Nordic Streaming Giant Viaplay Jumps to 7.64 Million Users Following United States, Canada Rollout
The Nordic streaming service Viaplay is carving out a niche for itself. Viaplay released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2023 on Tuesday, and it shows that the streamer’s international expansion has been a successful strategy so far.
Viaplay now has 7.64 million global users, a figure that’s up 60% year-over-year from 2021’s 4.78M. Viaplay saw an increase of 325,000 subscribers over the previous quarter, an increase that was no doubt aided by the addition of several markets to its distribution network.
The biggest market that saw a Viaplay rollout recently was the United States. Viaplay launched in the U.S. on Feb. 22, and it’s reasonable to assume that much of the service’s subscriber gains over the last quarter are due to its domestic launch. Overall, Viaplay is now available in 33 markets across the globe.
More than half of Viaplay’s customers are still Nordic subscribers, but the company has only been available to customers outside that area since the third quarter of 2021. That means that in seven quarters, Viaplay has grown from a non-existent international customer base to one with nearly 3M users. That’s obviously still well behind a streamer like Netflix with its 232.5M global subscribers, but it isn’t all that far off the 11.8M streaming customers AMC has among its various streaming services.
“We have continued to deliver on our growth targets despite the broader economic uncertainty,” Viaplay president and CEO Anders Jensen said. “Our original content has never been more attractive for consumers and partners, with over 130 productions set to premiere this year in what is a highly competitive environment. In combination with our mix of premium live sports rights, constant tech innovation and talented team, we are well positioned to deliver on Viaplay’s considerable potential.”
Viaplay is the leading producer of high-quality and psychologically penetrating series and films from the Nordic region — a genre known as Nordic Noir. The service also features documentaries, exclusive original content, and even live sports like Formula 1 racing outside the U.S. A Viaplay subscription costs $5.99 per month, and streaming is ad-free.
Viaplay may continue to see robust growth if it strikes the right balance between content and price. NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock grew from 9M to 20M users in just one year, demonstrating explosive growth for smaller services is possible. Continuing to expand the reach of Viaplay by offering it on more devices is a good place to start; the Viaplay app recently became available on Roku devices in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
Viaplay
Viaplay is a video on demand service focused on Nordic storytelling with more than 1,500 hours of award-winning content. The content library includes “Trom,” “Furia,” and “Partisan.” The line-up also includes Viaplay’s provocative young adult drama “Threesome,” a broad range of compelling documentaries, and much more.