Everything you need to know before pitching your project

Fall and spring are synonymous with Nordic pitches and Nordvision meetings all across the Nordics. The pandemic has taught us to keep a distance, but also to meet each other even when physically far away from one another. Our online meetings will be part of our activities during this fall season as well.

To make it easier for you, we have gathered all you need to know ahead of your pitch session. Have a look below and find the answers to all and any questions you might have.

Your idea

Everything begins with a great idea. Before sharing it with your Nordic colleagues, your idea should have the go-ahead of your commissioning editor or program executive. Your idea may be pitched either as a development project or a co-production.

What kind of project?

Within the Nordvision collaboration, we distinguish between development projects and co-productions. Development projects are made up of ideas that may not have been greenlighted by your company as of now, but you still feel there is potential to develop your idea into something great if granted more funding, additional time, etc.

Co-productions are projects that have already been signed up for production within your company, but to which you wish to sign up one or several of your Nordic partners as co-producers.

How should I do my presentation?

Nordvision is organized by genre, which means there are program groups for factual, culture, children’s content, young adult, investigative journalism and drama, etc. Our meeting calendar may help you in finding the right place for you to pitch your idea. If you are in doubt, you are very welcome to get in touch!

Remember to get the go-ahead

To be eligible for entering into our pitch process, you need to establish your idea within your own company, and preferably get a go-ahead from your commissioning editor, or someone equivalent who is responsible for the commissioning of content within your genre. This could be a program executive, an executive editor or a commissioning editor. Have a look here to find out who your commissioning editor is.

Register your project

Before joining one of our meetings or pitch sessions, you need to register your project in Nordvision’s online project database. To be able to do this, you need to set up your own profile. This is an easy task, simply click here to get going.

The project database helps the Nordic commissioning editors to understand your idea and make a decision on whether to support it or not. Therefore, it is very important that you include all essential info on your project. Videos and images are a welcome addition as well. Remember to keep your project up to date in the database at all times.

The database also serves as an important overview of all active Nordic projects.

To register a project, you will need the following info:

- Name of project
- A brief description of your project
- An image or short video clip (we can help you set up your video on Vimeo – just let us know if you need help)
- Information on rights, type of project (co-production or development project), what will the cost be for a partner to join the project, when are you planning on delivering the final product to those joining as co-production partners?
- All info on the projects will also be visible to the commissioning editors in Pitch Mode.

Pitch Mode is used by the commissioning editors in order to get a good visual overview of the presented projects, as shown in the picture above. Do remember to inlclude an image or a video, so that your project looks as appealing as possible.

Preparing for a pitch

In the meeting, you will meet representatives from all of the Nordic public service media companies involved in that specific collaboration. You are free to choose what language to use, it could be either English or one of the Scandinavian languages. 

It is important that your pitch explains why your project is relevant and interesting to an audience outside of your own home country, and why it should be selected for co-production.

Remember to also include info on: 

- What kind of project it is, and what are you looking for? Development or co-production?
- How much money are you applying for?
- If you are applying for funding for a development project: Explain how you would use the funding. Example: Doing additional development work, conduct further research, produce a pilot, etc.
- Do mention what rights are included, when you can go into production, and when you expect to deliver the final product.

Do you need additional insights as to how the other Nordic partners see things, or a comment on the potential of your idea? Get in touch with your commissioning editor or the Nordvision secretariat.

Remember: If you attract at least one partner from another Nordic public service media company, your may also apply for funding by the Nordvision Fund.

In the days ahead of the meeting

When your project has been accepted for entering the pitch, you will receive info by email on when to present, as well as a link to the meeting itself.

Try out your presentation ahead of the pitch

This fall the pitches will be done in Microsoft Teams, and our experience tells us that it is important to test all presentations ahead of the Big Meeting Day. Following this, we arrange a test session ahead of the meeting. If you have registered for attendance at the pitch meeting, you will receive a link to the test session via email. If you have not received a link, please contact us on oyes@dr.dk or tono@dr.dk.

In the meeting

You will meet the commissiong editors, or representatives with a corresponding mandate from the Nordic partners (DR, NRK, RUV, SVT, Svenska Yle and Yle). Please note that our pitch sessions are rather hectic, and that each project will be assigned a very strict time slot. Enter the virtual meeting room 10 minutes ahead of your time slot.

Your presentation must not exceed 5 minutes in length. Following your presentation, there will be 4 minutes of time for questions and comments. Our best advice is for you to practice your presentation beforehand to make sure you can include all essential info in 5 minutes. Also make it very clear what you are looking for from the other Nordic countries.

Post-meeting

The commissioning editors meet shortly after the final presentation has ended to decide on which projects to support. If your project gains a Nordic co-producer, you will also be eligible to apply for funding by the Nordvision Fund.

If you have applied for development support in one of the following groups: factual, culture, children or young adult, you will get the result very shortly after the meeting as to whether your project gained support or not.

If you apply for funding in other program groups, you first need to find someone who supports your idea, and then apply for funding by filling out a form on the Nordvision Fund’s web pages.

If your project is supported

For projects with co-production partner(s):

- Keep the project up to date in our project database. 
- Deliver the details on who is the main contact for the project to your co-production partners and do include this info in the project database as well. 
- See to that a contract is set up with your co-production partners. You can find templates for co-production agreements on our website. – Will you apply for funding for your project from the Nordvision Fund? See deadlines and how to apply on Nordvision.org.

For projects with development support:

- Keep the project up to date in the project database on Nordvision.org. – Do make mention of who the contact person for the project is.
- You will be contacted by the Nordvision secretariat for further advancement and for contract details for your project.
- The funds will be transferred when the development criteria have been accepted by the Nordic commissioning editors and when the contract has been delivered by Nordvision.

And lastly…

- When your production is ready to be delivered, you can use our Nordic content exchange system, Nordif, to transfer your content to your Nordic partners.  
- Remember to share all important info with your partners; music copyrights (Coda/IFPI/Tono), press images and marketing material.

The Nordvision dictionary

Main producer – The public service media company which has the main responsibility for the finances and content of the project.

Co-production – Content co-operation involving more than one company, but with only one main producer.

Real co-production – All participating partners equally share the financial and content-wise responsibilities.

NV company – This is used to describe the Nordic public service media companies that are part of the Nordvision collaboration (DR, NRK, RUV, SVT, Sveriges Radio and Yle).

Project calendar – The Nordvision database gathering all active co-productions and development projects. The database contains info on who your co-producers are, project finances, deadlines, and more.

Free exchange – All member companies of the Nordvision collaboration can exchange content free of charge as long as all rights are 100 per cent cleared, or alternatively if the main producer owns all rights. 

Nordif3 – Nordvision’s program distribution system which is connected to all media systems (MAM) of the Nordic member companies. 

The Nordvision Fund

If you are conducting a Nordic co-production, you may apply for funding from the Nordvision Fund. You may apply for funding to develop your idea further and turn it into a co-production. The procedure is a bit different depending on which program group is involved.