By Björn Jeffery, SvD Tech Brief. Published in Svenska Dagbladet on 25 February 2025.
After the catastrophic Viaplay deal, media group Schibsted is getting its revenge. It is buying TV4 from Telia for 6.55 billion kronor. Schibsted Media’s transformation can now begin in earnest.
It has been Swedish media’s worst-kept secret.
Just over a year ago, Schibsted Media’s CEO Siv Juvik Tveitnes said the following to Dagens Media:
“If we are going to remain relevant — especially among younger users — we need to broaden out and invest more in both sport and entertainment.”
Breadth. Sport. Entertainment. In other contexts she mentioned moving images and geographical expansion to Finland. Given the shape of the Nordic media market, it was virtually impossible to achieve this vision without buying TV4 and Finnish MTV.
The negotiations were most likely primarily about what price Telia could accept. 6.55 billion kronor was the midpoint at which Telia CEO Patrik Hofbauer could justify refocusing the company on communications services once again.
Six years ago, Telia bought what was then Bonnier Broadcasting — TV4 and MTV — for around 10 billion kronor. That deal was two CEOs ago — an eternity in these contexts. Johan Dennelind signed the agreement and Alison Kirkby inherited it when she took over. It was clear even then that she was not convinced Telia should be in the content business — she had separated the two sides at her previous telecoms job. Now Hofbauer — who inherited the Schibsted negotiations when he took over a year ago — can finally close the TV chapter and move on.
For Telia’s part, the deal is fairly undramatic. The share price barely moved on the announcement. For Schibsted, it is a minor revolution — albeit a widely anticipated one, as noted.
Schibsted is a Norwegian media group that primarily operates newspapers, including Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet in Sweden and titles such as Aftenposten and VG in Norway. Unlike virtually every other media company in the world, however, it became most known for the business that had nothing to do with media. By building successful marketplaces such as Blocket and Finn, the group became unevenly balanced: the marketplaces provided growth and at times high profitability; the media operations often provided the opposite. Schibsted — then listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange — had a difficult job explaining to the market why anyone should ever invest money in the media side.
The result was a split. The international marketplaces were spun off, and Schibsted subsequently sold a stake in them in a major transaction worth 24 billion Norwegian kronor. The Nordic marketplaces remained listed, while the major shareholder the Tinius Foundation bought the media side out from the exchange. That is where we are now.
Seen from this perspective, today’s TV4 deal is entirely logical. Is it the best financial investment available in corporate Sweden today? No. But the situation does not leave many openings. The owner is a foundation whose mandate is to run media operations. They want to stay within the Nordics. How many other major deals are there to be done? Essentially none.
The commercial media market in the Nordics consists of essentially a handful of players — Bonnier, Egmont, Aller, Sanoma, and Schibsted — and as a result very few companies change hands. Schibsted already tried to buy Viaplay once, last year, in a deal that ended with losing around 380 million kronor. If you want to grow significantly as a media owner in the Nordics, the alternatives are very limited.
The Tinius Foundation has now broadened its media ownership beyond newspapers. A different type of media company is beginning to take shape. Tinius has also opened its wallet significantly to enter the game. But to stay in it, they will in all likelihood need to do so again.
The challenge is that while the competing media owners are Nordic, the competition for advertising and viewers is very much global. A Schibsted-owned TV4 faces not only Bonnier but also players such as Netflix, Disney+ and Max. Viaplay has new owners who — despite their crashed share price — keep pressing on. How a local player meets these global tech giants is something nobody has really figured out yet.
Disclosure: Schibsted Media today owns Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, Omni and Podme in Sweden.
