Yesterday, Sanoma Media Finland announced that its audio service Supla’s audiobook operation has been sold. The buyer is audiobook service Bookbeat. According to the press release, Supla will focus on podcast and radio content going forward.

“We thank all of Supla’s audiobook customers and wish them all the best as customers of the best possible buyer and new service,” comments Jussi Suvanto, responsible for Nelonen Media’s audio business. “Sanoma will continue to develop Supla as part of its audio strategy with ambitious goals. In addition to radio-on-demand, a wide selection of podcasts and online radios, you can also listen to a significant number of articles from Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta-Sanomat”, Suvanto explains.

Sanoma and BookBeat will continue to cooperate in the future as well. Supla’s audiobook customers will be transferred to BookBeat and affected customers will receive a personal message about the transfer.

It was concluded in Mediavision’s Nordic Media & Markets analysis, that Bookbeat was the market leader on the Finnish audiobook market in Q3 2022. In a few months, Mediavision Nordic Media & Markets Spring 2023 will be published. This analysis provides a comprehensive overview of consumption, expenses and services/ actors in audio, video, and text for the entire Nordic market. For more information regarding this analysis, please contact adrian.grande@mediavision.se.

Another investment announcement was made yesterday – the Swedish TVOD service SF Anytime, owned by SF Studios, has acquired the Danish streaming service Blockbuster from Nuuday. SF Anytime will now own the right to use the Blockbuster brand and all its customer relationships. However, the two businesses will continue to operate under their own separate brands. According to SF Studios, customers will experience an aligned and even broader content offering following the acquisition.

”We are excited and proud to acquire the leading Danish streaming service Blockbuster and integrate its service into our business. The two businesses complement each other very well, as SF Anytime has its strength in Sweden while Blockbuster’s focus is on the Danish market. Our combined experience and offering create a better service for millions of households across the Nordics”, says Michael Holmberg, Managing Director of SF Anytime. ”We get a bigger catalog, we also become a bigger partner for international studios. We would have had to spend a lot of money to build such a market position, so a structure deal was most effective to grow faster,” Holmberg says.

Nuuday motivates the sale with a strategic focus on tightening its business to the core of telecommunications. Nuuday owns Denmark’s largest distribution company Yousee, the mobile company Telmore and the broadband company Hiper, among others.

In 2022, TVOD reached record levels in Sweden as monthly reach grew with 15% year-over-year. An average month in 2022, 28 percent of the Swedish households rented or bought TVOD content. This is concluded in Mediavision’s latest analysis of the Swedish TV & Streaming market.

The Danish TV company TV2 have choosen Acast as new podcast partner. With the new collaboration, Acast will handle hosting, distribution, listener data and advertising sales for TV 2’s podcasts. In addition, the companies will collaborate to develop TV2’s podcast offering on the Danish market.

Today, Acast works with some of the world’s largest publishing houses including BBC, The Guardian, The Economist, Vogue, as well as Nordic publishers such as Schibsted, Aller Media, Finansavisen, Dagens Næringsliv, Discovery and more.

TV 2 entered the podcast market in November with news podcast, Dato, a podcast about foreign affairs, Korrespondente, and crime podcast Skyggesiden, which have all been supported by ads since launch. Following the new collaboration with Acast, we are likely to see several more podcasts from TV 2 during 2023.

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