It was recently announced that Amazon Prime Video and Sky retains the Champions league rights in Italy for the 2024-27 cycle. Under the terms of its deal, Amazon will hold exclusive rights to 18 matches per season and the remaining matches will be broadcasted by Comcast-owned Sky. According to rumors, Sky offered around EUR 180-190 million per year for the rights and Amazon Prime Video offered EUR 100-110 million per year for the exclusive rights to selected matches.

Which actors that will acquire (or retain) the Champions League rights in the Nordics remain to be seen. With the recent trends, we can assume that the rights come with a hefty price tag, but will prices increase as much as the number of matches? Furthermore, will any of the global actors join the race for the rights in the Nordics?

Last year, PodX Group made acquisitions of French podcast studio Nouvelles Écoutes, French podcast producer Studio Minuit, British audio fiction company Goldhawk Productions and Argentinian podcast production company Posta. And just a few weeks ago, Podx group acquired a majority stake in the Swedish production company Filt. Now, the company expands further in the Nordics by acquiring the Finnish podcast company Suomen Podcastmedia.

Suomen Podcastmedia is focused on content genres such as comedy, entertainment, true crime, and fiction. The company is most well-known for its investigative journalism approach in the true crime genre. Suomen Podcastmedia have a portfolio of 47 podcasts and have produced branded podcasts for companies such as Danske Bank, Arla, and Business Finland. The company also work with commissioners such as Storytel, Podimo, and Yle.

This past week, another acquisition was announced in the podcast landscape – Third ear Studio have acquired the podcast distribution and hosting platform Podspace.

In late 2021, the Swedish podcast companies Soundtelling and Just Stories merged with the Danish podcast company Third Ear, together becoming Third Ear Studio. The company now raise the stakes further with the acqusition of Podspace.

“In a strategic deal, Scandinavian Third Ear now acquires all the shares in Podspace, and thus establishes a new major player in the industry with a unique capacity to support publishers and podcast creators with the production, distribution and sale of advertisements and subscriptions”, Third Ear studios stated in the press release.

Podspace have grown rapidly on the Swedish market and work with clients such as Perfect Day, Podme and Bonnier News. The platform will continue to be its own company and brand.

The 95th Academy Awards were held on Sunday, which was mostly dominated by the A24 produced movie Everything Everywhere All at Once. The highly acclaimed movie grabbed a total of seven wins including best picture, best director, and best lead actress.

Looking at the streaming services performances, Netflix came out on top with a total of six wins. The biggest contributor for Netflix was German war movie All Quiet on the Western Front which grabbed four statues, including best international feature film and best original score. Disney won two prizes, Black Panther: Wakanda forever for best costume and Avatar: The way of water for best visual effects. Warner Bros. Discovery got one win, with Navalny earning the Oscar for best documentary feature film. Apple also obtained one award, winning the best animated short film with The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

Unfortunately, all Nordic nominees walked home empty-handed. Swedish director Ruben Östlund was nominated in three categories with Triangle of Sadness and Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson was nominated for best original song. The Norwegian short film Nattrikken, directed by Erik Tveiten, was nominated in the short film category as well as Ivalu, directed by the Danes Anders Walter och Pipaluk K. Jørgensen. Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont was also nominated for best documentary with A House Made of Splinters. Hopefully we will see some Nordic wins in next year’s Academy awards!

Marie Nilsson: Kontodelarna lever osäkert när streamingjättarna jagar intäkter – Dagens Media

Et stigende antal svenskere betaler for podcasts – Mediawatch

Sweden: Significant growth in podcast households – Advanced Television

TVOD in Sweden reaches record levels in 2022 – Broadband TV News

Netflix drag – så ska kontodelare jagas – Svenska Dagbladet

Stort tapp för nya poddar i världen – “Kärvare läge” – Sveriges Radio

Nordics: 3 million SVOD accounts are borrowed from other households – Piracy Monitor