Viaplay Launches in U.S., Bringing Nordic Noir Hits and Scandinavian Storytelling
Viaplay, the Nordic streamer that is a big producer of original programming, has launched its service in the U.S., promising consumers Nordic Noir hit content and “premium Scandinavian storytelling” for $5.99 per month.
U.S. customers can sign up with a seven-day free trial, the company said on Wednesday. Series available exclusively on Viaplay include Danish crime drama Trom, starring Ulrich Thomsen; Norway’s Furia, which explores the world of right-wing extremism; London-set Swedish relationship drama Threesome, with Lucien Laviscount; and financial drama Exit, one of Norway’s most streamed series. (The streamer’s film and TV content is all available subtitled in English.)
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Film titles include A Man Called Ove, which was recently remade as A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks, Academy Award-winning dark comedy Another Round starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale), as well as all three original films from the Millennium/The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Other programming touted by Viaplay includes psychological thriller Partisan, documentary Operation Cannabis, comedy-drama series Love Me and Pernille, young adult series Delete Me and historical drama The Emigrants.
“As the global leader in original Nordic content, we’re excited for U.S. audiences to have access to more new series and films from the Nordic region than ever before, and at just $5.99 with thousands of hours of high-quality, exclusive programming, Viaplay offers subscribers an incredible value for their streaming dollars,” said Vanda Rapti, Viaplay Group Chief Commercial Officer, North America & Viaplay Select.
Rapti also told The Hollywood Reporter about the appeal of Nordic Noir. “The genre is very popular,” she said. “Nordic Noir is just the beginning, because for us it is more about the Nordic storytelling overall. It is a way of filming, a way of telling the story — high-quality, very intriguing and appealing.”
How does the exec view the competition? “In the U.S., AMC and Sundance have had some of this type of content before and Netflix with some of their originals. But obviously, we are the number one in the genre because we have a super-large while at the same time top-quality slate of Nordic content,” Rapti said.
Viaplay said it currently has “millions of customers” for its offerings across the Nordic and Baltic countries, the U.K., Poland and the Netherlands. As of the end of 2022, it reported more than 7.3 million subscribers, including nearly 2.7 million, or 37 percent, outside the Nordics. Viaplay’s North American direct-to-consumer offering will further expand to Canada on March 7.
Viaplay is available to stream in the U.S. via apps on iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets, Chromecast devices, Smart TVs, Android TV, Google TV, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV streaming devices, as well as on web browsers. The service is also available through Comcast’s Xfinity and Xumo platforms and as part of The Roku Channel’s premium subscription lineup.
