Telenor Group and Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) announced a new joint venture company that combines Canal Digital and Viasat Consumer’s satellite pay-TV and broadband-TV operations.
Telenor and NENT Group will each hold 50 percent of the new company that will have TV distribution business in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment.
The Nordic player will have combined net sales of approximately NOK 7 billion and around 1.25 million subscribers (Q2 2019).
The combination is expected to yield peak annual cost synergies of approximately NOK 600 million, with full effect from 2022.
Integration and other related costs are expected to total approximately NOK 830 million.
The company will be headquartered in both Oslo and Stockholm, and will have a substantial presence in Copenhagen.
The Nordic consumer offering will focus on satellite distributed pay-TV (DTH) and streaming services, as well as IPTV on open fibre networks, and will continue to develop market-leading TV distribution services.
The Board of Directors for the joint venture will have an equal representation from Telenor and NENT Group, with a rotating chairmanship. The CEO of the company will be Bjorn Ivar Moen, currently CEO of Canal Digital and Telenor Broadcast, and the CFO and head of operations will be Jonas Gustafsson, who is currently the CEO of Viasat Consumer.
The transaction is expected to be completed during the first half of 2020, Telenor said in a statement.
