Embattled Swedish OTT streaming service operator Viaplay Group has announced the appointment of a new group chief financial officer, as well as pair of new co-chief executives for its Swedish business.
Johan Johansson will serve as the group’s chief financial officer, as well as co-chief executive of its Swedish operations, while Christian Albeck will also serve as his co-chief executive in Sweden.
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Johansson joins Viaplay from growth and investment fund Gilion (formerly known as ARK Capital), where he had served as chief financial officer and deputy chief executive since Marc 2023.
Prior to this, Johansson spent time as chief financial officer of Swedish mobile gaming group and former Viaplay parent company MTG, chief executive of the Swedish arm of global telecoms firm Three, and timepiece manufacturer Daniel Wellington, of which he remains a board member.
Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, Viaplay group president and chief executive, state of Johansson’s arrival: “Johan knows Viaplay Group and our products very well from his previous roles at MTG, and has gathered wide-ranging and highly relevant experience from the leadership positions he has held since leaving MTG. I am looking forward to working with him again as we continue to retransform Viaplay Group into the geographically focused and profitably growing company that it should be.”
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Johansson will join Viaplay by August 1 at the latest, following the announcement of the departure of previous group chief financial officer Enrique Patrickson, who will remain in the role in the interim to oversee the transition period.
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By GlobalDataAlbeck, meanwhile, has a long history of service with Viaplay, having been associated with the company, and MTG before that, for 21 years.
Albeck most recently was appointed as executive vice president (EVP) for content acquisition in July 2023 following an organizational reshuffle, and stepped up as interim chief executive of Swedish operations in January this year.
He will continue as content acquisition EVP for content acquisition, reporting to group chief executive Lindemann, while in the co-chief executive role for the Swedish operations.
Lindemann added: “We have many operational improvements and innovations to make in Sweden and across the Group, and the combination of Christian and Johan’s skills and backgrounds will be vital in the entrepreneurial development of this exciting business in the rapidly evolving entertainment industry.”
The new appointments come amid a period of major upheaval for Viaplay as it divests from a majority of its international markets in favour of focusing closely on Scandinavia.
Aimed at “steadying the ship”, Viaplay sold its UK operation and withdrew from the Baltics, Poland, and North America across the last year, with Lindemann stating amid its financial results release earlier this year: “The exiting of these non-core markets enables us to focus on our core Nordic operations, in markets where we have delivered profitable growth with double-digit margins and strong cash conversion in the past.”
