The Nordic Entertainment Group Is Set To Launch A Streaming Service In Iceland
Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent) will launch its OTT streaming service, Viaplay, on April 1st, in five Nordic countries.
Initially, Viaplay will offer its network Originals, series, and films plus various kids’ content with the plan for global sports to be added to the mix after the sporting shutdown ends.
The Viaplay movies and series package will cost ISK 599 ($4.27/month) in Iceland.
“Viaplay is a Nordic streaming success story and completing our regional footprint with Iceland is a very natural next step,” stated Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO.
“Viaplay already has 1.6 million subscribers across the Nordic region and is built to scale quickly.”
Nent’s most recent acquisition in Iceland was Formula 1. Nent also retained the rights to the motor racing championship in Sweden, Norway, and Demark while adding the rights to both Iceland and Finland. The three-season agreement runs from 2022–2024.
Nent holds the exclusive Icelandic rights to the following: German Bundesliga football and handball; WTA tennis; Major League Baseball; US stock-car racing series Nascar; football’s Dutch Eredivisie, Danish Superliga, and Swedish Allsvenskan; the Concacaf Nations League; and 2021 Copa América. The company will launch its sports package in Iceland once the live content is available.
In a recent statement, Nent announced that it “will not report media rights costs for postponed sports events in its income statement until such time as they take place, that it will not make any new payments for postponed sports rights until they resume”. Additionally, the media group announced they would not be making any additional payments to postponed events and expect reimbursement from those rights-holders whose events are canceled.
The Icelandic market is ideal for Viaplay as it is one of the world’s most connected countries, with 75% of homes having access to 1Gbit/s broadband speeds through fiber-optic networks.
Of the 360,000 population, currently, 359,000 have mobile broadband subscriptions. The government’s goal is for 99% of both homes and businesses to have access to a minimum of 100Mbit/s speeds by 2022.
