Sveriges Television - History

History

When radio broadcasting was organized in the 1920s, it was decided to adopt a model similar to the one of the British Broadcasting Company in the United Kingdom. The radio would be a monopoly funded by a license fee and organized as a limited company, Radiotjänst ("Radio service"), 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 organizations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. The membership is currently jointly held by SVT, SR and UR.

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 October 29, 1954 from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

In 1956, the Riksdag made the decision to permanent television broadcasting. Transmissions were officially started in Sweden by Radiotjänst on 4 September the same year using the new Nacka transmitter. A television license for those owning a television set was introduced in October.

Television started broadcasting regularly in 1957. At the same time, Radiotjänst was renamed Sveriges Radio (SR) and its ownership changed. The state and the press would have equaled 40% shares, while the company would own 20% (in 1967, the state increased its share to 60% at the expense of the press).

In 1958, the first newscast, Aktuellt, was broadcast. During the 1960s a second TV channel was frequently discussed. The discussions resulted in the start of TV2 on December 5, 1969. The first channel was named TV1 and the two channels were supposed to broadcast in "stimulating competition" within the same company.

1970 saw the start of the first regional programme, Sydnytt from Malmö. More regional news programmes launched in 1972 and the entire country was covered by regional news programmes by 1987 when ABC from Stockholm started.

When TV2 started the news programmes were reorganized. Aktuellt was cut and replaced with TV-nytt, which was in charge of the main 19:30 bulletin on TV1 as well as news updates on both channels. In addition, the two channels would get one "commenting bulletin" each. TV2 got Rapport and TV1 got Nu.

In 1972, the news was reorganized once again. Rapport was moved to the 7:30 slot on TV2, Aktuellt was revived and would broadcast at 6 and 9 on TV1. Those timeslots would mostly stay unchanged for the following decades.

In 1966, the first color broadcast was made. In 1970, regular color broadcasts were introduced. Teletext started in 1978.

At the end of the 1970s, SR was reorganized. From 1 July 1979, Sveriges Radio AB became the mother of four companies: Sveriges Riksradio (RR) for national radio, Sveriges Lokalradio AB (LRAB) for local radio, Sveriges Utbildningsradio (UR) for educational broadcasting and Sveriges Television (SVT) for television. SVT would provide 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 contained almost all programmes produced in Stockholm, while TV2 consisted of the ten regional districts and the Rapport news desk.

Broadcasts in Nicam Stereo were made permanent in 1988. This year also saw the launch of a channel called TV4 in southern Finland, broadcasting content from SVT for Finland-Swedes. The channel is known as SVT Europa since 1997, when it started broadcasting to all of Europe through satellite.

In 1992, the Riksdag decided that Sveriges Radio would reorganize once again into three independent companies (with RR and LRAB merged). From 1994, they would be owned by three independent foundations. The three foundations would later change into one foundation.

In 1990, broadcasts would usually start at 16:00 and finish before 00:00. The 1990s saw an increase in broadcasting time with reruns in the afternoon, a morning show and lunch-time news bulletins. SVT also met competition from the young commercial broadcasters. TV3 became the first channel to break the SVT state-monopoly on Swedish-language television and in 1992, the newly elected right-wing parliament allowed TV4 to start broadcasts in the terrestrially. They soon established nationwide coverage and in 1995, TV4 passed TV2 in the overall ratings and became the nation's most viewed channel.

In 1996, the channels were once again reorganized. The previous organization and competition between the two channels disappeared as they became part of a single organization. Kanal 1 and TV2 were renamed SVT1 and SVT2. The first season of Expedition: Robinson (Survivor) was shown in 1997.

The first digital terrestrial television-broadcasts (DTT) took place in 1999. SVT started six new channels, the news channel SVT24 and five regional channels. 2000 saw the reorganization 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 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 regional channels were shut down in the beginning of 2002 and were 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 their 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 the translation subtitles on SVT1 and SVT2. The knowledge-oriented channel Kunskapskanalen started broadcasting in September 2004.

The shutdown of analogue transmitters started in 2005 on Gotland. By 2007 all analogue transmissions from SVT had ceased.

SVT started VODcasting some programs 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 their first broadcasts in high definition television during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in a channel operated in co-operation with TV4 AB. Regular high definition broadcasting started in the SVT HD channel 22 October 2006. The first programme was the movie Lost in Translation, followed the next day by the 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, a new set of logos were introduced on the network with Barnkanalen renamed to SVTB, 24 renamed back to SVT24 and SVT1 has carried Regionala Nyheter for the first time.

SVT was host broadcaster of 1975, 1985, 1992 and 2000, Eurovision Song Contests and will repeat the duties in 2013.