Annie Wegelius to receive formats gold

Media entrepreneur and former SVT director of programmes Annie Wegelius is to receive the International Formats Gold Award during MipFormats in Cannes this April.

Award-winner Annie Wegelius

Before joining SVT, as director of programmes, in May 2007, Annie had been an entrepreneurial part of the TV and media industry for 25 years.

She was central in development of the format exchange network in the mid 1990s and brought Lingo, Här är ditt Kylskåp (Celebrity Fridge) Forgive Me and Lyrics Board to Scandinavia. As programme director at SVT she took the decision to go with Mästarnas Mästare (Eternal Glory).

She was part of the founding team of TV3, Scandinavia’s first commercial broadcaster, where she was the channel’s first programme director.

She then founded and headed her own production company Wegelius TV, which grew to become one of the leading independent producers in the Nordic region eventually spawning The Big Class Reunion and Friends Forever.

Annie went on to create one of Europe’s first e-learning companies, Kworld, which operated the first privately owned digital terrestrial broadcast channel in Sweden.

At SVT, she headed the commissioning board, deciding which programmes to commission and the schedules and online content for five broadcast channels and Sweden’s leading online video site.

She has been an integral part in the modernisation of Swedish public service television and continues to play an important role in areas of creative development strategies and collaboration with the independent production industry.

Annie is now a senior advisor to Swedish and international companies.

Announcing the award C21’s editor-in-chief David Jenkinson said: “We are delighted Annie has accepted The International Formats Gold Award. Her exceptional creativity has been an inspiration to many around the world and the programming she has championed set the bar.”

FRAPA co-chair Jan Salling added: “During Annie´s amazing career in the Nordic TV industry she has continuously recognised the value of formats, local production and the protection of IP. She has contributed greatly to both the Nordic format industry and to the world and FRAPA couldn’t imagine a better candidate to receive this prestigious award.”

Laurine Garaude, director of Reed MipTV director said: “Annie is a visionary innovator and entrepreneur in the international TV industry. She has been instrumental in creating an amazing Focus on Nordics at MIPTV and MipFormats this April, a series of events spotlighting creativity and innovation in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. We are absolutely delighted that she will be receiving the International Formats Gold Award.”

Previous recipients of The Gold Award include Merve Griffin, Peter Balazgette, David Lyle, Mark Itkin and Dick de Rjick.

The International Formats Gold Award, presented in association with MipFormats, will be given on Saturday April 11 during the event.

Annie will also be guest of honour at The International Format Awards dinner on the evening of Saturday April 11.

For more information on how to attend this dinner, and on the 2015 International Format Awards, please click here.