The Viaplay share fell like a stone on the Stockholm stock exchange after the results for the 2nd quarter were presented on Thursday morning. At around 12.30 the share has fallen by just under 40 per cent in value compared to the closing price on Wednesday. Among other things, the company owns the rights to show the Premier League, Formula 1 and MMA on Nordic TV screens. Lost the next NOK 6 billion Media expert Lasse Gimnes believes that today’s report is very serious for the Nordic media industry: – I don’t think we have seen, at least not in this dimension, anything as critical in the media industry as we are now seeing. The accounts for the second quarter show that Viaplay lost almost SEK 6 billion. They are now announcing a new strategic plan in which every fourth man-year will be cut. The Stockholm-registered company struggles with a weak Swedish krone both against the euro, dollar and Norwegian kroner, the quarterly report states. The advertising markets are weak, and according to the report, it is expected that they will continue to be weak through the year. Viaplay is, among other things, behind the series “Pørni” with Henriette Steenstrup. Photo: Viaplay At the beginning of June, Jørgen Madsen Lindemann took over as CEO. In a webcast for analysts and investors on Thursday morning, the CEO said that all parts of the business should be evaluated, including the sale of the entire company. And the prices, they will continue to rise. – Everything is at stake, said Lindemann. Having lost many customers, Lasse Gimnes believes there are several reasons why the company is now struggling financially. Distrust in the stock market is one of the reasons. Media expert Lasse Gimne’s story of user income has stagnated in the company. Photo: Snorre Tønset / news – There is a clear signal from the owners to the management that the company is not managed well enough. – The second is that advertising revenue in the Norwegian market, and several markets, has decreased significantly. – Traditional TV is down 10 per cent in 2023, compared to the same half of last year. We also see that user income has stagnated, says Gimnes. He continues: – They have lost many customers. Normally, some customers lose when the Premier League season is over. But they have not been able to get the number of customers, and the turnover, they should have had on the basis of the rights they have bought. May have to relinquish the rights to the Premier League Autumn 2022, Viaplay secures the much-coveted rights to show the Premier League in Norway until 2028. – Viaplay has been a winner on the rights market, but it seems to have cost more than it was worth, says Gimnes. The sports courts in the Nordic countries are expected to cost the company NOK 7.7 billion in 2023, and almost one billion more next year. Gimnes believes that as the situation is now, they may potentially be willing to renounce their rights to English top football. Viaplay took over the Premier League rights after TV 2 in autumn 2022. Photo: AFP – As critical as the situation now seems to be, they have to look at all the stones, and then I see cross-country skiing, ice skating, alpine skiing as slightly smaller stones. I see the Premier League as the big central stone, says Gimnes. – The way I interpret the stock market announcement, they are willing to look at everything, including the Premier League, he concludes. Oljefondet, one of the largest owners, Nordnet analyst Roger Berntsen, says that Viaplay is the victim of a failed growth strategy, on which they are losing money. – They are hit hard by a failed strategy that is not as profitable as they previously imagined. In addition, they are affected by the macro situation, which Berntsen characterizes as a perfect storm with rising inflation and rising interest rates. The Viaplay share fell dramatically on the Stockholm stock exchange on Thursday. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / NTB / NTB – In reality, they only have one choice, and that is to pull the emergency brake. That is what the new management is doing now, when they are keeping all possibilities open. It’s brutal. In the company’s strategy plan, they write that the aim is to increase prices in the future. Berntsen has little faith that it was easy to do in an expensive time, where the prices for watching sports on TV are already very high. – It goes without saying, you don’t need to be a researcher to understand that it doesn’t work, he says. Oljefondet is one of the largest owners in Viaplay. They owned 8.12 percent of Viaplay Group AB at the end of 2022, valued at NOK 1.19 billion. This is far higher than is normal for the fund. In just 50 companies, the fund had an ownership stake of over 5 per cent last year.
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Viaplay must resign every fourth employee – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
