NENT Group snags 700 hours of eOne content under new licensing pact

Jennifer Finnegan as Lidia in dramedy Moonshine

Nordic Entertainment (NENT) Group has acquired more than 700 hours of content from global studio Entertainment One (eOne) under a new licensing pact covering NENT’s services in the Nordic and Baltic regions, Poland and the Netherlands.

The multi-year agreement represents the largest licensing deal between the two companies to date. It includes Australian drama The Newsreader for ABC Australia and Canadian dramas Family Law for Canadian network Global and Moonshine for Canuck pubcaster CBC.

The deal, brokered by London-based eOne sales manager Suzanne Flowerday-Nilson, also covers multi-season TV hits such as Private Eyes, Hell on Wheels, Saving Hope, Cardinal, Into the Badlands, Mary Kills People, Burden of Truth, Bitten, Ransom, Haven, Rookie Blue, Deputy and Between Two Worlds.

NENT Group has been on a content acquisition spree in recent months as it stocks up on programming for its streaming service Viaplay, which is in the midst of an aggressive global expansion.

Last month, the streamer entered the US market for the first time, launching on Comcast’s entertainment devices including Xfinity X1, Xfinity Flex and XClass TV.

Ahead of the US launch, the company picked up a raft of dramas from ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) and Banijay Rights, including ZDFE’s thriller Grow (8×42′) and crime drama Huss (10×45′) and Banijay’s Countrymen (8×60’), Black Lake (16×60’) and Dystopia (8×60’).

Viaplay has already launched in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and plans to branch into the UK and the Netherlands later this year, followed by Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the end of 2023.

In November, NENT Group inked a multi-year deal with MGM International Television to develop and coproduce six English-language original series for Viaplay. Under the deal, all six series will be shown exclusively as Viaplay originals throughout the Nordics, Baltics, Netherlands and Poland, with MGM handling distribution for the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, eOne has been looking to expand its business dealings in the Nordics. According to the company, it has licensed more than 800 hours of content across the Nordics over the past 18 months and sold more than 1,500 hours of content into the region in total.