In Sweden the subscriber-base averaged 336,200 users during the third quarter of 2018, on average 2,800 fewer subscribers than expected, yet still a robust increase over the second quarter this year. Swedish streaming revenue totaled approximately 136 MSEK during Q3, 2018, above expectations by one million SEK and put Storytel Sweden’s yearly turnover at more than 500 million SEK (rolling 12 months).

Storytel CEO Jonas Tellander says, “Based on this week’s decision from the EU, we expect the value-added tax rate on our service to be lowered from 25% to 6%, which will allow a more attractive offer to customers. By the end of the year we’ll also be announcing Storytel’s family solution, with user experiences for the whole family.”

The international subscriber-base during the third quarter of 2018 totaled 384,700, slightly lower than previously presented forecast, yet still an increase of approximately 78,200 paying subscribers compared to Q2, 2018. International streaming revenue totaled approximately 144 MSEK during the third quarter of 2018, which was 3.5 MSEK higher than the forecast. This growth was mainly thanks to strong summer performances in higher-priced markets, as well as favorable currency exchange-rates.

“Our international expansion is clearly succeeding, and is becoming an increasingly important part of our growth curve. One of our goals for the year was to increase our international streaming revenues to over 50% of total streaming revenues. We reached this goal in the third quarter –– slightly more than 51% of our total streaming revenues come from markets outside of Sweden, as compared to 43% during the third quarter of 2017,” says CEO Jonas Tellander.

Key numbers for  Streaming and Print Publishing

1. Contribution Profit is defined as streaming revenue minus costs for content (licensed content and in-house productions) and marketing. Storytel Reader is not included in Streaming.

2. ARPU = Average Revenue Per User (Subscriber) per month

3. Storytel Norway included in figures @ 100%. In the consolidated group accounts Norway is reported according to the principle of proportional consolidation.

For more information, please contact:

Jonas Tellander, CEO: +46 70 261 61 36

About Storytel

The Storytel group consists of two divisions, Streaming and Publishing. The Streaming division currently offers a subscription service for audio books and e-books under the brand names Storytel and Mofibo in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, India, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Italy. The Streaming division also publishes audio books and Storytel Originals, mainly through the audio-book publisher Storyside. The Publishing division consists of the publishers Norstedts, Massolit, Printz Publishing, the Danish People’s Press, Storytel Publishing, Rabén & Sjögren and B. Wahlströms, as well as Norstedts Kartor.