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Viaplay's sales in the Netherlands and Poland will double to 268 million euros by 2023. The Netherlands "is almost profitable," says CEO Jørgen Madsen Lindemann. The number of customers in these regions shrank by 300,000.

A quarter ago the Netherlands was profitable, now it is almost profitable. Streaming service Viaplay creates confusion about the financial status of the Netherlands and does not clarify its claim when presenting its annual figures.

But secretive the Swedes do not do, because as a listed company they have to report detailed results. They just don't break down profits by region.

Thus, it turns out that Viaplay outside Scandinavia, ie: Netherlands and Poland, the number of subscribers shrank by 300,000 to 2.4 million. Also in the Scandinavian home markets, the customer base shrank by that number, to 4.1 million viewers.

The revenue doubling comes from the two-euro price increase announced in early 2023. Earlier this week, Viaplay announced it would raise its prices again by two euros. Thus, the company goes from competitive to expensive compared to other streaming services.

At the group level, annual sales rose eighteen percent to 1.6 billion euros. In the last quarter of the year, growth was only 3.4 percent.

The operating result in the past year turned from several tens of millions of euros in the plus to 900 million euros in the minus, the sum of one-time costs for depreciation and investments in content.

Viaplay decided late last year to withdraw from the Baltic states, North America and Poland. The Netherlands remains the only remaining foreign country in which Lindemann will still be active. These interventions were necessary for him to raise new external growth capital.

Photo: Dimitri Biemond (cc)

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