TV Vest Drives 50% Digital Viewership Growth and Captures Younger Audiences with Vimond Essentials

Local broadcaster TV Vest faced the challenge of evolving from linear TV to a modern on-demand experience. The station needed a solution that would attract younger viewers and simplify operations, ensuring the advertiser's confidence and digital growth.

TV Vest leverages a modern, intuitive streaming platform to future-proof its operations and buck linear TV viewing trends.

The Challenge: Future-Proofing Local News with Limited Resources

TV Vest, a beloved local broadcaster covering the Rogaland region of Norway (including Stavanger and Sandnes), faced a familiar challenge: how to maintain relevance and grow its audience in a media landscape dominated by global streaming giants and social media.

With a small, dedicated team of just eight people (including a core editorial team of three), TV Vest needed a platform that could:

• Go Beyond Linear TV: Offer a modern, on-demand, and live-streaming experience to capture audiences moving away from traditional broadcasting.
• Attract Younger Viewers: Create a space for "binge-worthy" content, such as local series, which has been proven to attract a crucial younger demographic.
• Simplify Operations: Offer professional-grade tools for content management, publishing, and distribution, eliminating the need for a large, dedicated technical team.
• Ensure Financial Viability: Offer a branded, attractive platform to assure advertisers, upon whom TV Vest is entirely dependent, as they receive no press subsidies, that they are reaching a growing, engaged audience.

The Solution: A Powerful, Intuitive Platform

TV Vest selected Vimond Essentials to power its new online streaming service, available at tvvest.no, as well as its dedicated app on Apple TV.

Images courtesy of TV Vest. Source: Facebook: TV Vest Rogaland

Vimond Essentials provided TV Vest with a comprehensive, cloud-based video solution that addressed every pain point:

• Seamless Delivery: Enabled the combination of live news, event coverage, and a growing library of on-demand content (including local documentary-style series) into one seamless, responsive experience across all major devices.
• Intuitive Monetisation: Integrated a simple and intuitive subscription flow, accepting popular Norwegian payment methods like Vipps alongside standard credit cards.
• Operational Efficiency: The platform's intuitive tools allow the small team to efficiently manage, publish, and distribute content, ensuring they remain fully in control of their brand and platform experience.
• Audience Accessibility: The solution supported complete branding and mobile responsiveness, enabling TV Vest to reach local audiences wherever they are.

The Results: Viewership Growth Against the Trend

Since launching on Vimond Essentials, TV Vest has achieved remarkable success, directly contradicting broader trends in linear TV viewing:

• 50% Digital Growth: TV Vest has doubled its digital viewership. 
• Younger Demographic Captured: TV Vest has seen its most significant growth among young viewers, growing this segment from 8% to 12%. A success attributed to the platform's ability to host binge-able local series (like Bjerga Høyfjellshotell) that are easily accessible via the web portal and Apple TV app.
• 20% Total Audience Growth: The station has seen a significant growth in its unique viewers across TV and digital platforms. T
• Advertiser Confidence Boost: The documented viewership success provides "a solid confirmation" to advertisers and the marketing team, proving that TV Vest remains an attractive and growing platform for reaching the local market.

Steffen Fuglerud, EVP of Marketing and Sales at Vimond, adds:

"With Vimond Essentials, TV Vest gains a professional, cloud-based streaming platform that's powerful and easy to operate. It enables their small team to manage live and on-demand content efficiently, deliver a seamless viewing experience across devices, and maintain full control over their brand. Their success in driving a 20% viewership increase, especially among young people, is a testament to the power of combining great local content with a future-ready distribution platform."

Key Takeaways for TV Vest

About TV Vest 

TV Vest is Norway's largest commercial local TV channel, headquartered in Stavanger and covering the Southern Rogaland region. TV Vest has nearly 30 years of experience and has over 50,000 weekly viewers.

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