New8 – a production and broadcasting collaboration between eight major European broadcasters who commission, produce and distribute original series – has been renewed for a further three years. The renewal was announced Wednesday at the Gothenburg Film Festival’s Television Drama Vision panel discussion, highlighting the success of the collaboration, which has already produced 24 original series in several stages of development, production and release.
The eight members of New8 are SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RÚV (Iceland), NRK (Norway), VRT (Flanders/Belgium), NPO (Netherlands), and ZDF (Germany). This corresponds to a potential market of 142 million people, or more than twice the size of France.
Since it was first established at the end of 2023, New8 has established itself as a successful model for promoting European co-production. Titles released through this partnership include “This Is Not a Murder Mystery,” “Kabul,” “Other People’s Money” and “Queen of Facking Everything.”
Prior to the renewal announcement, VRT’s international drama expert and New8 Chairman Elie Ververot emphasized how “important” this collaboration is in an interview with Variety. The executive also noted that even though the contract is nearing the end of its initial three-year term, the fruits of its efforts are only just beginning to be seen due to development and production schedules. The deal with New8 greenlights eight original series each year, bringing the total to a massive catalog of 24 titles.
“Fiction series take longer to produce,” added Jasmine Maeda, ZDF’s SVP of international fiction, co-productions and acquisitions. “For us, it was important to have this nurturing venue and we were interested in the results. Now, with more experience, we want to take New8 to the next level. We want to work even more closely together to bring European talent to the international market.”
NRK’s head of international finance, Hans-Jørgen Osnes, who was responsible for bringing this deal to fruition in the first place, praised the communication between the heads of drama at all eight broadcasters. “We find interesting projects and build relationships based on trust,” he added. “Producers also want to be a part of this, which is very helpful. They can spend their time creating content instead of chasing money. It’s essential that they spend their time developing and producing the series.”
Maeda echoed that sentiment, emphasizing how New8 represents “even more opportunities” for creators and producers at a time when “we are facing tremendous pressure in the domestic and international markets, making financing more difficult and complex.” “We are platforming European talent and giving them a stage in other countries. This is the message we want to spread. We are supporting the travel of European collaborators and talent, and broadcasters are becoming more connected at a strategic and production level.”
“This Is Not a Murder Mystery”, courtesy of Studiocanal
Provided by Studio Canal
When asked about recent data from Ampere Analysis pointing to an inflection point in 2028 when streamers globally will spend more than all of traditional broadcasting combined, Ververot said he had seen “the opposite” in the past. “If you look at what happened after 2022, we saw a market boom and then a bust. What we saw in Europe is that commissions for global streamers fell by 30%. On a global level, the average commission for large streamers fell by 42%.”
“We are a small territory in northern Belgium and what we are experiencing is global streamers pulling back and investing less in the local market to produce a few blockbusters a year,” she added. “But we have another goal. As a public broadcaster, our focus is to provide local audiences with powerful, locally relevant content, as we have for more than 70 years.”
When talking about what kind of series New8 is looking for, VRT executives brought up the concept of “European potential.” Prompted to expand on this idea, Vervreaux added qualifiers such as broad appeal, a focus on an 18- to 45-year-old audience, cultural relevance, and a “bold and entertaining” story. “If we manage to meet these standards, we are confident that these shows have potential in Europe and beyond.”
Regarding the logistics of working together for the eight major public broadcasters, Vervroet emphasized that all broadcasters “have editorial input into every aspect of the program at every stage of production,” including reading scripts and watching first draft cuts. To avoid creators having to deal with feedback from eight different sources, New8 established that the local commissioner would always be the single point of contact for production. The system proved effective within the first three years.
Next, there is one small difference in the process. New8 created the additional rounds because the participating members felt they needed to “discuss the content more and get to know each other and each other’s projects better.”
“We are currently working in two rounds,” Vervloet revealed. “[We]hold a content conference in the first round, where each broadcaster brings two or three series to the table and asks questions like: Which ones will be most relevant to our viewers and why? In this way, we’ll have a first-hand input and We can learn from each other. There are seven other heads of drama at major broadcasters, and we’re taking all that into account, so this is an important difference compared to the first three years.”
