The bidding for the UEFA Champions league media rights in the Nordics closed yesterday. It is still unknown how long it will take before details of the bidding and eventual buyers is communicated. If UEFA settles for the current highest bid, it will likely be communicated soon. However, if that is not the case, new negotiations and possibly a new bidding period may lie ahead.

Team Marketing is the agency in charge of the sale, which reportedly has been ongoing for about a year. Given the current uncertain situation in the Nordic TV and streaming industry, several discussions have revolved around the possibility of a new global actor entering the Nordic sports rights scene. There has also been talks about several actors sharing the rights, which has become more common in recent years. For example, it was communicated earlier this fall that TV2 and Viaplay will share the rights to the Danish Superliga.

As of now, Telia holds the rights to Champions league in Finland and Sweden, Viaplay Group in Denmark and TV2 in Norway. All contracts expire in the fall of 2024 when the current Champions league season is finished.

Together with the English Premier league, Champions league is the league with highest viewing interest throughout the Nordics. Around 3.3 million 15-74-year-olds in the Nordics state interest in watching the tournament. This is concluded in the 2023 edition of Mediavision’s Sports Analysis.

Audio streaming service Spotify has announced some upcoming updates to its music royalty system. The objective is to make sure that money is going to emerging and professional artists, and to prevent artificial streams on the platform.

The update includes a policy requiring tracks to get a minimum of 1,000 listens every year to receive royalty payment. Spotify states that tens of millions of the tracks on its platform have been streamed between 1 and 1,000 times over the past year and, on average, those tracks have generated USD 0.03 per month. According to Spotify, these smaller accounts often doesn’t reach the uploaders because of banking fees and minimum withdraw limits from labels and distributors. On an aggregated level, these small payments add up to USD 40 million per year, which Spotify aims to give to artists who are most dependent on streaming revenue.

In addition, Spotify will enforce a new charge on labels and distributors which are found to be generating artificial streams. Artificial streams involve the use of bots or click-farms to illegitimately boost an artist’s streaming numbers, consequently gaining royalty payments from Spotify. This has been a hot topic this fall and SvD recently revealed that criminals use fake streams on Spotify for money laundering. Spotfiy competitor Deezer has also recently criticized the streaming service for reporting low numbers of fake streams.

Spotify has also communicated that some styles of “noise” tracks, such as white noise and nature sounds, will be required to have a minimum duration of two minutes to be eligible to generate royalties. This means that these tracks will make a fraction of what they were previously earning, freeing up extra money to the royalty pool for other artists.

The company Nordisk Film Cinemas is launching a new initiative to draw more consumers to cinemas in Denmark. The initiative is a new subscription product, giving access to unlimited theatrical visits. This is stated on the company’s website.

The new product is called Bioplus Unlimited and gives unlimited access to all regular cinema screenings in all 23 Nordisk Film Cinemas in Denmark. Nordisk Film Cinemas, which is a part of Egmont Group, has tested the subscription product for the past two years in Aalborg. Bioplus Unlimited applies to all films and time slots, including 3D and 4DX screenings. The exceptions are non-ordinary screenings such as concerts, operas and special events.

Bioplus Unlimited has a binding period of 4 months and costs DKK 229 per month. For context, a cinema ticket in Denmark usually costs between DKK 120-150 depending on the length of the film. The subscription product also gives a discount of DKK 20, when buying a second ticket to a screening.

New figures from Mediavision show that Denmark has the highest cinema reach share in the Nordics. In an average month during the fall of 2023, 35 percent of Danish households bought at least one cinema ticket. Sweden has the lowest share of households that spend money on cinema in the Nordics, reaching 25 percent of the household in an average month.

Return of media piracy fuelling other crimes, expert says – Yle

Experterna: Medierna som går framåt när ekonomin viker – Dagens Media

Krisen i tv-branschen fortsätter – nu ökar piratkopieringen – Aftonbladet

Tittarna accepterar medioker tv när de inte behöver betala – Expressen

Marie Nilsson: Så påverkas innehållet av tv-krisen – Dagens Media

Sweden: Household media spend reaches record level in Q3 – Senal News

Köp av medietjänster ökar: ”Ett hyfsat billigt nöje” – SR

Svenske husstandes medieforbrug slår ny rekord – Mediawatch

Trots krisande marknad – medieutgifterna ökar – Dagens Media

Summerat: Svenskarnas kontodelning kostar en miljard – Tidningen Näringslivet

Trots tuffa tider för hushållen – många fortsätter betala för strömningstjänster – SVT