Newsletter 22nd of January: 4.7 million Nordic Households Subscribe to Spotify

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22 January 2020

Award season is in full swing and this week we turn our focus to the music scene. In the US, the industry is preparing to celebrate the 62nd Grammy Awards and Alicia Keys is returning to host “the biggest night in music” this Sunday. American singer and songwriter Lizzo with eight nominations is in top, followed by Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish who are up for six honours each. The Nordic music industry is also celebrating. Last Saturday, the annual P3 Guld awards ceremony was held in Gothenburg. Molly Sandén was the clear winner of the night, scoring both “Pop of the year” and “Guldmicken”. Today, most consumption of music takes place online and especially music streaming services are popular in the Nordics – household penetration ranges from 44% to 60%. The highest figure is noted in Norway where approx. 1.3 million households subscribe to a music streaming service. Comparing specific services, Spotify is the clear market leader in all countries. The service tallies a total of approx. 4.7 million subscribing Nordic households, the highest penetration being found in Sweden (54%). Spotify´s lowest household penetration is found in Denmark. While still being the market leader, Spotify is challenged by local operator Yousee´s own music streaming service that attains a household penetration of 14%. This competitive situation is unique for the Danish market. On the other Nordic markets, the second most popular services merely attain household penetrations ranging between 4-6%. Yousee’s strong position on the Danish market is a consequence of both reach and pricing. Yousee is the largest pay TV, broadband and mobile operator in Denmark. Yousee Music is included as an optional benefit for all Yousee More subscribers and free of charge for all new mobile phone subscribers.

Industry News

Aiming to simplify its platform and following a lack of clicks, Instagram has decided to remove the IGTV-button from the home screen. Users primarily access content on IGTV through other channels in the app, including previews in the feed, the Explore tab, or the standalone app.
Last week, Penguin Random House announced that it will no longer cooperate with streaming services. Following the removal of thousands of its titles from services such as Storytel, Mofibo and Bookbeat, there are speculations of PRH launching its own service.
A new Netflix headquarter has been opened in Paris. This is the company´s fourth European office and it is set up alongside an increased investment in French content, nearly doubling the output to date.
The Danish TV industry celebrated the best achievements of 2019 Saturday. TV 2 was this year´s big winner, scoring 13 awards including heavy hitters such as best news, sports and entertainment. This year´s special prize was awarded to Annette Rømer.
Following Disney´s $71 billion acquisition of Fox last year, the company has decided to exclude the Fox brand name from the film studios included in the merger. Hence, their studios will now be named 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
On Sunday, Parasite scored the award for best motion picture at the SAG awards in Los Angeles. Netflix’s The Crown was chosen for best TV drama and Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was awarded best TV comedy in a successful night for the streaming services.
NBCU´s new streaming service will be available for free for Comcast subs on April 15th, before the US launch on July 15th. Subscriptions will be available in three tiers, two of which will be advertising-supported ($0/$4.99). The ad-free subscription will be available for $9.99.
Levan Akin´s movie depicting his childhood, And then we danced, scored four awards at the Guldbaggen awards on Monday. Further, Aniara had a successful night, being awarded four prices including best director and best female lead role.
The European launch date for Disney+ has been moved forward to March 24th. The service will at this date be available in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. Launch in additional markets, including the Nordics, will follow in summer 2020.
For the first time ever, Netflix has earned more Oscar nominations than any major studio or specialty distributor. In total, the company received 24 nominations – including two of the spots in the category for best picture for The Irishman and Marriage Story.

Mediavision Press Releases

Danske operatører har ny rekord i streaming Stadig flere husstande i Danmark abonnerer på streamingtjenester. Aktuelt drives væksten hovedsageligt af TV-operatørerne, dvs. aktører som Yousee, Stofa og Boxer. Aktuelt køber næsten 15 % af husstandene i Danmark streamingabonnementer via en operatør.
Suomessa katsotaan ennätyspaljon nettivideoita
Nettivideoiden katselussa tehtiin uusi ennätys Suomessa vuonna 2019. Keskimääräisen päivän kuluessa miltei 60% ihmisitä katsoo jonkinlaista nettivideota, mikä tarkoittaa, että Suomessa päivittäiskatselu on nyt samalla tasolla kuin muissa Pohjoismaissa.  
Norske husholdninger har de høyeste utgiftene for TV og strømming i Norden
Strømmetjenestene er veldig populære i Norge, og de fortsetter å vokse. Samtidig befester tradisjonell betal-TV sin sterke posisjon. 

Mediavision in the News

 För bara en månad sedan drog budgivningen om Champions League igång. Nu ligger även rättigheterna till populära Premier League på förhandlingsbordet.
The English men’s football Premier League has invited bids for Nordic broadcasting rights for the 2022/23 season and onwards by 29 January.

Industry Events

  • European Radio Show & Digital Audio: Januray 23-25th, Paris, France
  • Göteborgs Filmfestival: January 24th – February 3rd, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Grammy Awards Ceremony: January 26th, Los Angeles, USA
  • Robert Prisen: January 26th, Copenhagen, Denmark
*Events where Mediavision will be presenting