Nent renews wide-ranging Telenor distribution deal

Media company Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent) has extended a distribution agreement with Norwegian telco Telenor.

The deal covers Telenor’s fixed-line and satellite-television offerings and will result in Nent’s Viaplay streaming service, free-TV channels and Viasat pay-TV channels being made available to Telenor customers.

The fixed-line agreement covers Sweden and Norway and incorporates Nent’s TV3, TV6, TV8, TV10 and TV3 Sport channels in Sweden; and TV3, TV6 and Viasat 4 channels in Norway.

Nent Group’s premium Viasat sports and film packages, as well as the Viasat Golf channel, will be available to Telenor’s fixed-line subscribers in Sweden and Norway.

The satellite agreement covers Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Nent Group’s TV3, TV6, TV8, TV10 and TV3 Sport channels will be available in Sweden; TV3, TV6 and Viasat 4 will be offered in Norway; and TV3, TV3 Puls, TV3+, TV3 Max and TV3 Sport will be available in Denmark. Additionally, Nent’s premium Viasat sports and film packages will be available to Telenor’s Canal Digital subscribers in all four countries.

Last month, Nent reached an agreement with Telenor Group to combine the former’s Viasat Consumer satellite pay-television operations with the latter’s Canal Digital. Nent and Telenor will each hold 50 per cent of the shares of a new joint-venture company and Nent said the deal will create “substantial synergies and shareholder value” and provide an enhanced proposition for customers.

The merger agreement will generate a Nordic player with combined net sales of around SEK7.6bn (€711m/$785m) and 1.25 million subscribers, with Nent forecasting that the deal will yield annual cost synergies of approximately SEK650m, with full effect from 2022.

The new Telenor distribution deal comes after Nent last week extended a similar agreement with Norwegian television operator RiksTV, through which Viaplay will be made available to more viewers in Norway.

From this autumn, Viaplay will form part of RiksTV’s Strim streaming offering. Nent’s TV3, TV6 and Viasat 4 channels will also be included in the offering. RiksTV, which has almost 300,000 subscribers in Norway, will continue to offer TV3, TV6, Viasat 4 and Nent Group’s Viasport channels to its TV customers and on its seven-day catch-up service.