The Nordic SVOD service Paramount+ could evolve to be more than a B2B proposition in the next year or two.
However, at present Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) is happy to be in an environment with its partners, according to Andrea Sahlgren, the company’s general manager, Nordics.
She added that Paramount+ is a unique ‘umbrella’ premium service, with Paramount being the only major studio delivering the first pay-TV window, which goes to Paramount+ and then to its pay-TV partners. The benefits for the partners is that the service is exclusive to them. It can be used in their marketing and indeed as a retention tool.
Sahlgren said that Paramount+ is bundled into subscriptions so costs customers no extra.
Looking at the Nordic market, Sahlgren added that while it consists of only 10 million TV household in five countries, it has high levels of adoption of pay-TV (80%+ penetration), broadband (90%+), SVOD (40%+) and smartphones (90%+).
OTT was also posing a challenge, accounting for 67% of viewing time among 15-24 year-olds. The SVOD market also recently become more crowded the launch of niche SVOD services.
