Heavyweight European broadcaster Viaplay is set to sell its operations in the Netherlands to Belgium's DPG Media for €142 million.
The transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals and consent, and is expected to close in the coming months.
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Specifically, Viaplay in the Netherlands will be sold off to DPG Media's Videoland (which already acquired RTL Nederlands in 2025).
This comes as Viaplay continues its strategy of stripping back its presence in non-core markets and instead focusing on the Nordic countries from where it first emerged.
After a bleak financial situation for the broadcaster developed in 2023 and early 2024, to a large extent caused by unsustainable international expansion, its businesses in markets such as the US, UK, and the Baltics have all been sold off.
From a sports rights point of view, Viaplay has been covering top-tier properties such as English soccer's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, motor racing's Formula 1, and PDC darts action in the Netherlands.
The F1 tie-up runs through 2029, while Viaplay's deal with the Premier League stretches through the 2027-28 campaign – illustrating the long-term nature of the service's sports rights agreements in the Netherlands when originally struck.
Jorgen Madsen Lindemann, president and chief executive at Viaplay Group, commented: "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.
"The proceeds of the sale will enable us to accelerate the deleveraging and strengthening of the group's financial profile."
Viaplay's Dutch operations generated €149 million of revenue last year.
In terms of recent Viaplay activity across the aforementioned core markets, late May saw the broadcaster extend its rights deal in the Nordics covering North American ice hockey's NHL, through the 2030-31 season.
