Viaplay Signs Labor Deal to Restart Production in Denmark – The Hollywood Reporter
The cameras can start rolling again in Denmark after Scandinavian Streamer Viaplay on Monday signed a temporary deal with the country’s Producers’ Association and Create Denmark, an umbrella group representing actors, writers, directors and other industry professionals, to resume production on local TV series.
Viaplay, along with Netflix and Denmark’s TV 2 Play, shut down TV fiction production across the country weeks ago after being unable to come to terms with local producers and creatives.
At issue, of course, is money, specifically how revenues from local series that are carried on pan-regional or global streaming platforms, are shared between those platforms and producers.
Under a deal signed by the Producers’ Association and Create Denmark that went into effect in January, producers were set to get a bigger slice of the streaming pie. But the streamers argued the deal would make it too expensive to produce fiction content in Denmark, a tiny country (population: 6 million) that punches above its weight on the global TV scene, with such series as The Killing, Borgen and Netflix’s The Rain.
The companies said the proposed compensation model “hinders a commercial and sustainable production of local Danish content in Denmark.”
The remuneration agreement follows on the heels of Denmark’s new, 6 percent tax streaming tax, which online platforms say will further restrict investment in local content in the territory.
Viaplay’s content director, Filippa Wallestam called Monday’s temporary agreement “an important first step” towards a final deal, but noted that there remain “other challenges in the Danish media market” that need to be addressed before the company can sign a final deal and normal operations resumed in the territory. Viaplay did not disclose which Danish productions it will re-start under the temporary agreement. Viaplay, Create Denmark and the Producers’ Association have agreed to meet in the fall to try to hammer out a permanent deal
“We’ve realized that [the existing] agreement does not suit everyone, and therefore we will enter into new negotiations with each company separately,” noted Benjamin Boe Rasmussen, a representative for Create Denmark, in an interview with Swedish Radio Kulturnytt on Monday.
Netflix and TV2 Play have still not resumed production in Denmark.