Canal+ Nordic passes one million

Canal+ has finally topped one million subscribers in the Nordic region. New owners TV4 Group said the landmark was a sign that the premium service was providing movies and sports channels of the highest quality.

The channels proved particularly popular in Sweden, but subscribers were also added through new distribution agreements with Boxer (Denmark) and Plus TV (Finland). There were also cost savings following integration with TV4’s existing portfolio of mini-pay channels.

Revenues within pay-TV grew to SEK 2,815 million in 2009 from SEK 491 million for the previous 12 months. However, no pro-forma calculation was made on 2008, prior to the Canal+ acquisition.

TV4’s New Media division reported strong growth to tv4.se, fotbollskanalen.se och recept.nu. tv4.se benefitted in particular from catch-up TV service TV4 Play, though display advertising suffered in the first half of the year.

Overall TV viewing across the TV4 Group increased in the 12-59 age range to 30.6%, including Canal+. TV4 Sweden remains the most popular channel in the country with a share of 19.5%.