Elisa, a Finnish telecommunications company, bought a bunch of Nordic crime series from ZDFE, a German Television company, to be streamed on its Subscription video on demand (SVoD) in China.
The Nordic series that were picked up included Blue Eyes (Swedish political drama), Welcome to Texas (Finnish drama thriller), Thicker than Water (Swedish family drama) and Arne Dahl (based on the Swedish crime novel).
Elisa signed an agreement with China Broadcasting & Television Media, a subsidiary of China Broadcasting Network, since Summer 2018 to distribute Nordic TV series, documentaries, sports and entertainment programmes to Chinese TV households.
According to ZDFE’s press release on 20th March 2019, Robert Franke, Vice President of ZDFE, drama said “Nordic TV’s service was piloted to more than 10 million people last year and it was found that Chinese consumers are interested in Nordic content and willing to pay for it.”
“We are thrilled to be part of this exciting story.” Robert told.
Moreover, Jussi Nyfelt, Director of Nordic TV at Elisa, added “our objective is to provide Nordic TV to 245 million Chinese cable TV households by July 2019. We are elated to have some of ZDF Enterprises’ best drama series on board on this journey.”
