Vizrt Pushes Out Content Fast for Sweden’s Expressen TV

To ensure they have flexibility and speed, Expressen are using Vizrt solutions to make their video production smooth, stable, and seamless.

“Our audience is mostly digital. On a weekly basis we reach about 5 million Swedes just on mobile, and a lot more on desktop and tablet. We have added TV on top of all our other content and we actually have seen the audience grow even faster, as we published more TV,” says Klas Granstorm, Managing Editor and Head of Digital, Expressen.

In order to capture their audience first, apart from being fast, Expressen also uses a suite of Vizrt automation and graphics tools to help tell the story and to deliver the important information in a simple and understandable way.

Vizrt’s graphics solutions give them the capability to be creative in that moment, but also maintain a consistent brand so their audience can easily spot that it is Expressen content.

“We use virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) mostly as a core part of our storytelling, when we talk to about numbers from the stock exchange, or when we talk about what is happening in the political landscape,” says Granström.

Expressen is an example of how to successfully adopt the mobile trend and extend the video experience even further with live TV. First published in 1944, it was in 2015 when Expressen decided to embrace video and do something bigger – live TV. Each day Expressen is live for 18 hours and creating over 100 videos.

Expressen have three green screen studios and where there are events, such as elections, they will continue to be live for 24 hours to make sure their audience get the latest updates. In their newsroom, they use Vizrt’s automation system to help them produce an error-free on-air show every time. Control is completely in the hands of the director allowing them to quickly and easily shift between different topics, news rundowns, or change to a breaking-story whenever needed.

Producing live TV and video hasn’t changed what the core of Expressen is: storytelling. “We have the same goals when it comes to journalism, but the biggest difference is we do it with video and live TV,” explains Bella Levy, Head of TV, Expressen. “At the same time, we still cover everything on the website and in the newspaper.”

“Today, following your audience means being both digital and as fast as possible,” says Ingrid Jakobsen, Vizrt’s Head of Sales for Scandinavia. “Vizrt tools help media companies become faster but still maintain quality, creativity, and a distinctive voice. Expressen has created their own way of storytelling in the modern world, making short, powerful stories, and reaching beyond their audience to succeed in the mobile world first.”