Yesterday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s new streaming service Max launched in the Nordics. The service combines content from Discovery+ and HBO Max, replacing HBO Max which is no longer available in the Nordics. The company’s plan is to work towards one streaming service, Max, but for now, Discovery+ is still available. It has not been communicated when Discovery+ will shut down.

Given that the complete content libraries of Discovery+ and HBO Max would merge into Max, the new service would hold almost 29 500 hours of runtime in each Nordic country. The new service thereby has the potential to become the biggest SVOD service in terms of library content in the Nordics. This is presented in Mediavision’s spring edition of the Content Analysis, which soon will be published.

Mediavision’s Content Analysis also shows the potential split in genres for Max’s content supply. The two services’ content supply differs as Discovery+ mainly holds entertainment, while HBO Max, like most other global SVOD services, is dominated by fiction. If all content would go into the new service, it would result in a mixed library consisting of approximately 50 percent entertainment and 30 percent fiction.

Max has three different subscription offerings in the Nordics, with the lowest priced option being “Basic with ads”, followed by a Standard and a Premium tier. A Sports add-on is also available in all Nordic markets.

The winner of the Europa league will be crowned tonight. The final is played in Dublin, Ireland, where the Italian Atalanta and German Bayern Leverkusen will face off for the title.  Atalanta is currently at sixth place in its domestic league Serie A, with two games left to play. Bayern Leverkusen finished off its domestic league season this weekend with a win against Augsburg. This is a historical season for Leverkusen, which has won the Bundesliga without losing a single game.

Tonight’s final is available on Viaplay in Finland, Norway and Sweden, while TV2 broadcasts the match in Denmark. As of next season, Europa League and Conference league will have a new home in Denmark and Sweden where Disney has acquired the rights to the tournament. For Finland and Norway, it has not yet been communicated where the rights will go from next season.

Both domestic leagues represented in the final, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, showcase lower viewing interest among 15-74-year-olds in the Nordics, compared to the Europa League. This is concluded in the 2024 edition of Mediavision’s Sports Analysis.

The soon to be published Mediavision’s Sports Analysis 2024 provides a comprehensive overview of the most important KPIs for consumer preferences and sports viewing behaviour. It covers 19 sports and 100+ leagues/ tournaments. For more information or order, please contact analyst Adrian Grande at Adrian.grande@mediavision.

The audiobook service Elisa Kirja merges with Bookbeat in Finland. Elisa Kirja’s customers will be transferred to BookBeat and the change does not require Elisa Kirja’s customers to take any actions, other than logging into the new service.

“The Elisa Kirja service has been a pioneer of Finnish audio and e-books. Elisa Kirja was the first to make audiobooks downloadable to mobile phones available to Finns already in 2010. By cooperating with BookBeat, we want to ensure that we can continue to offer the best possible service to our customers. We thank all the customers of the Elisa Kirja service and will do our best to make the transition to the BookBeat service as smooth as possible,” says Sami Aalto, Elisa’s entertainment business manager.

Customers will be informed about the merger of Elisa Kirja and BookBeat in the upcoming days. On the date of the merger, June 17th, an invitation to BookBeat’s service and instructions for logging in will be sent by e-mail. The monthly fee will remain the same for Elisa Kirja customers.

Warner Bros. Discovery held a presentation at the Upfront event in New York last week. The company showcased a collection of new ad products, as well as brand new content coming to the streaming service Max.

New ad features presented from Warner Bros. Discovery include shoppable ads and interactive ads such as trivia and polls – all of which similar to the ad features Amazon Prime Video presented at their Upfront presentation last week. WBD also presented Advanced contextual ads, which tailor advertiser messages to match the emotional tone of specific content moments. According to WBD, the ad format “provides the ability to target at the ad break, identifying the ideal moment that will enhance the relevance of each brand within the episode.” The new ad formats are coming to Max during the last quarter of 2024.

When it comes to content, one of the big announcements was the drama series Dune: Prophecy which debuts on Max this fall. The series is co-produced by Max and Legendary Television, which is also behind the Dune film franchise. Other new titles include a sports documentary, following the NFL team New York Giants, as well as a total of 3000 hours from Warner Bros. Discovery’s Entertainment Networks.

Netflix also held an Upfront presentation to advertisers last week. One of the biggest news from Netflix presentation was the announcement of an in-house advertising technology platform. The new platform is set to launch by the end of 2025 and Netflix says it will “give advertisers new ways to buy, new insights to leverage, and new ways to measure impact.”

“Bringing our ad tech in-house will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today” commented Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s President of Advertising.

Netflix announced that its ad-supported plan now has 40 million monthly active users. This figure has nearly doubled since the beginning of 2024, when Netflix revealed it had 23 million monthly active users. Netflix says that over 40 percent of all signups in Netflix’s ad markets choose the ad-supported plan.

At the event, Netflix also presented a slate of new content, including the comedy series Golf, starring Will Ferrell, and Running Point, starring Kate Hudson. New films announced include Happy Gilmore 2 starring Adam Sandler, and The Woman in Cabin 10 based on the bestselling novel of the same name and starring Keira Knightley. Perhaps the biggest content announcement from Netflix was the acquisition of NFL games. Netflix will be the global home of the NFL’s two Christmas Day games this year, and will be streaming at least one Christmas Day game in 2025 and 2026.

Kampen om tittarna hårdnar – nu startar streamingtjänsten Max – Aftonbladet

När satsar Spotify på ljudböcker? – Svensk Bokhandel

Mediavisions vd: Churn, hybrid, anti-delning – det nya normala – Dagens Media

Skräcksiffra för branschen: Tre miljoner delar konton – Dagens industri

Kampanj ska lyfta problemet med illegala streaming – Dagens Media

Big windfall ahead if Nordic streamers can defeat password sharing – C21 Media

350.000 nordmenn strømmer TV med reklame – Kampanje

Så många har HVOD i Sverige – Dagens media

Hotet mot svenska elitidrotten – Aftonbladet

Denmark: HVOD, sport, password crackdown to boost streaming – Advanced Television

Mediavisons vd: Nya tider när globala streamers köper livesport – Dagens Media

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