SBS Discovery is buying Sweden’s TV11 from the TV4 Group.
With the acquisition, SBS Discovery Media adds a third ‘free TV channel’ in addition to Channel 5 and Channel 9. The takeover is scheduled for June 1.
“We are now in a very dynamic period of strong growth and with a new owner – Discovery Communications from the US- who can, and dare to invest aggressively in the Swedish and Nordic TV market. The purchase of TV11 creates amazing opportunities for continued growth for us, and complement our channel portfolio,” said SBS Discovery Media Manager for Sweden Jonas Sjögren in a press release.
“We’ve created a lot of value in TV11 and after extensive negotiations, sold the channel. The business gives us extra financial leeway to further increase our investments in Swedish productions as well as in TV4 Play, two areas that we are prioritizing right now.” added TV4 Group CEO Casten Almqvist.
Last January, the TV4 Group has entered an agreement to sell to SBS TV the free TV broadcast rights for the 2013 Swedish Ice Hockey Championships. The deal is part of a structural review that the TV4 Group has undertaken to further expand and strengthen its operations. The Group said at the time that discussions were also underway between the two companies for the sale of the TV4 Group’s channel TV11.
“During the fall, we reviewed and refined our sports broadcast rights and sold some of them, making it a total of three that have gone over to SBS TV,” said Almqvist.”The agreement marks the finish of our review. Now we will focus on intensifying our efforts on our big draws on TV4 and Sjuan [channel 7], while at the same time we work even harder on our digital platforms such as on-demand service TV4 Play. We’re extremely pleased with the agreement with SBS TV.”
“TV11 has done a good job when it comes to attracting young people, but it has not attracted advertisers to the same degree as we hoped and has therefore reached the profitability we want,” said TV4 Group’s Peter Lindstrom to Dagens Medien at the time.
The TV4 Group is part of Bonnier AB, which is wholly owned by the Bonnier family.
