GPToday.net previously reported that ViaPlay trumped all other competition in the battle for F1 TV rights in the Netherlands. The official announcement that ViaPlay the The Formula 1 channel will remain in the Netherlands until 2029. According to insider sources of the website total.tv this has to do with bank guarantees that ViaPlay must provide. The streaming service still has a few weeks to fix this, it can be read. If that doesn’t work, Ziggo may still emerge as the winner in the battle for TV rights.
ViaPlay was still struggling with financial problems at the end of 2023 and the share fell to a low of 50 cents, which was previously worth 25 euros. The listed company came up with a new share plan in the hope of raising 350 million euros, but investors were not happy with this capital injection. Still, issuing new shares and converting debt into shares left ViaPlay gasping for air. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Swedes suffered a loss of 60 million euros. Rumors that ViaPlay would be pulled from the Formula 1 project in the Netherlands grew.
Yet the FOM – the rights holder of the premier class – continued to have confidence in the ailing ViaPlay. Probably the result of the newly established collaboration with Talpa from John de Mol. This allowed ViaPlay to capitalize on an open channel on Dutch TV. The top F1 executives were very pleased with this and even turned down a higher bid from Ziggo, according to De Telegraaf and NOS. ViaPlay hopes to receive more advertising revenue with this positive news and thus raise more money, according to total.tv. ViaPlay cannot yet provide any information about the state of affairs because it is a listed company.
Despite the revival of ViaPlay, Dutch people still have reservations about taking out a new subscription. The first quarter of 2024 showed that the number of subscribers fell by almost a fifth in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year. The company has managed to significantly reduce its debt of five billion kroner. According to De Telegraaf, this now stands at more than 500 million kroner.
