The ice is melting over Scandinavia as Modern Times Group and Telenor signed a non-exclusivity agreement under which the big five channels in Norway would no longer be exclusively held by either of the two DTH satellite platforms.
Public broadcaster NRK’s two channels, NRK1 and NRK2, are already available on both MTG’s Viasat and Telenor’s Canal Digital. Both platforms are now in talks with commercial channel TV2, which has previously been an exclusive to Canal Digital’s One West satellite slot.
For years Canal Digital has held onto a Nordic-wide agreement with SBS over channels including Kanal 5 and TVN, while Viasat has held the exclusive rights to its own TV3 channels, preventing Canal Digital from offering them to its customers. A trade on these key channels is now finally on the agenda, not just in Norway, but across Scandinavia.
