Pálmi Gudmundsson, Channel 2's Vice-President in charge of programming.
On the eve of the Edda Awards ceremony Iceland Cinema Now interviewed Pálmi Gudmundsson, Channel 2‘s (Stöð 2) Vice-President in charge of Programming, about the station‘s success with original fiction series in the last few years and the road ahead.
Founded in 1986, Channel 2 is Iceland‘s primary privately owned TV station. It‘s a subscription-based service which also carries advertising, and enjoys a large nationwide penetration (around half of all households). While relying heavily on popular American imports, the channel has always carried national news and some other original programming. In the last decade or so the channel has adapted many popular TV formats such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Idol, Ready Steady Cook and currently Wipeout, but for the last three years it has also put a lot of effort into original fiction series.
The results have been impressive. The first two of the Shift dramedy series (The Night Shift and The Day Shift) have enjoyed spectacular success, swept the Edda Awards in their respective categories each year, enjoyed huge ratings and DVD sales, foreign sales have been made and an American remake of The Night Shift is in the works. The third one, The Prison Shift, has also been a big hit and the channel‘s other series have done very well too. At this year‘s Edda Awards all three of the channel‘s series screened last year are nominated in many categories. It is also the first time Channel 2 receives more nominations than public broadcaster RUV, who has a much larger and more varied programming output.
ICN: What prompted you to start commissioning original fiction series?
PG: For a long time we were fully aware of the demand for well made original drama and narrative comedy, but for various reasons were unable to head that way. We had done a lot of big entertainment programs and quiz shows which were very popular, and felt there was time for a change. Part of it was the fact that production companies such as Sagafilm and others, had started developing such ideas and approached us with concepts that eventually became The Night Shift (Næturvaktin) and The Press (Pressa). Both series are watershed projects in our view, as they mark the beginning of regular production of fictional TV series in Iceland. We live and die by our subscribers from month to month and constantly need to offer good material to keep them happy. Luckily both series were very successful and that convinced us to continue with this kind of programming.
ICN: How is your relationship with the production companies? Do you iniate the ideas or do you accept proposals?
PG: We wholly depend on the creative talent in the filmmaking community to supply us with ideas for projects. We prefer to deal with companies who put big emphasis on TV fiction and are capable of seeing a project through from beginning to end.
ICN: Do you have special preferences in terms of material, which genres you want and which you want to avoid?
PG: Not really. However we do seek gender balance in our line-up; wether in terms of writers, directors, producers or cast. Of course this can‘t be achieved with every project so we do this on an individual project basis. For example, our romantic comedy series Ástrídur from last year is a good example of a series almost entirely made by women.
ICN: Let‘s talk about the Shift series. You‘ve had huge success with it, but initially there were doubts that dark material like this really suited your programming profile. Can you reflect on your initial views on the project?
PG: Yes, we did have some initial doubts. Judging from the scripts we felt it was somewhat unclear how the series would play out. But we did have a lot of confidence in the creative talent. Jón Gnarr and Ragnar Bragason had worked with us extensively on the comedy sketch show Fóstbræður (Bloodbrothers) and Pétur Jóhann had proved his mettle in other shows and deserved a bigger break. Sagafilm had also by this time created a TV fiction unit and all these elements finally convinced us to go ahead.
ICN: What did you want to get out of this experiment?
PG: We wanted to create a strong identity in the market that would seperate us from the competition. We put a lot of effort into the initial marketing, trying to make sure everybody were aware of what was coming, but not in our wildest dreams did we expect the kind of reception The Night Shift got. Keep in mind though that it took some time to capture the hearts and minds of the audience. In the first few weeks we didn‘t get much enthusiasm, but just about halfway through everything changed very suddenly and the show became a national phenomenon, with phrases entering daily speech and the characters becoming a point of reference with the public.
ICN: How was your experience during this stage?
PG: Well, obviously we were acutely aware of what was happening, as it seemed that the whole of society was talking about the show. It was of course very rewarding for us and it confirmed our belief that we had betted on some very talented people who had produced a world-class programme.
ICN: It has been noted that this year Channel 2 has for the first time received more nominations to the Edda Awards than pubcaster RUV, in spite of a much smaller programming output. How do you regard this development?
PG: I think it demonstrates that the steps we took some years ago to put more emphasis on TV fiction has paid off handsomely. It has also created other important rewards. We‘ve received a record number of subscribers and maintained that relationship and the industry has grown in size with added production opportunities. It turns out that there was a huge demand in the market for this kind of programming and we have been able to meet that demand, to everybody‘s benefit.
ICN: How do you see the road ahead for fiction series at Channel 2, given the current dire economy?
PG: We will continue to put locally made fiction work at the forefront of our programming. However we face diminished resources, due to the state cutbacks in film and TV funding, which we rely on. And due to the recession we are no longer able to finance projects entirely on our own, as we did before in some cases. This means we aim to screen two series this year, instead of the three we had hoped for. But hopefully we‘ll be able to increase it later, as the economy recovers.
