Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB, shortened to SVT, is the Swedish national public television broadcaster and news website, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag. Prior to 2019, SVT was funded by a television licence fee payable by all owners of television sets. The Swedish public broadcasting system is largely modelled after the system used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Television shares many traits with its British counterpart, the BBC.
SVT is a public limited company that can be described as a "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation." Together with the other two public broadcasters, Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Utbildningsradio, it is owned by an independent foundation, Förvaltningsstiftelsen för Sveriges Radio AB, Sveriges Television AB och Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB. The foundation's board consists of 13 politicians, representing the political parties in the Riksdag and appointed by the Swedish government. The foundation in turn appoints the SVT board members.
SVT's regulatory framework is governed by Swedish law. SVT and Sveriges Radio were originally a joint company, but since 1979 they and Sveriges Utbildningsradio are sibling companies sharing some joint services.
SVT maintained a monopoly in domestic terrestrial broadcasting from its start in 1956 until the privately held TV4 started broadcasting terrestrially in 1992. It is barred from accepting advertisements except in the case of sponsors for sporting events. Until the launch of the Swedish language satellite television channel TV3 in 1987, Sveriges Television provided the only Swedish television available to the public. SVT is still the biggest TV network in Sweden, with an audience share of 36.4 per cent.
History
When radio broadcasting was first organised in the 1920s in Sweden, it was decided to adopt a model similar to that of the British Broadcasting Company in the United Kingdom. Radio would be a monopoly funded by a licence fee and organised as a limited company, AB Radiotjänst, owned by the radio industry and the press. The transmitters were owned by the state through Telegrafverket and the press held a monopoly on newscasts through Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå. AB Radiotjänst was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950.Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå lost its monopoly on newscasts de jure in 1947 and de facto in 1956, but otherwise, the same model would be applied to television.
It was decided to start test transmissions of television in June 1954. The first transmissions were made on 29 October 1954 from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
In 1956 the Riksdag decided that television broadcasting should continue permanently and on 4 September Radiotjänst initiated official transmissions from the new Nacka transmitter. A television licence for those owning a television set was introduced in October of that year.
Regularly scheduled television programming began in 1957. At the same time, Radiotjänst was renamed Sveriges Radio and its ownership was changed. The state and the press would each have 40% shares, while the company itself would own 20%.
In 1958, the first newscast, Aktuellt, was broadcast. During the 1960s the establishment of a second TV channel was frequently discussed. These discussions resulted in the launch of TV2 on 5 December 1969. The original channel became TV1 and it was intended that the two channels would broadcast in "stimulating competition" within the same company.
The first stage of the main headquarters building and TV studios for Sveriges Television called TV-huset, was inaugurated on Oxenstiernsgatan in the Östermalm district in Stockholm on 30 October 1967. The completion of the second stage of TV-huset and its official opening was on 5 December 1969, the same day as the start of operations of TV2, making it one of the largest television studios in Europe at that time.
1970 saw the start of the first regional programme, Sydnytt from Malmö. More regional news programmes were launched in 1972 and the entire country was covered by regional news programmes by 1987 when ABC from Stockholm began.
When TV2 started the news programmes were reorganised. Aktuellt was replaced by TV-nytt, which was responsible for the main 19.30 bulletin on TV1 as well as news updates on both channels. In addition, the two channels would get one "commentary bulletin" each. TV2's was entitled Rapport and TV1's was Nu.
In 1972, the news was reorganised once again. Rapport was moved to the 19.30 slot on TV2 while Aktuellt was revived, to broadcast at 18.00 and 21.00 on TV1. These timeslots would mostly stay unchanged for the following decades.
The first colour broadcast was made in 1966, with regular colour broadcasts being introduced in 1970. Teletext started in 1978.
At the end of the 1970s, SR was reorganised. From 1 July 1979, Sveriges Radio AB became the parent company of four subsidiaries:
- Sveriges Riksradio for national radio,
- Sveriges Lokalradio AB for local radio,
- Sveriges Utbildningsradio for educational broadcasting, and
- Sveriges Television for television.
The SVT logo introduced in October 1980, as well as the individual channel logos for TV1 and TV2, were all created by British designer Sid Sutton.
The two channels were reorganised in 1987. TV1 was renamed Kanal 1 and contained almost all programmes produced in Stockholm, while TV2 consisted of the ten regional districts and the Rapport news desk.
Broadcasting in Nicam Stereo was made permanent in 1988. This year also saw the launch of a channel called SVT World in southern Finland, broadcasting content from SVT for Swedish-speaking population of Finland. The channel, which was later renamed SVT4, was rebranded as SVT Europa in 1997 when it started broadcasting to all of Europe via satellite. Following its expansion into Asia and Africa, it was rebranded as SVT World in 2005.
In 1992, the Riksdag decided that Sveriges Radio would be reorganised once again, this time into three separate companies without a shared parent company. From 1994, they would be owned by three independent foundations. The three foundations later did only a few years later merge into one.
In 1990, the television broadcasting day would usually begin at 16.00 and end before midnight. The 1990s saw an increase in broadcasting hours, with the addition of reruns in the afternoon, a morning show, and lunchtime news bulletins. SVT also met competition from new commercial broadcasters. TV3 became the first channel to break SVT's monopoly on television in Sweden and in 1992 the newly elected right-wing parliamentary majority allowed TV4 to start terrestrial broadcasting. TV4 soon established nationwide coverage and 1995 passed TV2 in the overall ratings to become the nation's most-viewed channel.
In 1996, the channels were once again reorganised. The previous organisation and competition between the two channels disappeared as they became part of a single organisation. Kanal 1 and TV2 were renamed SVT1 and SVT2. The first season 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 all came under the control of 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 narrower channel. The main news bulletins at 19.30 and 21.00 switched channels, with Aktuellt now shown on SVT2 and Rapport on SVT1. The new logo was a combination of a star and a flower made by English & Pockett. The symbol combined elements of the two channels: the star represented SVT1, while the petals around it represented SVT2.
The regional channels were closed at the beginning of 2002 and replaced by SVT Extra. In December 2002, a new channel known as Barnkanalen began showing children's programmes during the day. On 24 February 2003, SVT24 and SVT Extra were renamed 24, a theme channel for news and sports. Also in 2003, all the SVT channels dropped their encryption in the DTT network.
On 25 June 2003, SVT broadcast its first programme with 5.1 sound on DTT. The first 5.1 show was Allsång på Skansen. In November 2004, SVT added two audio streams that read out the translation subtitles on SVT1 and SVT2. The knowledge-oriented channel Kunskapskanalen started broadcasting in September 2004.
The switch-off of analogue transmitters started in 2005 in Gotland. By 2007 all analogue transmissions from SVT had ceased.
SVT started VODcasting several programmes in February 2006. Altogether three broadcasters competed to be the first one to VODcast in Sweden. In the end, all three started in the same week.
SVT made its first broadcasts in high-definition television during the 2006 FIFA World Cup on a channel operated in co-operation with TV4 AB. Regular high-definition broadcasting started on the SVT HD channel on 22 October 2006. The first programme was the film Lost in Translation, followed the next day by a 50th-anniversary tribute to television in Sweden, which was the first live entertainment programme to be broadcast in high definition in Sweden. On 25 August 2008, new logos and channel identities were introduced on the network with Barnkanalen renamed SVTB and 24 returning to its former name of SVT24, while SVT1 began carrying Regionala Nyheter for the first time.
SVT was the host broadcaster for the 1975, 1985, 1992, 2000, 2013, 2016 and 2024 Eurovision Song Contests.
In 2018, the Riksdag voted to replace the traditional TV licensing system with a new public service fee based on personal income tax.