This Monday, Group M released its year-end industry growth forecast. The report shows that digital advertising is set to grow 31% in 2021 and account for 64% of all advertising this year. Outside of China, the triopoly (Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta) made up more than 50% of total ad revenues this year.

As of December, a total industry-wide growth rate of 22.5% is expected for 2021 – totaling approximately USD 763 billion. Group M say that “it’s possible that this is the fastest growth in the history of advertising”.

Group M estimates growth in 2022 to +9.7%, which is an increase from previous estimates.

The global TV industry (not including US political ads) is expected to grow 11.7% this year—following a drop of 13.7% last year. This year, TV will make up 21% of total advertising revenue. However, Group M predicts that TV won’t return to 2019 levels until 2023. Post that, growth is expected to be “generally flat” in most markets.

The Nordic advertising market also grew significantly this year. In the first half of 2021 (January to June), the Nordic advertising market had a turnover of EUR 4.6 billion according to IRM. This corresponds to a growth of 17.6% (adjusted for exchange rates) – which is his is the strongest growth yet measured by IRM.

On March 1st 2022, NENT will continue its expansion of the Viaplay streaming service to yet another country – marking the 11th country for Viaplay’s expansion, with at least five further markets to be added by the end of 2023.

This time, the Netherlands is in focus. Viaplay will be available to Dutch viewers as a single package priced at EUR 13.99 per month and will be available through distribution partners such as VodafoneZiggo and KPN, in addition to direct subscriptions. Viaplay’s Dutch content offering will include premium live sports (including the Formula 1), Viaplay Originals, Hollywood film and series, and kids content.

First, rumours had it that British telco BT’s protracted GBP 600 million sale of its sports channels to streaming service DAZN could be off after it emerged the telco was in separate talks with Discovery. Reportedly, Discovery has offered to create a joint venture with BT. Supposedly, BT will decide on whether to make an outright sale of BT Sport or to partner with Discovery by the end of this year.

Secondly, Democrats in Congress sounded antitrust alarms in relation to the proposed USD 43 billion merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia this week, calling for the Justice Department to examine the transaction on antitrust grounds. In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Justice Department antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter, the legislators asserted that further consolidation in media will hurt competition in Hollywood’s labour market and result in less content diversity. Further, the letter raised concerns that employees lose out when two formerly separate and large employers become one.

Lastly, and no doubt most straight forward, Discovery announced a development deal for a slate of new original series to be produced for Discovery Plus by Group Nine. Discovery is one of the founding investors in Group Nine and has already licensed some Group Nine programming for the service.

Marie Nilsson: ”Spenderarbyxorna har gjort barnhushållen högintressanta” – Dagens Media 

Spelvärlden biljett till en yngre publik – Dagens Media 

Daniel Eks gratis-flört borgar för en ny jättemarknad – DI Digital 

Sweden stacks SVODs with 350,000 new subscriptions in 12 months – TBI 

Sweden Ups SVOD Sub Base by 350,000 – Media Play News 

Sporträttigheterna: ”Fler aktörer kommer att konkurrera” – Journalisten 

Ilta-Sanoma, PlayPilot launch streaming guide in Finland – Rapid TV News