Yesterday, Viaplay Group announced a new linear TV partnership in the Netherlands with media company Talpa Network. Starting this Friday 5th of April, Talpa Network’s linear TV channel SBS9 will be rebranded as Viaplay TV and show selected content from the Viaplay streaming service’s sports portfolio. Revenues from the partnership will be shared between Viaplay Group and Talpa Network.

Viaplay TV’s first live broadcast will be the second free practice session for the Japanese F1 Grand Prix, featuring Dutch driver Max Verstappen. April’s schedule also includes live Premier League football, highlights from the Chinese F1 Grand Prix and live PDC Premier League Darts in Rotterdam. All Viaplay sports content shown on Viaplay TV will also remain available in full on Viaplay in the Netherlands.

Viaplay made one more announcement yesterday. The sale of its UK direct-to-consumer business to SSBL Limited, trading as Premier Sports, has been completed and will take place tomorrow 4th of April. The proposed transaction was announced by Viaplay on 1st of December 2023 and has now received a final clearance from the Irish authorities.

Irish Premier Sports was the previous owner of Viaplay’s UK business, which comprises a streaming service and two linear TV channels. Current sports customer subscriptions will be automatically transferred to Premier Sports, and the sports content line-up remains unchanged.

Nordic TV distributer Allente has announced the launch of a new streaming service together with film distributer NonStop Entertainment. The new service, byNonStop, is now available for Allente customers in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

NonStop Entertainment currently holds films such as Oscar-nominated Teacher’s Room, as well as the winner of Best Nordic Film at the Gothenburg Film Festival: Mother, Couch. At launch of byNonStop, the streaming service offers a curated catalog of films such as Lost Highway, The Capote Tapes and The Day After. According to the press release, the catalog on byNonStop will be updated every week.

“With the new product, byNonStop, we step into a world of timeless film classics and modern masterpieces, offering a selection tailored for the discerning cineaste. This exclusive service provides a specific range of high-quality films within three different niches: independent film, documentary, and genre film. We are more than proud to, together with Nonstop Entertainment, offer Allente’s customers access to this curated and delightful library of award-winning films, and we look forward to taking everyone who wants, on a journey through the wonderful world of film,” says Michael Bärlin, Chief Content Officer at Allente.

The content from byNonStop is now included in all satellite and fiber TV packages from Allente. For Allente Stream Flex customers, byNonStop is included in an optional streaming package together with Moonbug, Mezzo, Love Nature, Nordisk Film+ and BBC Nordic+.

Spotify continues to expand its audiobook offering included in premium subscriptions. Beginning next week, on April 9th, Spotify Premium users in Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand will have access to up to 15 hours of audiobook listening per month.

The news comes alongside the expansion of Spotify’s audiobook catalog, which now consists of more than 250,000 titles. When first launched in Australia and the UK back in October last year, the catalog consisted of roughly 150,000 titles. One month later, when launched in the US, the catalog had grown to 200,000 titles.

Earlier this year, Spotify stated that its service was the second-largest audiobook provider in the US, after Amazon-owned Audible. Spotify has stated that premium users’ engagement with audiobooks has been high, though no specific figures has been revealed.

Primes intåg stöper om sportmarknaden – Svenska Dagbladet

Mediavision: Growing demand for local content in the Nordics – Broadband TV News

Därför blir streamingtjänsterna allt dyrare – och sämre – PC för alla

Mediavision: Ad-Supported SVOD Gaining Traction in the Nordics – Media Play News

Mediavision: Starkt intresse för HVOD i Sverige – Dagens Media

Efterspørgslen på nordisk tv-indhold stiger men udbuddet kan ikke følge med – Mediawatch

Sweden: Interest growing in ad-supported streaming – Advanced Television

Svenskar vill se mer svenskt på streamad tv – Sveriges Radio

Illegal affär kostar filmindustrin miljarder – Dagens PS

Var fjärde svensk strömmar olaglig tv – SVT

Kan bli det store gjennombruddet for denne typen TV-abonnement – Kampanje

Mediavision: Digitala ljudtjänster tar andelar på ljudmarknaden – Radionytt