Viaplay To Lay Off More Than 25% Of Staff As Nordic Outfit Mulls A Sale & Pulls Out Of U.S.
deadline.comViaplay is letting go of more than 25% of its staff as it pulls streaming out of the U.S. and UK and mulls a sale. The embattled Nordic operation has unveiled a new strategy and plan alongside its Q2 results, which improved on last year but have been paired with a decision to “regrettably let go of more than 25% of our people,” according to new CEO Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, who replaced Anders Jensen last month with immediate effect.
Redundancies will impact around 450 people and the cost of restructuring will be approximately 45M Swedish Krona ($4M), according to today’s Q2 update, with Lindemann set to address investors and journalists in the next hour.
The move comes in the same week that Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 also said it would cut around 400 roles. Going forwards, Viaplay will discontinue its low tier non-sports offering in the likes of the U.S.
and UK and focus on the Nordic and Dutch markets, along with the sale of content internationally via Viaplay Select. It will continue focusing on Nordic originals, the likes of upcoming series Ronja the Robber’s Daughter (pictured), Lasse Hallström’s Hilma biopic and an incoming three-season English-language TV series of Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus’ bestselling crime novels.
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