drama.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-19T13:45:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-19T22:32:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/02\/Ani-Korpela-IMG_1557.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/\",\"name\":\"Premium Drama in Focus at Elisa Viihde - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-19T13:45:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-19T22:32:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/premium-drama-in-focus-at-elisa-viihde\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Premium Drama in Focus at Elisa Viihde\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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