Amazon Prime Unveils Nordic Reality Shows, Movie Deal With Nordisk

Amazon Prime on Thursday rolled out its new slate for the Nordic territories, presenting a batch of localized reality TV formats — including versions of global reality hit LOL — as well as new scripted series and a major film licensing deal.

Alongside LOL, Amazon has commissioned hidden-camera show Pranked, which ITV Studios will produce in four local versions — for Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland — dating format Sweethearts, which Fremantle’s regional subsidiaries Baluba (Sweden), Monster (Norway), Strong Productions (Denmark), and Moskito (Finland) will produce; and island survival show Good Luck Guys, a Banijay Nordic production, with Banijay’s Meter Television in Sweden, Mastiff in Denmark and Norway and Banijay in Finland producing. Good Luck Guys was originally created by Banijay Productions for French channel W9, where it has run for five seasons.

Amazon has also commissioned four local versions of the competition show The Bridge, with Banijay Nordic companies Meter Television, Mastiff and Metronome producing in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, respectively, and Banijay subsidiary Endemol Shine producing in Finland.

At an event in Stockholm on Thursday, Amazon also provided sneak peeks of its upcoming scripted comedy series Toppen, starring Sissela Benn, Klara Hodell and Robert Gustafsson, and announced a new three-year licensing deal with regional group Nordisk Film.

The Nordisk deal, which kicks off next year, will see Amazon take streaming rights in the region to Nordisk’s catalog, which alongside hundreds of hours of kids content and local-language films includes such upcoming international titles as John Wick: Chapter 4, the YA prequel Hunger Games: Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes, and Steven Spielberg’s award contender The Fabelmans.