Viaplay is now well on the way to its five-year goal of becoming an “international streaming challenger”.
The latest results published by parent company Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) show that its international expansion beyond the Nordic region, which began this spring, is already proving successful. Indeed, as of the end of September it had a total of over 3.6 million subscribers, or 28% more than a year earlier. In the third quarter it gained 322,000 subscribers, of whom 286,000 were international, or more specifically based in Poland or the three Baltic countries.
Although Viaplay made its debut in Poland much later than the Baltics earlier this year – August, as opposed to March – given the size of the market, and key distribution deals it has in place which such leading operators as Play and Vectra, the biggest gains are likely to have been made there. Of the 313,000 international paying customers it had as of the end of Q3, up to 300,000 are likely to have been in Poland.
What is more, Viaplay has already attracted huge interest among Polish internet and mobile app users. In September, its first full month in the country, it was accessed by 2.25 million and had a reach of 7.71%.
NENT Group is now confident that Viaplay will reach its 500,000 international subscriber target by the end of this year. Certainly, the service will be helped by a recently announced agreement with hayu that will see the all-reality streaming platform being made available to Viaplay subscribers in Poland and the Baltics from this autumn.
All eyes will now be on upcoming Viaplay launches, starting with the US this December, followed by the Netherlands (Q1) and UK (H2) next year and Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2023. All told, it will then be present in a total of 16 countries, and two years later is now projected to have around 12 million subscribers, half of whom will be international.
For more information about Chris Dziadul, please visit https://www.chrisdziadul.com
