Amazon Prime Video has mainly presented unscripted investments in the Nordics up until now. This will continue with new seasons of LOL: Laughing Out Loud in both Norway and Sweden. Reality series Bingo and Julia (Swedish) and Girls of Oslo (Norwegian) have also been renewed for second seasons, as well as a new Danish reality show called Roast on the Coast. Apart from these titles, several new scripted series were presented as well, among others, Swedish drama series Blindspår and Vaka.

On Monday, Netflix announced a slate of 26 upcoming Nordic titles, including 12 brand new titles. A few of the new Nordic titles presented were a Norwegian series about Harry Hole, written by Jo Nesbø, a series adaption of Amanda Romare’s novel Diary of a Ditched Girl and a film adaption of Alex Ahndoril’s The Key Series. New standalone sequels were also presented to the Nordic series The Chestnut Man and Barracuda Queens.

Both Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have recently acquired titles from Viaplay, which were included in the lineups. For Netflix, it’s the Norwegian series Pörni as well as the Swedish Ronja the robber’s daughter. Earlier this year, Amazon Prime Video announced the acquisition of a total of nine titles from Viaplay. Among these, five are Norwegian, two are Danish, and two are Swedish.

A spokesperson for LinkedIn has confirmed that a gaming experience is in the works. “We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” the spokesperson said to TechCrunch.
 

LinkedIn’s owner, Microsoft, is a gaming giant. Its gaming business, which includes Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax, brought in USD 7.1 billion in revenues last quarter, surpassing Windows revenues for the first time. The LinkedIn spokesperson declined to say how and if Microsoft is involved in the gaming project at LinkedIn.

Several media outlets have tapped into gaming in recent years. For example, The New York Times acquired the viral hit game Wordle in 2022, which is now part of a bigger platform of online puzzles and games developed by the newspaper. Another example is Netflix, which continues to invest in its games area. The streaming giant continuously adds new games to its portfolio, with the latest addition made just a few weeks ago.

Another example is Facebook, which has been a major driver of social gaming over the years. However, in 2022 it shut down its standalone gaming app because of declining usage. Nowadays, Facebook’s parent company Meta is putting significantly more focus on mixed reality experiences and its Meta Quest business.

Gaming is a growing media category in the Nordics as well. Mediavision’s insights show that by the end of last year, over 20 percent of the Nordics households had at least one paid gaming subscription.

Last week, audio giant Spotify launched music videos in beta for Premium users across 11 markets. Sweden is the only Nordic country included in the launch, together with Brazil, Germany and UK, among others.
 

Spotify calls music videos “another way to enhance the artist-to-fan connection”, referring to other initiatives that has been made in that area, such as merchandise shops, artist bios and live events. Charlie Hellman, Vice President and Head of Music Product at Spotify, says music videos “are an important part of so many artists’ tool kits, and it’s a natural fit for them to live in the same place that more than half a billion people choose to listen to music.”
 

The music video feature is available on iOS, Android, desktop, and TV devices for users in the selected markets. For songs where a music video is available, users can switch between only audio and video. The beta version of music videos consists of a limited catalog, including global artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice. Spotify says that they will continue to innovate and iterate this beta launch based on feedback from both users and artists
 

Yesterday, Spotify also presented its annual music economics report, Loud & Clear, including figures for 2023. Spotify has already announced a few of the stats, such as the total payout from Spotify to the music industry exceeding USD 9bn last year. The payout from Spotify has nearly tripled over the past six years.
 

Furthermore, Spotify announced that 66,000 artists generated more than USD 10k each of Spotify payouts in 2023, up from 57,000 the previous year. The company highlights the comparison to 2017, which is the first year this data was analyzed. Back then, there were approximately 23,400 artists reaching the USD 10k limit, hence, the total has nearly tripled since then.
 

Spotify also digs into the tier of artists generating USD 1M or more. Notably, only 20 percent of those 1,250 artists had a song appearing in Spotify’s top 50 of its Daily Global Songs chart this year. 80 percent of them – around 1,000 – never appeared on that chart. Spotify states that as a rule of thumb, artists approaching USD 1 million per year have around 4-5 million monthly listeners or 20-25 million monthly streams. Data also reveal that artists generating USD 1M+ started their careers in 2010 or later, indicating that the artists are not just classic, generation-spanning artists.

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

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

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