Bonnier’s TV4 Group takes full control of C More

Casten Almqvist

Bonnier, the parent company of TV4 Group, has taken full control of Nordic pay TV company C More after buying the 35% of the business it didn’t previously own.

Bonnier bought the outstanding stake from Telenor, with the change of ownership effective from today.

“By taking over as sole owner, we are now creating full freedom of action for our work of identifying the best possible structure and direction for C More going forward, and for coming up with an optimal way of exploiting and developing C More’s very strong rights portfolio to best effect,” said C More chairman and head of business area broadcasting at Bonnier Casten Almqvist.

Tasked with leading C More’s new direction is Manfred Aronsson, who was appointed as C More’s new CEO last week, having previously worked as CEO at MTG Sweden and Kanal 5. He starts effective August 18, succeeding Johan Kleberg.

Bonnier first acquired C More through its TV4 Group Nordic broadcaster arm in 2008 and Telenor has held its 35% share of the company since 2009.

C More claims to be the Nordic region’s leading provider of premium pay TV services, with a rights portfolio that includes sports, film and TV series.

The news comes a day after SBS Discovery acquired the option to buy Canal 8 and Canal 9 from C More – something that C More’s current CEO Kleberg said was a “strong long-term solution for this part of the C More Danish business.”

The agreement also means that SBS Discovery is taking over TV ad sales on the two channels from August 1.

Canal 9 was launched in 2009 and Canal 8 in 2012 and both skew towards a male audience with Canal 9 airing Danish top-flight football and Canal 8 showing Serie A Italian football.