July 3 – Viaplay is heading home. The European broadcaster is selling its Netherlands operation to Belgium’s DPG Media for €142 million, the latest step in a long, deliberate retreat back to its Nordic roots.

The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, should close in the coming months. Viaplay’s Dutch business go to DPG’sVideoland arm, which already scooped up RTL Nederlands in 2025.

Viaplay overstretched, an aggressive international push that turned bleak, fast, through 2023 and into 2024. Since then, it’s been a clear-out with the broadcaster exiting the US, the UK, and the Baltics.

Viaplay has carried the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Formula 1, and PDC darts in the Dutch market. The F1 deal runs to 2029; the Premier League agreement stretches through the 2027/28 season.

Jorgen Madsen Lindemann, Viaplay Group’s president and chief executive, was straight about the thinking.

“The sale is in line with our strategic transformation and the priority to focus on the group’s operations in our core Nordic markets, where we have the greatest scale and synergies,” he said. “The proceeds of the sale will enable us to accelerate the deleveraging and strengthening of the group’s financial profile.”

The Dutch operation generated €149 million of revenue last year, no small thing to let go. But this is a business that has learned the hard way where its strength lies. In late May, Viaplay extended its Nordic NHL rights through the 2030/31 season.

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