Embattled Nordic over-the-top streaming service Viaplay has published its interim financial report for the third quarter of 2024 (July-September), headlined by falling year-on-year sales but also by a major shrinking of its quarterly loss from 2023.
Viaplay brought in a total of 4.4 billion Swedish Krona ($418 million) in turnover across the three months, a fall from the 4.536 billion Krona it drew from the equivalent period in 2023, owing in part to a fall in reported sales growth for core operations.
This however was offset by a growth in both pre-tax and total operating income.
All this means that the 693 million Krona loss that Viaplay made in Q3 2023 has now shrunk to a 148 million Krona loss for Q3 2024.
Amid major financial issues over the last few years, Viaplay has undergone a major budget tightening in the past 18 months that has seen it divest from all of its markets outside the Nordic region and the Netherlands, what it calls its core markets.
Speaking on the results, Viaplay president and chief executive Jørgen Madsen Lindemann has stated: “Core sales growth, along with our cost reduction efforts, enabled us to reduce our EBIT losses year on year and sequentially.
“The underlying improvement was even better when considering the substantial negative FX effects we continue to face, and the fact that we have sold or closed most of our studio businesses over the past year. We are working to exit our non-core operations as quickly as possible and minimizing the adverse cash impact as much as possible.
“Overall, we are making steady progress towards our long-term goals of retransforming Viaplay Group back into a successful, competitive, profitable, cash flow positive and shareholder value creating company.
“Much remains to be done, and this work is led by our smart and engaged people who are boldly changing the way we do things by being constantly curious and challenging convention.”
Of the OTT platform’s sports offering he added: “World-class motor racing remains a key driver of audience engagement across all our core markets, ranking as the most-viewed content both in terms of unique users and total viewing minutes.
“The new soccer season kicked off with the Champions League returning to Viaplay in Sweden, the launch of our new Premier League studio, and the opening games of the Superliga, Europa League, Conference League and NHL.
Through the first nine months of 2024, Viaplay has cut its operating loss from 7.4 billion Krone down to 465 million, and will anticipate further growth thanks to the return of seasonal sporting rights in the final quarter of the year.
“We have a strong Q4 line-up, which will also feature coverage of the Junior Ice Hockey World Championship, Women's EHF Euro Handball, and FIS winter sports.”
The streamer is not yet out of the woods, however, and prior to Q3 2024 still had over 1.4 billion Krona of debt, but Lindemann asserts that the company is on the right track to returning to sustainability.
