Yle bought the rights to show the world’s most expensive series

Told about it earlier Ilta-Sanomat.

The series is based on by J. R. R. Tolkien works and tells about the world he created thousands of years ago The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit events of the books.

Originally released on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service in 2022, the series is known for all time the most expensive. Amazon reportedly paid around $250 million for the rights to the series alone.

The second production season, released in 2024, raised the total cost to an estimated over one billion dollars.

The series was conceived by an American scriptwriting duo J. D. Payne and Patrick McKayand the episodes have been directed by, among others, a Swedish-French Charlotte Brandström.

Mightily program provider Johanna Salmelan according to Yle, despite the series’ expensive reputation, its broadcast rights were relatively inexpensive. The series was acquired in the so-called “second window”, i.e. after it had already been published elsewhere, he says.

“The price of the right of presentation was also proportional to the population of Finland.”

The acquisition of the series for Yle’s software has raised criticism on the use of public funding on discussion forums. However, according to Salmela, the impression of the purchase price based on the series’ original production costs is wrong.

“A fly has been turned into a bull,” he states.

“We paid for the series about a quarter of what we pay for a British drama, for example.”

Salmela does not reveal the purchase price, because it is defined as secret in the contract. According to Salmela, the share of all international programs in Yle’s annual budget is about two percent.

“With this acquisition, we have tried to supplement the offer, especially for younger viewers, and we believe that the series will delight all fans of fantasy series,” says Salmela.

No specific audience target has been defined for the series.

“It is difficult to estimate the number of viewers of fantasy series, they can get a lot of viewers or remain programs of a smaller circle.”

Salmela mentions the one published in Areena in the spring Outlander – The Traveler -series, which did not get huge viewer numbers, but was important to its viewers.

“Yle does not live only on viewer numbers, but also strives to offer content as widely as possible.”

When appearing Rings of power received mixed reception. of The Guardian in the evaluation, the first season was given four stars, and especially the visual spectacularity was praised.

On the other hand, for example SVT called the series “Game of Thronesin into a bloodless copy” set in “an amazingly smoothed and computer game-like world, far by Peter Jackson About the down-to-earthness of the film trilogy he directed 20 years ago.”

Critic of Helsingin Sanomat Jussi Ahlroth disappointed with the first season but called significantly better than the second season.

Amazon originally ordered the series for up to five seasons at once. The third season will be released on Prime Video on November 11.