Bonnier Broadcasting’s digital transformation accelerated during 2017.
Swedish TV network TV4 had its best year ever financially, thanks to a systematic focus on high-quality Swedish content in all genres, a strong focus on technical development and a talent for meeting the advertising market with the strongest offer. The long-term work on total TV – where the way of watching makes no difference – made a real breakthrough. Thanks to TV4 Play’s strong growth, the total reach for TV4’s total TV offering increased over time. Streaming service TV4 Play grew by 18 percent, representing over half of time spent on all ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) services in Sweden according to independent analysts MMS, with over 3.8 million registered users. At the same time, the TV4 Group had an average viewer share of 33.8 percent (for ages 15–64) for linear TV, its highest ever.
TV4 had a breakthrough during 2017 in its digital transformation and work towards total TV with platform agnostic shows such as Nyhetsmorgon. Thanks to strong digital growth TV4 has since 2014 increased its weekly reach over time, despite of decreased traditional TV-viewing. In 2017, TV4 had an average weakly reach of 66%, which is one percentage point higher than in 2014.
For the third year in a row, C More was the fastest growing subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) service. And several new launches were announced during the year: TV4’s ad-free programming and SF Kids became part of the SVOD service, and the first C More Original series premiered. In addition, sports channel Sportkanalen was launched and the over-the-top (OTT) package Standard Sport. The new sports selection is for a broad target audience at a lower price level than the premium package. During the fall, a comprehensive growth project to inrease conversions for C More was undertaken. The number of sign-ups doubled during over the year.
Launched in October 2017 by C More, Sportkanalen offers everything for the Swedish sports fan, from matches to interviews, news and highlights for hockey, soccer, handball and more. Even basketball from the U.S.
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Something for Everyone With Sportkanalen
In Finland, the advertising market continued to be a challenge despite better macro-economic conditions. For MTV, focus on its high-quality Finnish content continued and average viewing share during the year was 25.7 percent (for ages 10-54). That made MTV the market leader in all commercial audience groups. The AVOD service MTV Katsomo had 2 million registered users by the end of the year. The SVOD service C More was launched in Finland during the year and was well-received by the Finnish public.
The digital transformation that Bonnier Broadcasting has been pursuing for several years has meant a comprehensive program of restructuring. Nyhetsbolaget was dissolved as a separate news production company and news and current affairs producers and journalists moved back to the core business at TV4 and Bonnier Broadcasting. Work on integrating TV4 and C More’s operations intensified further to increase the pace of growth. Toward the end of the year, TV4’s head of operations Mathias Berg was appointed also head of operations for C More. The linear TV channels TV4 Komedi and TV4 Fakta XL were discontinued in order to focus more on TV4, Sjuan, TV4 Play and C More. Some 90 positions were terminated as a result of restructuring and cost-savings measures.
In connection with the #metoo campaign, TV4 was criticized for its failure to act on poor working conditions during the production of one of its TV series. After extensive work, the network established a powerful action plan – Mission Zero – with the purpose of combatting and preventing violations and harassment, while also simplifying identification of violations and how they are handled. The zero tolerance policy includes, among other things, clearer guidelines, education for employees and managers, establishment of industry-wide meetings, an internal ethics advisory group, clearer dialogue and requirments in relation to external productions, and a whistleblower system that can be used also by the production companies that TV4 uses.
Casten Almqvist, Head Bonnier Broadcasting and CEO, TV4
| SEK M | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Sales | 7,497 | 7,397 | 7,738 |
| EBITA | 423 | 373 | 417 |
Finland
Sweden
C More
MTV
TV4 Group
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