This week, Google has unleashed its Spotify contender Youtube Music on the Nordic market. With a business model very similar to Spotify’s, offering both a free (ad supported) and a premium (subscription-based) version, it will surely increase competition on the music streaming market. It is far too early to assess the success of the newcomer, but Spotify will surely take notice. Youtube Music has the potential to become a serious competitor and the presence of two strong contenders could benefit the consumers. With interesting times ahead, Mediavision is following the market closely (an earlier blog post on the subject here).

Furthermore, Billboard recently reported that Spotify has offered several artists and managers a monetary advance for direct licensing of their music, effectively by-passing the major record labels (which represents the majority of Spotify’s expenses). As the news broke, Spotify’s share price rose significantly, leading to a market cap of over 30 bn USD as of June 19th. Sony, Warner and Universal are likely less happy – or at least worried – with this decision. Spotify is planning to launch its services in India later this year, and according to MBW, the labels are so disgruntled that they are considering blocking new territorial licenses, effectively hindering Spotify’s expansion on the Indian market.

New events & partnerships broadening the e-sports audience

German telco Deutsche Telekom has made an entry on the e-sports scene by partnering with e-sports organization SK Gaming. The focus of the partnership is the newly launched SK Gaming League of Legends team which will be competing in the Riot Games Premier Tour which recently kicked off. Another actor who recently also made its first foray into e-sports is beauty retailer Sephora – partnering with the gaming and e-sports festival Girl Gamer. E-sports have been an attractive channel for advertisers reaching for young male demos, but events like Girl Gamer (and new partnerships) has a potential to broaden the e-sports audience.

With Swedish Midsummer’s celebrations just around the corner (this Friday), we at Mediavision would like to take the opportunity to wish all our readers and followers a very sunny holiday!

Mediavision blogs:

Enter the age of consolidation – highlighting mergers on the global media market
In this blog post, Mediavision describes the eventful times of consolidation on the global media market, by disentangling the conundrum that is Fox and Sky’s future ownership. In December 2016, 21st Century Fox made a bid on Europe’s largest pay TV […].

Mediavision press releases:

Web TV takes an increasing share of the Swedish TV market
In its recently published report “Swedish TV Market” Mediavision concludes that the Swedish TV Market reached new record levels during 2017. Web TV drives the growth during 2017, and now represents close to 25 percent of the commercial TV […].

Industry news:

Youtube Music launches in the Nordics
Google’s Spotify contender Youtube Music launched in Sweden on June 18^th. Youtube Music offers a free, ad supported service as well as a premium service at 10 USD a month, which means the service will compete with Spotify.

NENT Group’s IPO pushed back
Nordic Entertainment Group (formerly part of MTG) was set for an IPO during the second half of 2018, which will now be postponed. Majority share owner Kinnevik’s decision to divest all of its shares will delay the IPO.

Spotify’s India expansion threatened
The major record labels are not happy about Spotify offering artists direct licenses. As a result, Sony, Universal and Warner are contemplating not granting Spotify a license in new markets. A move which would hinder Spotify from entering India.

Norwegian TV2 secures Premier League rights
TV2 has held the Norwegian rights since 2010 and has now won the bidding war for the rights until 2022. While TV2 fought off the competition in Norway, NENT Group (formerly MTG) has secured the rights in the remaining Nordic countries.

World Cup breaks SVT online record
Sweden’s opening game versus South Korea generated roughly 1.5 million stream starts, breaking SVT’s previous online record. In linear TV the game attained a viewership of roughly 1.8 million viewers.

KIT to split its business in two
Bonnier Ventures-backed media company KIT launched three years ago with a social media-first strategy. KIT has developed the publishing tool Story Engine while employing a team of journalists, now the business is to be split in two.

Deutsche Telekom enters e-sports
Deutsche Telekom has entered a partnership with international e-sports organization SK Gaming. Deutsche Telekom will mainly sponsor SK Gaming’s newly launched League of Legends team competing in the Riot Games Premier Tour.

Oprah Winfrey signs deal with Apple
Oprah Winfrey has signed a multi-year original content deal with Apple. Oprah Winfrey’s TV company, OWN, has a partnership with Discovery in place. The deal with Apple supposedly won’t affect the standing Discovery deal.

Mediavision in the news:

Mediebolagen slåss om spelkakan
Flera av mediebolagen tappar intäkter när spelmarknaden regleras. En lösning kan vara att starta eget spelbolag. Som väntat antog riksdagen regeringens förslag om en ny spelreglering i förra veckan. Det innebär att Sverige får en spellicensmarknad från och med […].

MTG-chef ska få fart på tillväxten i Readly
Den digitala magasintjänsten Readly rekryterar MTG-chefen Robert Kviby. Hans uppgift blir att få fart på bolagets tillväxt. Readly – som kan liknas vid ett Spotify för digitala tidningar och magasin – tog nyligen in 130 miljoner i nytt kapital och förbereder en börsnotering […].

Svenska TV-branschen fortsatt stark
Intäkterna för den svenska TV-branschen fortsatte öka förra året. Traditionell TV och webb-TV hade sammantaget intäkter på nästan 24 miljarder kronor 2017. Tillväxten finns framför allt på webb-TV-sidan, som enligt företaget växte med 20 procent […].

Webb-TV står för en allt större del av den svenska TV-marknaden
Svensk TV-marknad nådde nya rekordnivåer 2017 konstaterar Mediavision i den nyligen publicerade årliga analysen ”Swedish TV market”. Tillväxten under 2017 drevs av webb-TV […].

Webb-TV ökar med 20 procent
Förra året ökade intäkterna från webb-tv med 25 procent. De står nu för 23 procent av hela tv-marknaden visar en ny rapport från Mediavision. De totala intäkterna för traditionell tv och webb-tv uppgick till nära 24 miljarder kronor förra året.

Industry events

• CPH TV Festival: 29 – 30 August, Denmark *
• IBC: 13 – 18 september, Netherlands

*Events where Mediavision will be presenting