France’s Canal+ Group has acquired a 12% stake in Viaplay, the leading Scandinavian streamer which announced earlier today that it would cut 25% of its workforce.
Canal + did not disclose any figure related to the deal. A subsidiary of Vivendi, Canal+ is already present in 50 territories and boasts 25.5 million subscribers, 16 million of which are from metropolitan France. The French pay TV group is also a majority shareholder in the South Africa-based platformMultiChoice.
Viaplay, the listed Scandinavian streamer, is preparing to trim 25% of its workforce as it plans to focus on its core Nordic and Dutch business, as well as sports and international distribution. Approximately 450 jobs will be axed as part of the layoff plan. These include the company’s CCO for the Nordics, Filippa Wallestam, who has been a leading force behind the streamer’s output in ambitious scripted originals. Going forward, Viaplay intends on delivering approximated 10 scripted Viaplay series or movies per year and will be diving more into unscripted shows, as per the outline of the content plan for 2024. It’s a massive reduction from the previous output which included at least 40 original productions per year.
Viaplay’s new CEO and president Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, who recently took over from Anders Jensen,has suggested Viaplay – or at least some of it — could be sold. He said the company’s “content in international markets will hopefully lead to interest but it is too premature to give an idea of how advanced this is.”
Viaplay’s operating losses for the full year are predicted to be between $83 million and $102 million. The banner’s second quarter financial results, which were published on Thursday, reveal that the organic sales growth of 16% to $448 million was offset by combined TV, radio and AVOD sales being down 16%.
Viaplay, which has been spending well over €1.2 billion a year on content, has delivered more than 300 movies and TV series to date, according to Richard Broughton, executive director and co-founder atAmpereAnalysis.
“Their investment in content is not as big as heavy hitters in the market, but it’s also not so small if you’re targeting a niche, it’s in that awkward ground of too much or too little, said Broughton.
The analyst pointed out that “any group with big pockets can drive the scale Viaplay needs to compete with the wealth of U.S. peers.”
Canal+ Group has spoken about its ambition to build a European rival to global streamers for over a decade and could see in Viaplay a path to achieve it. Canal+ is also about to fully acquire OCS, France’s second largest SVOD service in which it currently has a 33% stake.
