Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), the Nordic region’s leading streaming company, will launch its Viaplay streaming service in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the first quarter of 2021. The expansion builds on Viaplay’s well established success in the Nordic region and recent launch in Iceland. Viaplay will offer Baltic viewers a unique combination of Viaplay originals, films and series, kids’ content and live sports.

Viaplay, the leading Nordic streaming service with over 2.5 million paying subscribers, will be available to customers in all three Baltic countries through direct subscriptions and via third-party partnerships.

Less than 20% of the 2.8 million households in the three countries currently pay for a subscription video streaming service, compared with over 50% in the Nordic region, and most households already have high speed fixed and mobile broadband connections that are being upgraded further. This, combined with NENT Group’s proven ability to scale in a fast and cost-efficient way, makes each of the three markets ideal for the launch of Viaplay’s unique and easy to use streaming offering.

The content offering will include NENT Group’s fast-growing portfolio of successful Viaplay original series, of which a further 30 are being premiered this year. New local originals for the Baltic markets will be developed by NENT Studios and with third-party production companies. The offering will also include international movies, series and kids content, as well as a live sports package that will initially be built around motor racing, football and ice hockey and include multi-year rights to Formula One motor racing, Bundesliga German football and NHL ice hockey. Further details about the full Viaplay Baltic content offerings, package prices and launch dates will follow closer to launch.

The Viaplay technology platform is agile and scalable, and NENT Group’s more than 300 in-house developers deliver high quality performance, functionality and content discovery. Users can simultaneously stream on multiple devices, watch movies and series in offline mode, and create multiple personal profiles. In addition, Viaplay provides electronic sell-through (EST) and transaction video on-demand (TVOD) services.

Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO: “Expanding Viaplay to the Baltic countries is a natural next step. These markets are close to home, relatively under-penetrated, growing fast, and we will have a truly unique content offering that addresses all three markets together. We have built Viaplay into the number one Nordic streaming service and have recently expanded successfully to Iceland. We see huge potential in the Baltics for our unique combination of high-quality Viaplay originals, award-winning films and series, premium kids’ content and world-class live sports. Our highly agile operating model and cutting-edge technology are built to scale effectively and efficiently. We have already secured key content rights for the markets at very competitive prices, and look forward to bringing our great value for money storytelling experiences to viewers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania early next year.”