"Ronja the Robber's Daughter", "In the Name of Love" with Maria Bonnevie and "Bullshit" with Alba August are some of the drama ventures on Viaplay whose future is now uncertain.
Two weeks ago, the company postponed its quarterly report with a sharp stock market crash as a result, and now Viaplay is talking about postponing or selling several of the planned productions for 2023 and to other companies.
Reality & Purchasing
"We have changed our content strategy slightly going forward, with more investments in non-scripted content as well as purchased series and films," Viaplay's Head of Media Relations, Susanne Nylén, wrote to Kulturnyheterna.
Jonas Birmé, streaming expert, believes that several of the series could be scrapped.
"There's a risk, of course, that they won't find a buyer. They will probably be shut down, I find it hard to see that anything else would happen," he says.
Original drama less important
When HBO became HBO Max, several of the Swedish originals the company had commissioned disappeared. "Lust" and "Bear Town" were bought by rival Skyshowtime, but HBO's first Swedish series – "Gösta" by Lukas Moodysson – is currently nowhere to be seen.
Jonas Birmé believes that original dramas are not as important to the services anymore.
"The services have invested in order to be able to take the position as the most attractive service. They have invested in what has been exclusive, whether it is sports or drama productions, to get new subscribers. Now the money is simply getting more expensive," he says.
Lagging behind
In addition, the TV crisis of the past year has hit the traditional TV companies' streaming services harder, as they have had to deal with two markets at the same time.
"TV viewing isn't just levelling off anymore, it's going down. You're a little behind those who don't have the 'TV luggage' with them, like Netflix and Prime Video," says Jonas Birmé.