Viaplay

This article is about the streaming service. For the media company that owns it, see Viaplay Group.

Viaplay is a Swedish video streaming service owned by Viaplay Group.^[1]

Viaplay

Type of site	Streaming service
Predecessor(s)	Viasat On Demand
Area served	Denmark Finland Iceland Netherlands Norway Poland Sweden
Owner	Viaplay Group
URL	viaplay.com
Launched	May 2007 (2007-05) (as Viasat On Demand) 2011 (2011) (as Viaplay)

History

A Viaplay reporter interviews Bartosz Jurecki during the 2023 World Men's Handball Championship.

Originally owned by Modern Times Group, it was launched in May 2007 as Viasat On Demand.^[2] It was rebranded as Viaplay in 2011.^[2] Viaplay released its first original fiction title, Swedish Dicks, in 2016.^[3] As of 2021^[update] it was available in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.^[4][5] Capitalizing on the popularity of Nordic noir titles, the service rolled out plans to expand to Ireland, the Netherlands and UK in November 2022, and Austria, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the US by 2023.^[4][5][6][7] Viaplay launched in the United States ahead of the previously planned schedule, initially exclusively to Comcast customers, with the intention to launch a direct-to-consumer platform later.^[8]

As the parent company Viaplay Group holds extensive sports rights in multiple markets, Viaplay provides sports broadcasts in most countries where it operates.

In May 2022, Viaplay announced the organisation had added the National Hockey League and Poland-based MMA promotion KSW to its UK offering.^[9] In July 2022, Viaplay Group acquired U.K.-based pay TV channel operator, Premier Sports, and rebranded it under the Viaplay name by 1 November 2022.^[10][11]

On 20 July 2023, it was announced that Viaplay would lay off 25% of staff while pursuing a new strategy to focus on its core Nordic, Netherlands and Viaplay Select operations.^[12] The new focus means that Viaplay will completely exit from its Baltic markets, and discontinue its low tier non-sports offering in each of its remaining international markets, including the United States and United Kingdom, in order to focus on its sports offering and the sale of non-sports content through its Viaplay Select business.

In 2024, SSBL Ltd bought back Viaplay's operations in the United Kingdom and the service was rebranded back to Premier Sports, its former name until 2022.^[13] Viaplay also left the US, Canada, Baltic, and UK markets in the beginning of 2024 as part of their new strategy.

Launch

Launch rollout timeline

Country/Territory	Launch date	Shutdown date
Denmark	May 2007
Finland
Norway
Sweden
Iceland	1 April 2020[14]
Estonia	28 July 2016 (original)[15] 9 March 2021 (relaunch)[16]	19 September 2018 (original)[17] 22 March 2024 (relaunch)[18][19]
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland	3 August 2021[20]	30 June 2025[18][21]
Netherlands	1 March 2022[22]
United Kingdom	1 November 2022[23]	22 May 2024[a][24][25]
Australia (via SBS On Demand)	2 November 2022[26]
Austria (via Canal+)	26 January 2023[27]
United States	22 February 2023[28]	29 February 2024[b][29]
Canada	7 March 2023[28]	28 February 2024[c][29]
Germany (via Magenta TV and Amazon Prime Video)	19 April 2023[30] 22 October 2024[31]
Switzerland (via Oneplus)	1 September 2023[32]

Footnotes

1. Viaplay Select is still available through third parties in the United Kingdom.
2. Viaplay Select is still available through third parties in the United States.
3. Viaplay Select is still available through third parties in Canada.