Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has decided to fold its production arm in Denmark and centralize its Scandinavian operations out of Sweden.
Under the reorganization, the company’s future TV production for Denmark, such as “The Bachelor,” will be managed out of Stockholm in Sweden under the leadership of Johan Idering, managing director of WBITVP Sweden. As such, Fredrik Hillerbrand, managing director of WBITVP Denmark will step down in the coming months. The news was first reported by Deadline.
Besides Hillerbrand’s exit, the company has warned that “some roles will be impacted.” Warner Bros. had previously relocated its Norwegian operations in Sweden.
Warner Bros. Discovery said the “difficult decision” was made against an “incredibly challenging backdrop of ongoing uncertainty in the Danish media market and the rising costs of content creation.”
Ronald Goes, EVP and head of Warner Bros. International Television Production, said “this has not been an easy decision for the company, and it has been made with a very heavy heart.”
“However, it became clear we must take sensible steps to consolidate our business in Scandinavia in response to the Danish media production sector dealing with a massive decrease in work,” Goes continued.
Over the last couple years, Denmark’s once robust film and TV industry has been hit by a bitter dispute between local unions and streamers over fees and rights. The clash led local and global streaming services to fully stop commissioning Danish content for roughly a year. The freeze is believed to have caused a loss of revenue amounting to approximately $200 million for the country, according to an open letter published last September and signed by prominent Danish companies including Miso Film (“The Rain”), SAM Productions (“Borgen”), Apple Tree Productions, Nordisk Film and SF Studios.
