With its impending UK launch, Viaplay will officially become available in the country from where it all began 35 years ago.
Viaplay’s origins go back to the foundation of TV3, a channel set up to broadcast from the UK, initially via satellite, to avoid strict Scandinavian rules on advertising. In 1987, TV3 went live to Sweden, before expanding over the years to viewers in Denmark, Norway and the Baltics. Baltic versions of TV3 were subsequently sold off.
Numerous corporate restructures later, and now known as Viaplay Group, the company has reorganised to focus on streaming and is poised to launch its service this side of the North Sea.
Viaplay is currently active in eleven countries. From its Scandinavian home markets, where it still operates TV3, the company has spread to the Baltic States, Poland, the Netherlands and is now making inroads in the USA ahead of a launch now due 2023. By the end of 2025, Viaplay hopes to have twelve million subscribers globally, a modest amount compared to the over 200 million subscribers that Netflix has.
When the UK launch was first announced, much was made of its selection of Nordic entertainment. But for it to grab some serious attention, it needed to do more.
Getting a foot in the UK
Since confirming its UK arrival, Viaplay has been hoovering up various sports rights and signed a deal to buy Premier Sports. This has given Viaplay the clout to stand a chance of negotiating a carriage deal with the likes of Sky, Virgin Media and BT to get its app on their receivers. But with Premier Sports now under its control, Viaplay has at least secured a basic foothold on Sky and Virgin Media pre-launch.
Viaplay boss Anders Jensen, who also helped the company secure Premier League rights for the Netherlands, Poland and the Baltic States since this summer, has already said that he wants to attack the sports rights duopoly between Sky and BT in the UK in the medium term.
Thus the takeover of Premier Sports in the summer came as little surprise. Viaplay had already been busily acquiring exactly the type of sporting events Premier would have gone for – NHL ice hockey, Nations League Football to name a few. At the beginning of the summer, and just before Viaplay announced its acquisition of Premier Sports, both broadcasters promised they would be offering their customers NHL coverage this season. With the NHL deal only confirming Viaplay as the UK rights holder, there were suspicions that something was about to happen to Premier Sports. Weeks later, Bloomberg reported talks were ongoing, the following week the deal was done.
Interestingly, the acquisition of Premier Sports might come as a relief for subscribers down the line, as Viaplay’s own streaming service has not proved to be as robust as hoped.
Network trouble
Viaplay aimed to capture the Dutch market by bagging high profile sports rights, including F1 since earlier this year. But with Max Verstappen driving local interest, Viaplay subscribers suffered numerous outages and problems, leading to shedloads of complaints. This prompted Kassa, Dutch TV’s equivalent to Watchdog to launch an investigation into the problems with Viaplay.
To help offload traffic, Viaplay launched ‘Viaplay xtra’, a linear stream delivered to cable and IPTV providers. It was originally only due to stay on air until 1st August, but was extended as technical problems with the live streams continued.
Viaplay TV channels in the UK
Announcing their plans for Premier Sports and sibling FreeSports, Viaplay confirmed plans to change the content line-up available on the TV channels to include Viaplay’s broader series and film offering. Consequently, the channels will ultimately rename to carry Viaplay branding.
With Viaplay doubling down on its streaming future, keeping the linear channels may seem counterintuitive. But in a crowded market, they will prove to be a valuable shop window to showcase Viaplay’s broader content. And sports rights holders will be pleased that their events will continue to be available on all the main TV platforms, avoiding some of the pitfalls that dogged sports streamers DAZN and Eleven Sports who struggled to expand in the UK. But it still has many challenges, not least the financial clout of Warner Bros Discovery, now helping to bankroll BT Sport.
For now, subscribers will also be grateful for Premier Sports full HD offering – Viaplay online streams are generally capped at 720p. 4K UHD is currently only reserved in countries where Viaplay operates a dedicated 4K UHD channel which it can simulcast on the app.
Not just sport
In its Scandinavian home market, Viaplay is well known for its drama offer. While BBC Four, Sky Arts and Walter Presents have confirmed there is demand for foreign language drama in the UK, Viaplay has stepped up its game with regards English language productions.
In spring 2021, Viaplay made a decision to shoot two to three English-language films and series per year. In addition to stocking up their content library, making films in English should unlock higher budgets as a result of the corresponding world distribution expected from such productions.
Viaplay UK is still due to launch this autumn, but is yet to announce details of its pricing, plans and non-sport content.
As it comes against established UK and US broadcasters ready to defend their sports deals and a market already well-served with drama, Viaplay’s UK launch could well be their toughest one yet.
- Since publishing this article, Viaplay’s UK launch date has been confirmed as 1st November 2022.
Iain Hatton
Updated 18/10/2022 09:37 following confirmation Viaplay’s US launch is now due 2023 and the UK launch is 1st November.