This is a lightly edited version of a case study that originally appeared on our Innovate Local website.
By Niklas Jonason
This strategy not only retains existing subscribers but also attracts younger audiences, with sports viewers exhibiting higher loyalty compared to typical customers.
Collaboration has been a cornerstone of Bonnier’s success with streaming sports. By partnering with competitors, Bonnier has extended its reach across Sweden, enabling joint investments in sports rights and greater content distribution.
Their integrated approach, combining pre- and post-game coverage with engaging live streams, has enhanced the viewing experience while boosting local journalism. Other important partners have been sport agents, local teams and the central league organisations.
Looking ahead, Bonnier aims to maintain a balance between high-profile and lower-division leagues, emphasising its commitment to community relevance.
By embracing technological innovation and a holistic strategy, Bonnier News not only strengthens its market position but also exemplifies how local journalism can thrive in the digital age.
Their success story may set a benchmark for local media worldwide, showing the power of tailored, community-focused content.
Reaching 1.7 million subscribers a day
Bonnier News is one of the largest media companies in the Nordic region, managing over 200 brands that span a number of national and at least 50 local news outlets.
Based in Sweden, the company reaches approximately 1.7 million subscribers daily, delivering high-quality journalism across diverse platforms.
Bonnier News combines strong local news coverage with popular national titles like Expressen, creating a comprehensive media ecosystem. As a publisher the group has a strong tradition of a free press, defending diversity and protecting freedom of speech.
Why streaming sports?
In selecting this case for the Innovate Local program, we had three main reasons.
- Live local sports means very attractive content. It’s excellent content for building loyalty. “Sport audiences are even more loyal than the normal customers” our speaker claims and continues to emphasise that local sports touch hearts and get new, especially younger, subscribers. He believes it is a major piece of the puzzle for local newspapers to succeed in the future.
- Streaming elite sports to your audience means costs such as sport rights and production costs, so to provide it the media company needs scale. Bonnier News is the largest media company in Sweden with both national popular news brands as well as strong legacy local news brands.
- The scale of both national and local is important as we will see. To establish a loyal audience you need experience. The presenter of this case, Mattias Wallström, started as a journalist covering sports at a local newspaper when he was 14 years old and now has more than 20 years of experience, including being a sports reporter and sports editor at the national brand Expressen. With this experience Wallström can offer his organisation the consistency and patience needed for being successful. He says “now it is more about business and TV rights, but still about sports.”
Fireside quality content: connecting locals
Wallström describes local sports as “fireside quality content”—events that bring people together in real time and spark conversations long afterward. From cheering on a team to chatting about highlights around the coffee machine at work, these events build a deep emotional connection.
For Bonnier News, this emotional tie has been a cornerstone in driving subscriber loyalty.
“People’s love for their local teams runs deep,” Wallström said during the webinar. “In some cases, it’s even more important than family ties!”
Bonnier News has capitalised on this passion by focusing on sports that may not grab national headlines but resonate deeply within local communities. From second-tier football leagues to smaller sports like floorball and basketball, the company ensures it reaches audiences at all levels of the sporting pyramid.
Collaboration for scale
A key part of Bonnier News’ success is its collaborative approach. In partnership with regional colleagues and competitors, it has created a network of 50 local news brands that provide access to sports coverage across almost all of Sweden.
Combining forces, has allowed the company to pool resources, bid for broadcasting rights, and deliver content across both local brands and Expressen, its popular national news brand. Wallström said: “In the end we want to cover the whole country with sport rights, However right now it’s us and two other local news media groups”
He emphasised that collaborations extends beyond just broadcasting. By working closely with leagues and clubs, Bonnier News supports efforts to improve scheduling, enhance visibility, and grow interest in the sports it streams.
“Sometimes we meet daily with leagues to plan and strategise,” he explained. “Our goal is always to enhance the experience for viewers while ensuring the leagues thrive.”
From trials to triumph
Bonnier News’ live sports journey began 11 years ago, with modest ambitions and a willingness to experiment. Early mistakes, such as investing in content without full integration into its subscriber base, provided valuable lessons.
Seven years ago, the game changed when a local newspaper broadcast a European football match involving a team from Östersund. The success of this broadcast showed that even small local brands could deliver on large-scale events.
Now, with its content fully integrated into Bonnier News’ subscription model, the company offers sports as part of a broader “+Allt” (“+All”) package, giving subscribers access to local games, national news, and lifestyle journalism.
At just 249 SEK (€ 22) per month, this package has been a hit, helping the company attract new subscribers and deepen engagement with existing ones.
“The consumer perception of our pricing is actually that we are quite inexpensive if you compare to the other TV streamers available in the country. So after struggling for a few years as a small local only news company that tried to offer some games, we are now one of the strong players in the market,” Wallström said.
Scaling content and impact
Today, Bonnier News streams over 5,000 matches annually, including games from second-division leagues and local tournaments. The company boasts nearly 300,000 unique viewers and 5 million video starts over the past 12 months, with some events drawing thousands of viewers, while others attract smaller, devoted audiences down to 100 viewers. The average is around 7,000 unique viewers per game and month.
To make its operations scalable and cost-effective, Bonnier News had to invest in technology and platforms. Just getting over to one platform took some time.
“First, we had one streaming platform for the national brand. It was not connected to the rest of the groups titles which was a great challenge as we had to synchronise data and connection of all the 1 million subscribers. Today we finally have connected live sports to all titles in the group,” Wallström said.
“Right now in our portfolio, we have a lot of top leagues. We have bandy, the biggest sport here. And we have basketball and floorball in the top leagues and we have the second league in the women’s football league.
“In addition we have a lot of local games, around 800 games from division 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and keep counting. Even a division 7 football game can be a big event for a small local newspaper,” Wallström said, underscoring the importance of tailoring content to audience needs.
“For most of the lower divisions we have exclusive rights in addition to our both exclusive and, in some cases, shared rights for elite sports. In many cases we work together with agents and show elite sport games on our own platform as well as on a partner platform. We have grown very quickly. We are now ready to go for more leagues. Up to now we didn’t go for the highest league, the most expensive. We have rather focused on the second one,” Wallström said.
Thanks to advancements in AI technology, automated cameras have been deployed to reduce production costs for indoor sports like basketball and floorball.
While outdoor sports present challenges due to weather, Wallström is optimistic about the potential for AI to transform the industry further.
To the slide above Wallström noted: “Every time I talk about our company and our journey, when we are trying to get a new TV right, we always show this slide. To get successful in this tough area you need to be unique. And we are not like the other streamers (who just have a tv-channel brand).”
Wallström has strong arguments for rights holders to work with his company: “One is that we have one of the Swedish largest pools of sports journalists, over 100, if you put them all together. We have strong brands that are very trustworthy. This works well when we combine the national reach with the local reach.
On the inside of the local media company sports rights also means advantages:
- “With this type of unique content, you can reach new audiences. We get younger viewers, especially with floorball and basketball. “
- “We see that the people come back and watch games every week or every month. They are more loyal than usual subscribers because they come back to see new and old games and read articles. Some of them never leave us”.
- “A very important thing is that the usual visitors just stay a few minutes on the mobile site. However if you sit down and watch a whole game, you can stay for an hour or two or even three hours. And then you start discovering. They read articles during the breaks. And those articles are relevant because they are about local stuff.”
Building a holistic experience
For Bonnier News, the success of live sports streaming isn’t just about the games themselves—it’s about the entire experience. From pre-game marketing and match-day coverage to post-game highlights and analysis, the company ensures fans remain engaged at every stage.
“We can do it all the way from before the game, during the game and after the game. And it’s straight into the local heart. So if you come full circle, you will have success,” Wallström said.
Wallström is honest about the challenges.
“Sometimes we can fix this, sometimes it’s more tough. We have to create interest when writing about the local teams and at the stadium. You have to associate with our local brand. It is about marketing, Then during the game, you have a good presentation on your website. Then you have clips on social media. And after the game, you have the highlights and more articles. If we get this spinning, then you will have a lot more viewers.”
In addition, he offered some advice with a few tips, for those who want to try this:
“I think courage is a big one and, with that, trial and error. If you have technical problems, and Wallström mentioned their own experience during an early football game which had bad sound because of a heavy snow fall. Just try again next time and be prepared. You need the courage to do it over and over again.”
“Don’t think that the biggest sport and the highest league is the best one to achieve success. It’s not always like that. A niche sport or a lower league sport can be more successful for a local news brand.”
“Don’t forget that you will have the best local content you can dream of, with clips from the goals and from the crowd celebrating e.t.c. And it’s content that works great on social media, to market the games, as well as for marketing the local news brand.”
“It is important,” and Wallström admitted he has struggled a bit with this, “to get everybody on board; journalists, the marketing people, and all other departments to believe in this so to get the full effect. It has to work widely within the organisation to create something more than a standalone streaming product.”
“And last but not least! If you have a local game, even in lower divisions, do the marketing of the game in the same way as a classical game between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Don’t apologise for the lower division. Be proud of the game and use it. It will be a great game for the locals,” he said.
This integrated approach has not only driven viewership but also positioned Bonnier News as a trusted partner for leagues and clubs. Additionally, it has boosted subscriber loyalty, with sports viewers showing higher retention rates than average subscribers.
“Sports is a gateway,” Wallström explained. “It’s not just about watching the game. People read articles during halftime, explore other content, and stay engaged beyond the matches.”
A future for local media rooted in streaming sports
As Bonnier News looks ahead, it is focused on finding the right balance between covering higher-profile leagues and continuing to support smaller, local sports. By emphasising its connection to local communities and leveraging the latest technology, the company aims to solidify its position as a leader in live sports streaming.
This quote is from a smaller local news brand. Wallström said: “He tries to live stream every sport in his area. It’s an excellent example of that you don’t have to have a team in the highest league or even the second league. This very local news brand streams games with teams in the league five to six and also marginal niche sports, and they make a good business out of it, thanks to loyal subscribers.
One of the last slides in his presentation shows this unique nordic sport; “Folkrace” (or “Peoples race”). For Bonnier News local titles it’s one of the the sports with the most viewers. See video below:
Useful links and contact information
The webinar presentation can be downloaded here.
-
Link to Bonnier News
-
Bonnier News also runs special Verticals for some popular sports. These sites also offers subscriptions.
- Here is the site for bandy
- …and here is the web site for “Folkrace”
If you have questions or examples of similar cases, please contact our WAN-IFRA Innovate Local team:
Cecilia Campbell: c.campbell@wan-ifra.org
Niklas Jonason: n.jonason@wan-ifra.org
The post Driving loyalty through streaming live local elite sports at Bonnier News appeared first on WAN-IFRA.