Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) says it plans to reduce its costs by approximately SEK 700 million.
It follows the statement from NENT Group earlier this month that warned the spread of the Coronavirus is having an adverse impact on the Group’s performance. The Group is concerned over reduced sports coverage due to the postponement or cancellation of sports events, lower advertising demand levels, and the postponement of content production orders.
Last week NENT says it was reducing the prices on its Viaplay sports packages.
NENT plans to reduce its programming spend and defer or cancel any non-essential development projects.
“This is the third announcement in the past week about how we are quickly and proactively responding to the impact of the Coronavirus on our business,” said Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO. “We always work to stay ahead of both opportunities and challenges, and we are doing the same now. This is an unprecedented situation that is evolving every day, but let me repeat that we remain in good shape and our operations are running with limited interruption, which is all credit to the fantastic resilience and agility of our platforms and people.”
The merger of the Viasat Consumer business and Telenor’s Canal Digital business is proceeding as planned and the EU approval filing will be submitted in the coming days. NENT Group will temporarily pause the previously announced process to sell the non-scripted production, branded entertainment and events businesses in NENT Studios.
It will also go ahead with the Viaplay streaming service in Iceland this Spring as planned.
