Viaplay Group AB, formerly known as Nordic Entertainment Group AB (NENT Group), is a Swedish media and entertainment company headquartered in Stockholm.
The company operates the video streaming services Viaplay, advertising-funded TV and radio channels, as well as the studio production company Viaplay Studios. Viaplay Group was founded in 2018 as a spinoff from MTG. Viaplay Group's first day as a publicly traded company was on 28 March 2019, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Contents
History
In March 2018, the Stockholm-headquartered entertainment company Modern Times Group (MTG) initiated a process to split into two companies by spinning off its Nordic Entertainment and MTG Studios business segments plus Splay Networks, into a new company. This was initiated after Danish telecommunications operator TDC A/S, which had proposed to buy these assets a month earlier, was itself acquired by the Australian private equity investor Macquarie Group. Anders Jensen, previously MTG Executive Vice President and CEO of Nordic Entertainment, was named president and CEO of NENT Group in 2018. On 5 June, Jørgen Madsen Lindemann was named president and CEO of Viaplay Group.
NENT Group began operating separately on 1 July 2018. On 28 March 2019, shares in Nordic Entertainment Group started trading on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.
NENT Group took a stake in Erik Feig's Picturestart studio, along with first-look Nordic rights to its content at Picturestart's May 2019 launch.
On 5 May 2020, Pay-TV satellite platform Viasat, which was previously owned by NENT Group, merged with Canal Digital to form Allente. The merger means that NENT Group and Telenor Group own Allente TV 50% each, but it operates on its own as an independent company. Through the merger, NENT Group's channels, including the V channels, were made available on Allente's platform. NENT Group operated Pay-TV, the Viasat satellite platform in Scandinavia and offered both in-house and third-party channels.
On 13 April 2021, the merger of Canal Digital and Viasat in Allente was completed.
On 16 September 2021, NENT Group announced the reorganisation of its studio operations, previously called NENT Studios, as Viaplay Studios. With Viaplay Studios, the company announced that the main focus of the studio operations onwards is content production for the Viaplay streaming platform.
On 18 May 2022, the company's shareholders approved the change of the company's name to Viaplay Group. In July 2022, Viaplay Group acquired U.K.-based sports streamer and pay TV channel operator, Premier Sports, for $36 million
Company structure
The streaming service Viaplay in the Nordics
Viaplay Group operates the streaming service (SVOD) Viaplay, which launched as Viasat OnDemand in Sweden 2007, in 2011 it was rebranded Viaplay.
Viaplay Group previously operated Viafree, a free streaming service (AVOD) in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. On 29 November 2021, NENT Group announced that Viafree will soon to be part of Paramount Global (under Pluto TV), with the announcement that the said AVOD streamer will be integrated into Pluto TV on 18 May 2022.
On 1 April 2020, Viaplay launched in Iceland, as the final Nordic market to launch the streaming service, making Viaplay available in all Nordic countries, which was first announced in 2019.
On 24 June 2020, Viaplay's Finnish service merged with rival Elisa Viihde Aitio, owned by Elisa, to form Elisa Viihde Viaplay.
Viaplay international expansion
At Viaplay Group's Capital Markets Day in November 2020, the company presented its 5-year expansion plan, with targets of 10 added international markets by 2023 (to a total of 15 markets) and a total of 10.5 million subscribers by 2025. On the following year's CMD, in 2021, Viaplay Group raised the targets to launching Viaplay on at least 16 markets by 2023 and had the subscription target raised to 12 million subscribers by 2025.
On 11 February 2021, Viaplay Group announced that the company had raised SEK 4.35 Billion to support the company's vision of launching Viaplay on 10 markets by the end of 2023, in line with the communicated expansion plan which was announced on the company's 2020 Capital Markets Day. Poland and the US were presented as two of the new markets, along with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that had already announced.
On 9 March 2021, Viaplay launched in the Baltics, adding Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
On 20 May 2021, Viaplay Group announced the launch of Viaplay in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2022 with exclusive Formula One, Bundesliga and Professional Darts Corporation darting events rights. Less than two months later, the company also announced that it had acquired the rights to the English Premier League in the Netherlands.
On 3 August 2021, the company launched Viaplay in Poland with premium sports rights, and announced the three first Viaplay Originals' productions in Polish – Polish Murderesses, Black Dog and Freedom of the Swallow.
On 22 September 2021, Viaplay Group announced that Viaplay will launch in at least 16 markets by end of 2023, including the UK in the second half of 2022, and Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2023. On Viaplay Group's Capital Markets Day in November 2022, it was announced that the launches in the US and Canada will proceed as planned, while the direct-to-consumer launch in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will wait due to the economic world situation.
In July 2022, Viaplay Group has announced that they are officially acquiring Premier Sports prior to the UK launch. The channel, which also include FreeSports, will soon to be rebrand as Viaplay Sports network.
Viaplay Select
In 2022, Viaplay Group created Viaplay Select, a branded content concept for partner platforms. In less than a year after the first deal was signed had Viaplay Select already launched on 20+ markets. Viaplay Select can be found with partners around the world, primarily in countries where the streaming service Viaplay is not available direct-to-consumer. It means that partners get access to a wide selection of Viaplay's successful series, films and documentaries, together with curated third-party content from across the Nordic region. The content is made available in a branded Viaplay section within the partner platform.
Advertising funded television (Free-TV)
Viaplay Group operates advertising funded channels in Scandinavia and Smotia. Typically, the portfolio structure for these channels is one primary channel (TV3), and then secondary channels (TV6, TV3+ etc...) These channels generate primarily advertising revenues, and are classified as free-TV, but are encrypted and subject to decoding fees.
Networks, financed by advertising
On 2 April 2024, Viaplay Group announced a partnership with Talpa under which channel SBS9 will be renamed Viaplay TV effective 5 April 2024. The channel will cross-promote the Viaplay streaming service by featuring broadcasts of selected sports properties from the service, such as Formula One, PDC darts, and Premier League football. On 14 March 2025, in anticipation for the start of the 2025 Formula One season, the channel split into 2, with the Viaplay TV name becoming a cable sports channel, while the former Viaplay TV channel position reverted to SBS9. Viaplay TV also launched a premium channel, Viaplay TV+, initially available on ODIDO and DELTA, starting on the same day.
Pay television
On 5 May 2020, the merger between Canal Digital and Viasat Consumer was completed, and formed Allente - the Viasat satellite platform in Scandinavia, offering both in-house and third party channels. By owning a 50% stake in the TV distributor Allente, Nordic Entertainment Group distributes its pay-TV channels including V sports, V series and V film in Scandinavia.
The sports channels available in the different Scandinavian countries differ somewhat depending on different rights held for different markets and different business agreements.
The following channels are available in each country:
Radio
Viaplay Group owns several radio stations in Sweden and P4 Group in Norway:
Viaplay Studios
Viaplay Studios (formerly known as MTG Studios and later NENT Studios) is a Sweden television production division of Viaplay Group.
In December 2007, Modern Times Group announced that they have sold independent production and distributor Sonet Film to Swedish film and television production and distribution company Svensk Filmindustri.
In January 2008, Talentum had announced that they sold their Finnish film and television production company Varesvuo Partners along with their subsidiaries Moskito Television, Kaivopuiston Grillifilmi and Angel Films to private equity fund manager, CapMan. This gave the latter a film and television division. Four months later, in May of that same year, CapMan announced that they merged Varesvuo Partners, dba, Moskito Television with Norwegian production company Monster Media AS. This created a new Nordic television, film and commercial production company under the name The New Black OY.
In September 2009, CapMan announced that they've acquired Swedish scripted and unscripted television production company Baluba and announced that they've merged Finnish independent television production company Moskito Television with Norwegian television production company Monster Media and Danish television producer Gong to form the Scandinavian television production group named Northern Alliance Group.
In May 2011, Northern Alliance Group had announced that they have brought Swedish drama production company Nice Scripted Entertainment, thus expanding their operations in Sweden.
In June 2011, Northern Alliance Group announced that they have brought Swedish leading independent television production company Titan Television along with the latter's Norwegian television production subsidiary Limelight Film & TV.
In October 2011, Northern Alliance Group had announced that they were rebranding the company themselves by renaming it to Nordic Independent Creative Entertainment also known as Nice for short in which it was named after their Swedish division Nice Scripted Entertainment.