The Killing Overview

Ownership

Who is the owner?

• The Killing is owned by DR which is the Danish broadcasting corporation. It is a public service organisation (similar to the BBC)
• DR have produced many other similar dramas to The Killing such as 'Borgen' and 'The Bridge'.

How is it funded?

• DR is funded through the media license, costing 2.492 DKK per year per household since 2017.
• Revenue also comes from commercial activities such as concerts and events in the Koncerthuset, from book, CD, and DVD sales, and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmers.

What aspects of production, distribution and circulation do they own?

• DR owns the production and distribution of The Killing.
• It was produced by DR and initially released on DR1.
• Since its success it has been released on Amazon Prime.
• It has also been bought by the BBC and was shown on BBC4 in 2011.
• As well as the UK, DR also sold the series to a number of other broadcasters worldwide, and The Killing was eventually shown in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Russia and Spain with varying degrees of success.

How do they reach their audience?

• DR is a Danish National corporation that reaches all of Denmark.
• The Killing season 1 episode 1 on its release on 7th January 2007 amassed 1,550,000 Danish viewers.
• Season 1 in total amassed around 30 million views.

How do they maintain their audience?

• DR reaches its audience by trailers and advertisements on DRs channels to reach their core audience.

Production

Who produced it?

• It was produced by DR.
• DR is a nonprofit public broadcasting service.
• DR is the Danish national broadcasting service.

 How much did it cost?

• DR dramas typically come in at about €1m (US$1.1m) per episode.
• There is no significant cast member who would have required a large fee. The main cast is Inspector Sarah Lund: Sofie Gråbøl Inspector Jan Meyer: Søren Malling.
• Hundreds of crew members were involved in the production of The Killing.

Pre Production?

• Søren Sveistrup, series creator and head writer, worked closely with lead actress Sofie Gråbøl throughout the writing process to successfully develop the character of Detective Inspector Sarah Lund. 
• Gråbøl had a history of playing emotionally demonstrative characters on Danish television.
• The drama is told in 20, 50-minute episodes.

Production?

• The Killing was filmed in 2006.
• The Killing was filmed and set in Copenhagen.

Post Production

• Editors of the series include Elizabeth Kling and Amy Duddleston.

What was the distribution release strategy?

• DR distributed The Killing onto its main channel DR1.
• The first ten episodes were shown on DR1 each Sunday from early January to the middle of March 2007 and the intention was to show the remaining ten episodes in January–March 2008 however it was so popular in Denmark that in early March it was announced that the final ten episodes would be brought forward to the autumn of 2007 they were shown from late September to late November 2007.

Marketing

Who marketed it?

• DR was responsible for the marketing campaign.
• Traditional marketing tools such as trailers and posters were used.

What was the marketing strategy?

• Audiences were invited to engage and participate through a website made by DR which allowed viewers to answer polls on what they thought was going to happen next.

What is the role of the audience in marketing?

• Consumers of The Killing have answered to a blog set up by the guardian in the UK to discuss what Sarah Lund means to them which brings together a community of people all with a love of The Killing.

Circulation

Release

• The Killing was released in Denmark on 7th January 2007.
• It was released in the UK during the spring of 2011.
• The American version was made in 2011.

How can it be viewed

• The Killing can be viewed by purchasing the seasons.
• It can be viewed on amazon prime.
• On its original release one episode was released weekly on a Sunday.

Additional spin off material

• Due to the success of The Killing in the UK an American version was made by fox to broadcast in the US rather than the subtitled Danish version.

Role of the audience in circulation

• Prosumer content can be found online such as fan made merchandise.
• There is a community online for The Killing mainly located on forums such as Reddit to discuss plotlines and theories of what is going to happen next in the series.