{"id":15371,"date":"2021-08-10T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-08-11T09:25:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:25:45","slug":"nent-groups-filippa-wallestam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/","title":{"rendered":"NENT Group\u2019s Filippa Wallestam"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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\u2014and growing\u2014slate of originals, which currently includes The Swarm<\/em>, The Kingdom Exodus<\/em>, Trom<\/em>, Adi Hasak\u2019s The Box<\/em>, new seasons of the critically acclaimed Partisan<\/em> and Wisting<\/em> and three recently announced out of Poland: Polish Murderesses<\/em>, Black Dog <\/em>and Freedom of the Swallow<\/em>. While long known for its series\u2014which have sold well around the world\u2014the streamer has now entered the movie space, unveiling plans earlier this summer to produce two English-language films every year. The first is Hilma<\/em>, a biopic of the Swedish artist and feminist pioneer Hilma af Klint, written and directed by Lasse Hallstr\u00f6m and set to premiere in 2022. It will star Lena Olin as af Klint in her later years, with Hallstr\u00f6m and Olin\u2019s daughter, Tora Hallstr\u00f6m, cast as the artist in her youth. Other films based on well-known Nordic personalities will follow.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> How did the movies initiative come about?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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, \u2018I don\u2019t know if you do movies, but I have this project,\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Are movies more of an acquisition or retention tool?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> How are you managing this expanding slate of originals?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> It\u2019s fair to say we have a fantastic team! We\u2019re all very passionate about what we do. That\u2019s the key. And we\u2019re 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\u2019d rather focus more on unique Nordic stories and big brand-building tentpole shows. We announced Billy the Kid<\/em> recently; that\u2019s a fantastic project for us to be part of [alongside EPIX in the U.S.]. We\u2019ll continue to do those. We know the Nordics, so it\u2019s relatively easy. We know the production companies. That\u2019s why it feels natural for us when we\u2019re expanding to work with Nordic talent like Lasse and Lena. Even though they are super international and well-known, they are Swedish. It\u2019s easier for us to get those connections. As we\u2019re entering new markets, we are relying on local talent that we recruit. Those are markets we haven\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> You\u2019re doing English and local-language productions. How do you determine what direction to take?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> It\u2019s 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<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> 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?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> 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\u2019s not just one season; perhaps it\u2019s something you can continue for multiple seasons. Other stories are more suitable to be told as movies. We are so happy we\u2019ve 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\u2019re also looking for movies.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>What role do acquisitions play on Viaplay?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> It\u2019s changing. We\u2019re 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\u2019re going to get from the U.S. But I\u2019m 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\u2019t. There are many ways we can collaborate.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Does being a regional versus a global player give you more flexibility in creating partnerships?
\nWALLESTAM:<\/strong> For sure. That is one of our main advantages. Also, we don\u2019t take the full upside. We\u2019re interested in the markets we\u2019re in and even though they are increasing\u2014we will be in at least 15 markets by the end of 2023\u2014there 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The executive VP and chief content officer on the strategy for original content as Viaplay expands its footprint and the continued need for acquired shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":15372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,70],"tags":[4602,2905,2703,820],"class_list":["post-15371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-filippa-wallestam","tag-nent-group","tag-nordic-entertainment-group","tag-viaplay","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nNENT Group\u2019s Filippa Wallestam - 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\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NENT Group\u2019s Filippa Wallestam - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The executive VP and chief content officer on the strategy for original content as Viaplay expands its footprint and the continued need for acquired shows.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-10T12:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-11T13:25:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/07\/Filippa-Wallestam-NENT-821.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\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=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/\",\"name\":\"NENT Group\u2019s Filippa Wallestam - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-10T12:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-11T13:25:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/nent-groups-filippa-wallestam\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NENT Group\u2019s Filippa Wallestam\"}]},{\"@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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