UPDATE 1-Telia core profit beats forecasts on telecom growth; TV lags

(Adds telecom revenue details in 3rd and 4th paragraph, TV business problems in 5th and 6th paragraph, CEO comments on 7th and 8th paragraph)

STOCKHOLM, July 20 (Reuters) - Telecom operator Telia on Thursday reported second-quarter core earnings above market expectations, helped by cost cuts and growth in its telecom business in the Nordic markets.

Quarterly adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) rose to 7.77 billion Swedish crowns ($759 million) from 7.68 billion a year earlier, while analysts had expected 7.63 billion crowns, according to Refinitiv estimates.

Quarterly revenue rose 4.5% to 23.3 billion crowns, helped by growth from its telecom business.

Telia has been upgrading its network to 5G and currently covers about 84% of the population in Sweden, Norway and Lithuania.

Telia's TV and Media business was hit by weak advertising revenue, content commitments made in earlier years, and costs related to the upcoming launch of the new hybrid TV4 Play service.

It plans to discontinue its unprofitable streaming service C More.

"Our plan is that C More will transition into TV4 Play, and it will then be able to offer more targeted inventory to advertisers because we will have more content for viewers to watch on digital platforms," CEO Allison Kirkby said in an interview.

She expects to see some result from next year, and grow digital advertising double digits in the coming years.

($1 = 10.2329 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; editing by Niklas Pollard and David Evans)