News

   
06. June 2013

GENERATION WAR with record ratings at its international premiere in Scandinavia

Munich, 6 June 2013. The highly acclaimed teamWorx/ZDF/Beta Film miniseries Generation War has reached record ratings at its international premiere in Sweden. The German language program with Swedish subtitles started at prime time on 9 pm with a 25 % market share, climbing up to 32 % at the peak. With an average of 26.5 % and over 800.000 viewers is Generation War one of the most widely seen foreign, non-English language programs in Sweden of all time. The ratings for the WWII drama were almost twice as high as those of the major news broadcast, and more than four times the ratings of popular U.S. programs such as “The Following” and “Big Bang Theory”. Next to original productions, Swedish television runs almost exclusively English-language films with Swedish subtitles. German, French and Italian programs are practically unknown there.
Generation War, directed by Philipp Kadelbach (“Hindenburg”), provoked a resounding media echo in Sweden as in the rest of the world. Praised as a “turning point in German television” (Der Spiegel), the mini-series scored record ratings on Germany’s ZDF with up to 8.5 million viewers (market share 24 %) and very good results in the younger target group. Beta Film as world sales company has experienced tremendous interest of broadcasters throughout the world and already closed numerous territories, among them Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Great Britain, Australia/New Zealand and the U.S., where the program will even be shown in cinemas.
Generation War (6xone hour), depicting the fate of the young men and women who fought in Hitler’s devastating war, losing their youth and innocence if not their lives, is a grand and epic story of friendship, betrayal, faith, deception and responsibility. The production stars Volker Bruch (“The Reader”), Tom Schilling (“Oh Boy”), Katharina Schüttler (“Carlos”), Miriam Stein (“Goethe”) and Ludwig Trepte (“You can never be sure”). Generation War is a co-production of teamWorx and ZDF in co-operation with Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises, supported by Film und Medienstiftung NRW, FFF Bayern, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Medienboard, Nordmedia and FFHSH.