SWelcom, Finland’s third largest media company in terms of advertising sales has reported a 4.7% increase in net sales for the first six months of the year, recording €70.6m. Operating profit for the period was down from €7.2m to €6.9m. SWelcom’s interests include the commercial channel Nelonen and the country’s largest cable operator Welho.
The Finnish government has recently given permission for SWelcom to become the largest shareholder in basic sports channel Urheilukanava and premium sports channel Urheilu+kanava.
A further pay-TV channel screening movies and TV series will be launched in the autumn, which it is hoped will help boost revenues that have been affected by the erosion of Nelonen’s advertising revenues as a result of market fragmentation.
In May Welho launched a video on demand service and HD transmissions have been underway since last December.
