What challenges do you face when you try to make a truly European TV series, shot across the continent with actors from different countries?

How can you optimize the collaborative effort between partners from different countries? How can you make a genuinely distinctive programme that captivates audiences beyond the domestic borders, and worldwide?

The workshop presented ‘The Team’, a new crime series resulting from a wide collaboration between broadcasters and producers from 8 different European countries, as a case study to see how a truly ‘European’ series can be made and to highlight the broader issues at stake for the audiovisual sector.

Over 50 people attended the EBU’s workshop held in Brussels on Friday (30 January) on the making of 'The Team’. They were offered an insight to the hands-on experience of those people who produced and distributed ‘The Team’.

Participants included media professionals from audiovisual institutions, production and broadcasting companies, as well as national and EU officials.

Opening the workshop, Polish Member of the European Parliament Bogdan Wenta, found resonance in ‘The Team’ with his findings on European film in the digital era which will fit in a report: “The Team is the brilliant result of a collaborative effort between different players, just like a good sports team. We need more of this kind of series in Europe”, he said.

EBU Public Affairs and Communications Director Guillaume Klossa said: “Maybe this is one of the most promising recipes for pan-European success, or even worldwide acclaim as happened to other European TV series produced in collaboration with public service broadcasters over the last years, and this know how is a strategic asset for growth and jobs in the European audiovisual sector.”

EBU Media director Annika Nyberg-Frankenhaeuser added: “Today’s explanations about the making of ‘The Team’ and other series demonstrate the strategic importance of investing in European high quality content. Sustainable funding, an appropriate regulatory framework and innovative skills are key ingredients for the success of European-made TV series”.

Discussions covered whether the model of the Nordic crime series can be replicated to other TV formats and other parts of Europe. The project is all about Europe, the producers of the series underlined: it not only about cultural, linguistic and geographical diversity, but also about learning from each other’s ways of writing, acting or directing. These exchanges were seen as the sector’s best chance to be distinctive and compete with global players from other parts of the world, especially the US.

The workshop ended with a presentation by Ms Lucia Recalde, Head of the Creative Europe Programme unit. She covered orientations and priorities of the European Commission’s support schemes and policies, in particular reaching new audiences including online and getting them engaged in the programmes, but also improving access to finance. The language challenge and potential growing success of TV content subtitling was also spotted as a more experimental issue to look at.

The Workshop followed an exclusive pre-screening of ‘the Team’ series in Bozar, Brussels’ Centre for Fine Arts, where over 150 participants enjoyed the first two episodes of the series in presence, Belgian actress and of one of the series’ protagonists Ms Veerle Baetens.