ITV Studios takes Apple Tree majority

ITV Studios (ITVS) has acquired a majority stake in Apple Tree Productions, the prodco set up by The Bridge and The Killing producer Piv Bernth.

Piv Bernth

The production and distribution arm of the UK commercial broadcaster has upped its stake in the Danish firm from 25% to 51%.

The agreement will see the label, founded by Bernth and former DR deputy of drama Lars Hermann, become a more integral part of ITVS.

Since its launch in 2017, Apple Tree Productions has developed high-end drama series for both the Scandinavian market and global streamers.

Equinox, a six-part, character-driven supernatural thriller, commissioned by Netflix, has now launched on the platform and is available worldwide.

Pre-production is also underway on a six-part TV adaptation of Kerstin Ekman’s multi-award-winning crime novel Blackwater, from the company’s Swedish arm for SVT in Sweden and ARD in Germany.

ITVS has pre-sold the drama to pubcasters DR (Denmark), NRK (Norway), YLE (Finland) and RUV (Iceland). Several other Scandinavian and international projects are in development.

International distribution for Apple Tree Productions will continue to be handled by ITVS The label will now sit within ITVS’s international production group, with bases in 12 countries, under MD Lisa Perrin.

In a joint statement, Bernth and Hermann said: “We are so excited to be a closer part of the ITV Studios family. Working with them for the past three years has been extremely inspiring and rewarding. We hope that we, closer together now, can merge all our best efforts and make Scandinavian and international drama to viewers all over the world.”

ITVS MD Julian Bellamy added: “The global appetite for the Nordics’ very distinctive style of storytelling has grown and grown. Both within Denmark itself as well as globally, Piv, Lars and the team at Apple Tree Productions have a fantastic reputation for bringing high-quality, premium drama to the screen watched by Danish viewers as well as a global audience. I’m looking forward to the next chapter for ITV Studios and Apple Tree Productions.”