Owner of URHO-TV looks for substantial partners

Peter Ekelund tackles hard in Finnish pay-TV business

Peter Ekelund

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Welcome to the city, Peter Ekelund!
      Ekelund is a 55-year-old Swedish businessman from Malmö who loves ice hockey, especially Finnish ice hockey. He still has faith in the pulling power of Finnish ice hockey.
      ”Kimi Räikkönens come and go, but ice hockey is here to stay”, claims Ekelund, the Swedish principal owner and chairman of the board of Parsifal Sport Ltd, the company behind URHO-TV.
      URHO-TV, a new arrival to the field of pay-TV channels, acquired the SM-Liiga screening rights in May, after the Finnish Competition Authority had decided that C More Entertainment - a company behind the Canal+ pay-TV operator - would have to give up its TV rights to the Finnish national ice hockey league.
     
The new TV channel was launched in September, and to this point it has already gained 100,000 subscribers.
      However, more will be needed before the new channel begins to be profitable. Ekelund estimates that it could happen already next year.
      In addition to the SM-Liiga screening rights, URHO-TV has signed contracts for the screening rights to football, basketball, and volleyball league games. The aim is to acquire yet another couple of additions to the new channel’s sports programmes.
     
Today the annual number of transmissions on the channel is 100, but next year URHO-TV intends to increase the number to 1,000.
      In the future, URHO-TV plans to be more than just a television channel.
      Its actual aim is to be ”a strong Finnish sports service” that would also be distributed over the Internet and to mobile phones.
     
Ekelund is not the first Swede in the Finnish pay-TV market, as the Swedish pay-TV operator Boxer has acquired a majority stake in the leading Finnish pay DTT operator PlusTV, which offers a number of commercial channels for a subscription.
      Why are Swedish operators rushing after Finnish pay-TV businesses? Because they are seeing potential prospects for growth.
      Ekelund points out that the current number of pay-TV subscribers among Swedish households is 60 %, while the corresponding figure in Finland is less than 30 %.
     
From the Finnish perspective, Ekelund has many qualifications.
      The name URHO-TV is not just a joke. The former Finnish President Urho Kekkonen used to be a good friend of Ekelund’s grandfather. As a little boy, Ekelund and his grandfather met Kekkonen twice in Stockholm, Ekelund recalls.
      Following graduation from the Stockholm School of Economics, Ekelund started his business career by launching the Swedish Absolut Vodka in the world market.
      Before moving back to Sweden and becoming a capital investor in 2000, Ekelund worked in executive positions in a number of pay television companies, being involved in the introduction of digital TV and international acquisitions in Europe.
     
The only thing that is bothering Ekelund in Finland is the authorities.
      He regards the Finnish frequency system as protectionist, claiming that the frequencies are not exploited in an efficient way.
      Moreover, Ekelund cannot understand why Digita, an international company, has been given a monopoly in the management of the Finnish antenna network.
      ”Finnish antenna transmissions are twice as expensive as those in Sweden”, he snaps.
     
At present, Ekelund is building his own team in Finland. The Managing Director of URHO-TV is Ahti Leväaho, and the channel is to employ a dozen or so people.
      Ekelund would also like to find one or two partners.
      ”There is no financial need, but it would be important to add some prominent Finnish sports names to our management team”, Ekelund says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Owner Peter Ekelund has faith in URHO-TV (23.6.2009)
  SM-Liiga ice hockey games to be shown by cable networks after all (11.9.2009)

Links:
  Baker Capital
  URHOtv (Wikipedia, in Finnish)
  Finnish Competition Authority

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