Sveriges Television

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Sveriges Television (SVT) is a national publicly-funded television broadcaster based in Sweden. The Swedish public broadcasting system is in many respects modelled after the one used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Television shares many traits with its British counterpart, the BBC.

Sveriges Television is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, and funded through a licensing fee, which is allocated by the Swedish Riksdag. It is now separate from, but was initially part of, Sveriges Radio, which is the public radio broadcaster. Its status could be described as that of a quasi-autonomous non-government organisation.

Sveriges Television maintained a monopoly in domestic terrestrial broadcasting from the start in 1956 until the start of the privately held TV 4 in 1990. Until the launch of the Swedish language satellite television channel TV3 in 1987, Sveriges Television provided the only Swedish television available to the public.

1 History
2 Programming
3 Channels
4 Organisation
5 See also
6 External links

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History

Television broadcasting was officially started in Sweden by Radiotjänst ("Radio service") on September 4, 1956. Since 1957 the broadcasts are regular and the company was renamed Sveriges Radio (SR). In 1958, the first newscast, Aktuellt, was broadcast.

During the 1960's a second tv-channel was frequently discussed. The discussions resulted in the start of TV2 December 5, 1969. The first channel was named TV1 and the two channels were supposed to broadcast in stimulating competition within the same company. At the same time a second news programme was started, Rapport.

In 1966, the first color broadcast was made. In 1970, regular color broadcasts were introduced. 1970 also saw the start of the first regional programme, Sydnytt from Malmö. Teletext started in 1978.

At the end of the 70s SR was split into four different companies. One of these was Sveriges Television, SVT, which provided all television broadcasting, except for educational programming which was the responsibility of Sveriges Utbildningsradio. The abbreviation SVT is said to have been chosen since STV was already occupied by Scottish Television in the EBU.

The two channels were re-organized in 1987. TV1 was renamed Kanal 1 and was the channel for Stockholm-made programmes and TV2 showed programmes from the rest of Sweden.

In 1996, the channels were once again reorganized. The previous organisation and competition between the two channels disappeared. Kanal 1 and TV2 were renamed SVT1 and SVT2. The first edition of Expedition: Robinson was shown in 1997.

The first digital terrestrial television-broadcasts took place in 1999. SVT started six new channels, the news channel SVT24 and five regional channels.

2000 saw the reorganisation of the news desks. Aktuellt, Rapport and SVT24 were merged into one central news desk.

In 2001 a new logo and new programme schedules among other things were introduced. This made SVT1 the broader mainstream channel with higher ratings and SVT2 the more narrow channel.

The regional channels were shut down in the beginning of 2002 and was replaced by SVT Extra. In december 2002, Barnkanalen, was started showing children's programmes during day-time. On February 24, 2003 SVT24 and SVT Extra were replaced by 24, a theme channel for news and sports.

Kunskapskanalen started broadcasting knowledge programming in September 2004.

SVT started VODcasting some programs in februari 2006. Alltogether three broadcasters competed to be the first onve to VODcast in Sweden. In the end, all three started in the same week.

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Programming

Melodifestivalen, preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Rapport and Aktuellt (translated "Report" and "Current"), the two main news programmes.
11 regional stations (ABC, Gävledala, Mittnytt, Nordnytt, Smålandsnytt, Sydnytt, Tvärsnytt, Värmlandsnytt, Västerbottensnytt, Västnytt and Östnytt) each broadcast four news shows a day on SVT2.
Survivor - Sveriges Television was the first network to broadcast the reality television series Survivor in 1997. The show was named Expedition Robinson, alluding to Robinson Crusoe and was a major hit in Sweden. The show which consistently held high ratings was concluded after its seventh and final year on the network (the final season aired 2003-2004). The popular series is however to be continued on the commercial channel TV3, but with much lower rating. På spåret and Så ska det låta are the most popular entertainment shows.
Rederiet (1992 - 2002), one of Sweden's most popular soap operas.

SVT also broadcasts foreign programmes, primarily from the US and the UK, in original language with subtitles, as is the case on other Nordic TV channels.

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Channels

Broadcast nationally:

Satellite, Cable and Terrestrial Digital Stations:

24 - News and Information Channel with much sport in the weekends
Barnkanalen - Literally the Children Channel
SVT Europa - European service.
SVT Extra - "Special events" channel
Kunskapskanalen - the Knowledge Channel

24 and Barnkanalen are available on free-to-air digital television in the terrestrial network. SVT Extra, which has no regular schedule, transmits live coverage of special events (chiefly sporting) when available. SVT Europa, a mix of SVT1 and SVT2, is broadcast on satellite, and also as a terrestrial channel in Swedish-speaking areas of Finland. For rights reasons, SVT Europa does not show acquired material, such as movies, sport, or English language programming. The SVT website, svt.se, considered a channel on its own by the company.

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Organisation

Since January 1, 2000, the executive managment of SVT is handled by a CEO and a programme officer (PD), appointed by the board. As of 2006, Christina Jutterström is CEO and Leif Jacobsson is PD.

SVT is divided into eight operative programme producing units. Four of these a located in Stockholm, the other four are located around the country and are based on the ten TV2 districts who were merged in 2000. The regional units are:

SVT Syd (SVT Malmö and SVT Växjö), main production location: Malmö
SVT Väst (SVT Göteborg), main production location: Göteborg
SVT Mellansverige (SVT Falun, Dövas TV Leksand, SVT Karlstad, SVT Örebro and SVT Norrköping), main production location: Norrköping
SVT Nord (formerly SVT Luleå, SVT Umeå and SVT Sundsvall), main production location: Umeå)

The four districts produce several types of programmes for national broadcasting as well as ten of the eleven regional news programmes. Several of the news programmes also have local offices in their region.

The Stockholm-based units are:

SVT Nyheter & Samhälle, taking care of the national news operations as well as society programming, culture and journalistic documentaries made in the capital and regional news programme ABC.
SVT Sport, sports news and broadcasting
SVT Fiktion, handling drama production, entertainment, youth and childrens' programmes etcetera.
SVTi, takes care of svt.se, the Internet archive service "Öppet arkiv", mobile services, "super teletext" and other interactive services.

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