Job losses to follow MTG’s Swedish restructure

The Modern Times Group is restructuring its Swedish free TV operations with staff at the four-channel division facing the prospect of redundancy.

MTG’s free TV operations in Sweden comprise the TV3, TV6, TV8 and TV10 broadcast channels and their associated catch-up services.

There are about 150 staff at the Swedish free TV division, and TBI understands that the possible job losses stretch across all levels of management.

Stockholm-listed MTG told staff this morning about the pending reorganisation and that a number of jobs will be lost. Further details about the number of posts being made redundant and the new structure of the Swedish operation will be made available soon, the company said.

“MTG TV has in recent months made a thorough examination of the company’s organisation, in order to make it more competitive and give it the right focus for the future,” Anders Jensen, CEO of MTG TV Sweden and head of MTG’s free-TV operations in Scandinavia (pictured) said in a statement this morning.

He added: “Making a decision about a notice is one of the hardest things to do as a manager, but we do this to create the right conditions for the future. The media industry is in a period of great change. We must adapt to it, and build an organisation that is well equipped and properly adjusted going forward.”

MTG has free and pay TV operations throughout Europe. The company told TBI that the reorganisation is currently limited to the free TV business in Sweden and not part of a wider reorganisation.

In its most recent quarterly results MTG highlighted a decline in the Swedish TV advertising market. Its channels took 31% of commercial Swedish viewing in the quarter, a decline on the 34% recorded in the same period a year earlier.

The company recently launched online gossip and entertainment channels in Sweden as well as in Denmark and Norway.