Entertainment One (eOne) has signed a major multi-rights deal with Scandinavian giant Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) for more than 700 hours of drama content. The deal, announced Tuesday, gives NENT rights to eOne’s catalog of fictional series across the company’s European footprint, including the Nordic and Baltic regions, Poland and the Netherlands. It marks the largest-ever deal between the two companies.
Among the highlights in the eOne drama package are new Australian primetime series The Newsreader, Canadian legal drama Family Law, and Canuck dramedy Moonshine. Prime library titles include multiple seasons of AMC martial arts actioner Into the Badlands and Western Hell on Wheels, and the supernatural medical drama Saving Hope, which ran for five seasons on Hulu.
The deal is the latest in a buying spree from NENT Group, which is bulking up its streaming library as it rolls out its online Viaplay service outside Scandinavia. NENT launched Viaplay US late last year and plans to hit the UK and Dutch markets in 2022, followed by Canada and Germany-speaking territories by the end of 2023. NENT has done deals for top sports rights, including European mixed martial arts tournament KSW and soccer’s Africa Cup of Nations for its European territories.
NENT is also doubling down on original productions, recently greenlighting the ITV co-production Litvinenko starring David Tennant (Doctor Who) as former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who was infamously killed by Russian agents using radioactive polonium, and the Connie Nielsen series The Dreamer: Becoming Karen Blixen about the famed Danish author of Out of Africa.
The company also signed a multiyear production and development deal with MGM International Television Productions for six English-language original international series including apocalyptic thriller Last Light, starring, and executive produced by Matthew Fox (Lost), and the Western drama series Billy the Kid from Vikings writer Michael Hirst starring British actor Tom Blyth (Benediction).