BBCWW sets up in Nordics

BBC Worldwide has set up a company in Denmark to capitalise on the demand for shows such as The Great British Bake Off in the Nordics.

Anders Fuchs

BBC Worldwide Productions Nordics will be wholly owned by the commercial arm of the BBC and will focus on producing non-scripted formats.

The fledgling company has partnered with Banijay Group-owned prodco Nordisk Film TV, which will produce and facilitate future productions of non-scripted BBCWW formats in the region.

Existing local BBCWW format productions will be unaffected, the company said.

Anders Fuchs, a former development executive at Nordisk Film TV, has been named head of content and operations for the venture.

He will oversee a catalogue of 150 non-scripted formats, such as The Big Painting Challenge, Ultimate Hell Week and The Getaway Car, and will work with the Nordisk production group across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Paul Dempsey, president of global markets at BBCWW, said the venture will allow the company to “bring even more premium content, in the shape of our world-class non-scripted formats, to viewers across the region.”

Jacob Houlind, Nordic Group CEO of Nordisk Film TV, said he looked forward to supporting BBC Worldwide Productions Nordics on new programmes for broadcasters in the four countries.

Previous BBCWW format sales to the Nordic market include The Great British Bake Off, The Week the Women Went, Honey We’re Killing the Kids and The Weakest Link.

The new production base joins similarly BBCWW-owned hubs in France, India and the US.

In Germany BBCWW operates a joint venture with All3Media called Tower Productions, while in Australia it has an entertainment format production partnership with FremantleMedia.

This week HBO Europe announced that it too would be targeting local production in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, having previously confined its activities on the continent to Eastern Europe.