Telia reportedly in talks on sale of TV division

Source: Telia

Nordic telco Telia Company is reportedly in talks to sell its TV division.

According to Affärsvärlden, the telecom operator has held talks with Egmont, Schibsted and Bonnier – the latter the company that sold TV4 Group to Telia in the first place – to offload the division.

Bonnier sold TV4 Group – now Telia’s TV arm – to the operator in 2019 for close to SEK10 billion (US$960 million).

According to the news site, Telia is now seeking to sell the operation for about half that amount – SEK5 billion – with the possibility that it could potentially sell for as little as SEK3-4 billion.

Telia has so far declined to comment on the report. The telco last year embarked on a restructure of its TV business amid declining revenues and a difficult market environment.

The news comes as Telia reports that it will book non-cash impairments of SEK4.1 billion, including goodwill of SEK2.8 billion related to Finland and goodwill of SEK0.9 billion related to TV and media. it said the impairments follow from changes to investment plans, market conditions and the regulatory environment.

Restructuring plan

Reporting its Q3 numbers in October, the group’s CEO Alison Kirkby, who is due to leave the company at the end of this month to take the reins as BT’s first female chief executive, said that the restructuring was going according to plan.

While the overall group returned to revenue and earnings growth in the third quarter.

Media revenue was down 8.3% on a like-for-like basis to SEK1.78 billion (US$162 million), while adjusted EBITDA was down 45.8% to SEK127 million.

Kirkby said at the time that TV and media “continues to experience a tough advertising market whilst in the midst of a major business transition” that has seen the launch of the new TV4 Play service and the gradual phasing out of the C More pay TV brand.

She said the company was “executing on the merger of the C More services into TV4 and MTV, the launch of the new hybrid service from TV4, and the closing of the C More brand”.

The CEO also said that the group was changing its approach to premium sports by only pursuing rights with local resonance, and was seeking to reduce costs at TV4 in Sweden and MTV in Finland.