Nordic Entertainment extends deal with Com Hem

Sweden-based free and pay TV company Nordic Entertainment (NENT) and Tele2-owned cable operator Com Hem have extended their distribution agreement.

The deal makes NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service and Viasat pay TV channels available to a wider range of Com Hem and Boxer customers.From this month, access to Viaplay’s film and series package will be included for customers of Com Hem’s highest tier pay TV offering, TV Guld.

NENT’s Swedish TV channels TV3, TV6, TV8 and TV10 will continue to be available to Com Hem and Boxer customers.

Kim Poder

All Viasat’s premium film channels and the on-demand Viasat film library will be available to top-tier subscribers of Com Hem and, later in the year, to Com Hem’s digital-terrestrial unit Boxer.

The Viasat Sport channel and the newly launched Viasat Sport Extra channel will be added to Com Hem and Boxer’s mid- and top-tier packages this year. Customers can also continue to subscribe separately to the full range of Viasat sports channels and to the Viaplay sports package.

In February, NENT Group secured additional digital terrestrial television licences in Sweden, which will enable the company to offer a broader range of its TV channels to DTT households.

Kim Poder, NENT Group chief commercial officer, said: “Our partnership with Com Hem ensures that world-class content is only a click away for millions of viewers. Viaplay will now go directly into Com Hem’s top-tier TV package while our Viasat channels will be available to more people than ever before. We share Com Hem’s ambition to offer great entertainment experiences and we are happy to broaden our agreement. This extension to our long-term deal is the latest example of how NENT Group works with partners to reach as many homes as possible, and reflects the breadth and relevance of our content.”

Samuel Skott, EVP and chief commercial officer at Com Hem, said: “It’s great that we can continue to develop a successful partnership with NENT Group as it gives our customers access to fantastic content. At Com Hem, our main focus is to offer a wide range of entertainment, and I am therefore proud to present an extended offering of NENT Group’s strong content.”

Com Hem is betting heavily on streaming, recently launching its own SVOD service, Comhem Play+, to compete with the crowded field of existing Swedish and international streaming players active in the market.

The company has been engaged in a bitter dispute with Tele2-owned TV4 over streaming rights that saw TV4 channels disappear from the Com Hem line-up last year.

In February, Com Hem notified the European Commission’s ‘monitoring trustee’, mandated to monitor Telia’s compliance with EC conditions for its approval of Bonnier Broadcasting, that it believes Telia is restricting competition in the market by bundling more streaming rights in the auction than the EC intended.