Anders Jensen immediately stepped down as CEO of Viaplay Monday after the Nordic media company reported steep declines for both its subscription- and advertising-supported businesses.
Jensen, who had led Viaplay since April 2018, was replaced by Jorgen Madsen Lindemann, the ex-COD of the Nordic TV company's former corporate parent, MTG.
“The rising cost of living is resulting in lower D2C streaming and wholesale linear subscription sales, as well as higher churn levels following price increases,” Viaplay said in a Monday morning statement. The company also said that ad sales in the second quarter are expected to be down between 12%-16%.
“The outlook for the markets in which we are operating has shifted considerably and at a very rapid pace, and the execution of cost savings programmes has not been mitigating the effects from these conditions to a sufficient extent,” said Pernille Erenbjerg, chair of the board.
Viaplay provides a broad array of TV programming, including live sports, to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland.
In the U.S., the company launched in February a $5.99-a-month DTC subscription streaming service that includes 1,500 on-demand film and TV series titles, many of them of the "Nordic Noir' vein of dark crime thriller that Viaplay has come to be known for.
In its statement, Viaplay seemed unclear as to the fate of the ongoing U.S. SVOD launch.
“The impact of the macroeconomic headwinds on the business require that we execute differently on our strategy," Erenbjerg said, adding that Viaplay will "evaluate the need for structural, operational, and capital allocation enhancements to the delivery of the strategy."
