MTG president Jørgen Madsen Lindemann says the company has been substantially transformed from a traditional broadcaster to a broad-based digital entertainment company.
Announcing the Stockholm-based company’s 2015 financials, Lindemann says streaming service Viaplay continues to perform above expectations: “We have substantially enhanced the consumer product offering, and have now adjusted prices to reflect this.
Viaplay, grew by 24,000 quarter-on-quarter while higher growth in third party subscribers base offset erosion to the satellite base. There are around 1,000,000 premium subscribers, but no totals for Viaplay were made available.
“We have also changed the way that we are organised, our cost structure and the way that we buy content. We have moved from a product to a country based organisation, in order to bring ourselves closer to the customer, and have significantly improved the flexibility in our agreements to move programming between products, in order to improve monetisation levels.”
MTG reported sales of SEK 4,545 million (€486.15 million) (SEK 4,371 million in 2014) and operating income of SEK 434 million (SEK 478 million).
In the free-to-air markets of Bulgaria, the Baltics and the Czech Republic, sales increased, though operating costs were up following the launch of two new Czech channels.
The Lithuanian TV advertising market is estimated to have grown while the Estonian and Latvian market are estimated to have declined. However, the political situation affected growth on MTG’s Lithuanian satellite platform.
Trace reported continued sales growth in the quarter.
