Nordic Entertainment Group sets up sales division to distribute Viaplay originals

Nordic Entertainment (NENT) Group has set up a sales arm to distribute the originals it is commissioning for its international streaming service Viaplay.

Filippa Wallestam

NENT Group Content Sales, which will be responsible for worldwide sales and distribution of the growing slate of Viaplay originals, is led by Alexandra Aldred as VP and head of content sales.

Aldred joins the company after eight years with Miramax, where she headed the EMEA sales distribution office in London. She previously held senior sales and marketing positions at Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Company.

Aldred is joined by Peter Torkelsson, senior sales and acquisitions manager, who has a sales and management background at companies such as Time Magazine Latin America, NonStop Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting, SF Studios and The Walt Disney Company.

The new unit comes as NENT Group gears up to premiere 60 Viaplay originals in 2022, including a newly commissioned Swedish drama starring The Bridge actor Sofia Helin, and looks to maximise its return on content investment.

Its existing original series include Pørni, Shadowplay, Honour and Swedish Dicks, with the original content push being overseen by NENT Group chief content officer Filippa Wallestam.

It will focus on sales and distribution in markets outside the current footprint of Viaplay, along with strategic collaborations in NENT Group’s current and new markets.

NENT Group plans to make Viaplay, which originally launched across the Nordics, available in at least 16 countries by the end of 2023.

This year, Viaplay has launched in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The service will be available in the US from late 2021 and the Netherlands and the UK in 2022, followed by Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the end of 2023.

In addition to direct sales and pre-sales of Viaplay originals, the content sales organisation will build and manage a network of sales agents. NENT Group’s current distribution agreements are unaffected by the new organisation, the company said.