Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Ltd."), shortened to SVT (Swedish: [ˈsvæ̌rjɛs tɛlɛvɪˈɧuːn ɛsveːˈteː] ), is the Swedish national public television broadcaster and news website, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national parliament). 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.
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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 ("Radio Service Ltd."), 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 (EBU) 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 (SR) and its ownership was changed. The state and the press would each have 40% shares, while the company itself 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 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 (sv), 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.
Programming
News
News programmes are an important part of SVT. Since 1972 there have been two main news programmes: Rapport and Aktuellt (translated "Report" and "Current [events]", respectively). The two news programmes had completely separate organisations, meaning a lot of duplicated coverage was provided. After some co-operation in the 1990s, the two programmes were allowed to merge in 2000 with the newly created SVT24 to form a single organisation. The different programme names and identities were kept, however. Eventually, Rapport has become the main news programme, and Aktuellt will only broadcast one bulletin per day from autumn 2007.
The main national news bulletins are Rapport, broadcast at 18.00 and 19.30, and Aktuellt which reports in greater depth at 21.00. Additionally, shorter news bulletins are shown in the mornings and throughout the day on SVT1, SVT2, and SVT24. These are styled SVT Nyheter. SVT also broadcasts video news on the Internet through a service called Play Rapport.
SVT provides news programmes in various minority languages: Uutiset in Finnish, Nyhetstecken in Swedish Sign Language, and, in co-operation with NRK and Yle, Ođđasat in Northern Sami, as well as special editions of Sverige idag in Meänkieli and Romani.
There are also regional news bulletins
– on SVT1 at 18.33 on Mondays to Fridays and 18.10 on Sundays, as well as 19.55 daily except Saturdays
– on SVT2 at 21.46 on Mondays to Thursdays and 21.25 on Fridays
In November 2023, SVT joined with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper Trail Media and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories to produce the 'Cyprus Confidential' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin, mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes.
Entertainment
Entertainment shows on Fridays and Saturdays are, together with popular sports, the programmes that attract the largest audiences.
Melodifestivalen (1959–present), the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. The final generally attracts around four million viewers.
Expedition Robinson (1997–2004, 2009–2012), the original Swedish version of Survivor. Sveriges Television was the first network to broadcast this reality television series in 1997. The show, with a name alluding to Robinson Crusoe, 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 was continued on the commercial channel TV3, but with much lower ratings. Expedition Robinson was aired in 2009 with a brand new season, but the series is/was just called "Robinson", and now on the commercial channel TV4.
På spåret (1987–present), popular entertainment show in which celebrities answer questions related to different locations. A cut down film in extremely high speed of a train journey towards the location is shown and the sooner the contestants stop it the higher the points. In later years even car journeys has been filmed that way. Humouristic and well hidden clues are given verbally during the journey. The name of the show means "on the track" in English. The show is one of very few Swedish original ideas. It has been syndicated in other countries as well.
Så ska det låta (1997–present), the Swedish adaptation of The Lyrics Board which has on several occasions reached more than three million viewers.
Allsång på Skansen (1979–present), a popular summer show features sing-alongs with Swedish folk music, broadcast live from Skansen in Stockholm. The first sing-along at Skansen was held in 1935. Radio transmissions of the event started shortly after. The sing-along at Skansen has been a tradition every summer since.
Antikrundan (1989–present), the Swedish version of Antiques Roadshow which has often attracted approximately two million viewers.
Drama
SVT produces drama in several genres and forms.
Rederiet (1992–2002) was one of the most popular soap operas in Sweden.
Regional programming
Regional content is entirely solely restricted to news which is broadcast on SVT1 and SVT2. The eighteen news programmes are: ABC, Blekingenytt, Gävledala, Hallandsnytt, Jämtlandsnytt, Jönköpingsnytt, Mittnytt, Nordnytt, Smålandsnytt, Sydnytt, Tvärsnytt, Uppland, Värmlandsnytt, Västerbottensnytt, Västmanlandsnytt, Västnytt and Östnytt. The regional news programmes are broadcast on SVT1 at 18.33–18.45 on Mondays to Fridays (18.10–18.15 on Sundays), with a follow-up bulletin at 19.55–20.00. SVT2 also broadcasts regional news following Aktuellt at 21.46–21.56 on Mondays to Thursdays and 21.25–21.30 on Fridays. There are no regional news bulletins on Saturdays.
Children
Kalles klätterträd ran on Sveriges Television starting in 1975 and grew to become one of the most popular children's programmes of the 1970s. The children's strand Bolibompa was broadcast every day at 18.00 on SVT1, before moving to SVTB in August 2008.
Foreign programming
SVT also airs foreign programming, primarily from the United States, United Kingdom and other Nordic countries, in their original audio with Swedish subtitles, as is the case on other Nordic television channels.
The only cases in which dubbing is widespread is in programming aimed directly at children who are not expected to have learned reading skills yet. However, for some programmes, viewers may also access 'talking subtitles' through their remote where someone reads the subtitles to viewers (though 'talking subtitles' are not strictly in sync with the original audio as dubbing is). These same practices are also done for segments of local programmes that contain foreign language dialogue.
33% of the national first-time broadcasts consisted of foreign content in 2005. Of all acquired programming (including Swedish programming not produced by SVT) 27% came from the United States, 22% from the United Kingdom, 13% from Sweden, 13% from the other Nordic countries, 6% from France, 4% from Germany and 9% from the rest of Europe.
SVT often cooperates with the other Nordic public broadcasters via Nordvision. Thus, many Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish programming air on SVT, while DR, NRK, YLE, KVF and RÚV show Swedish programmes. When there is major breaking news out of Denmark however, SVT may also source live coverage from TV2.
Channels
SVT has five regular channels broadcasting to Sweden:
SVT1 – The main channel with broad and regional content. The 10 most seen Swedish TV shows in 2006 were shown on this channel. SVT1 HD simulcasts in high definition.
SVT2 – A channel with slightly narrower programming with an emphasis on culture, current affairs and documentaries. SVT2 HD simulcasts in high definition.
SVT Barn (SVT Children) – Programmes for children and (pre-)teens.
Kunskapskanalen (The Knowledge Channel) – Broadcasting debates, seminars and documentaries in cooperation with UR.
SVT24 – Reruns of programmes from SVT1 and SVT2 in the evening and continuous news updates during the night. Shares frequency with SVT Barn.
In addition to these channels, SVT had a special events channel called SVT Extra. It was generally unused and was (as of 2006) last used for live coverage during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. In 2006, SVT launched a high-definition channel called SVT HD, simulcasting HD versions of programmes on the other SVT channels.
All channels, except SVT1 HD and SVT2 HD, are available in most of Sweden through the digital terrestrial television network and encrypted from Thor and Sirius satellites. Until September 2005, both SVT1 and SVT2 were available nationwide via analogue terrestrial transmitters. Cable networks are required to broadcast four SVT channels for free in either digital or analogue form.
SVT World, a mix of the SVT channels, was broadcast on satellite and worldwide via IPTV, and also as a terrestrial channel in Swedish-speaking areas of southern Finland. For rights reasons, SVT World did not broadcast acquired material, such as movies, sports, or English language programming. The channel was closed in April 2017.
Organisation
The executive management of SVT is handled by a CEO, appointed by the board. The CEO of SVT is currently Hanna Stjärne who took over the role from Eva Hamilton in 2015. The chairman of the Board is Lars Engqvist, deputy Prime Minister of the previous Social Democratic government.
SVT is divided into eight operative programme-producing units - four of these are located in Stockholm while the other four are located around the country at regional studios and are based on the ten regional transmission areas which were merged in 2000:
Malmö – SVT Syd (SVT Malmö and SVT Växjö)
Gothenburg – SVT Väst (SVT Göteborg)
Norrköping – SVT Mellansverige (SVT Falun, Dövas TV Leksand, SVT Karlstad, SVT Örebro and SVT Norrköping)
Umeå – SVT Nord (formerly SVT Luleå, SVT Umeå and SVT Sundsvall)
These four district areas produce networked output and co-ordinate ten of the eleven regional news services broadcast daily on SVT1.
The Stockholm-based units are:
SVT Nyheter & Samhälle – national news, current affairs, documentaries and the regional news service ABC.
SVT Sport
SVT Fiktion – drama, entertainment, youth and children's programming.
SVTi – multimedia and interactive services.
Chair of the Board of Directors
Lennart Sandgren, 1978–1994
Anna-Greta Leijon, 1994–2000
Allan Larsson, 2000–2005
Lars Engqvist, 2005–2011
Göran Johnsson, 2011–2014
Anna-Karin Celsing, 2014–2020
Kia Orback Pettersson 2020–2024
Christina Björklund, 2024–present
Chief executive officers
Before Sveriges Television was formed in 1978, television broadcasting was controlled by channel controllers. Nils Erik Baehrentz was the controller between 1958 and 1968. He was succeeded by Håkan Unsgaard who became TV1's controller in 1968 and Örjan Wallquist who became the TV2 controller in 1969.
Magnus Faxén, 1978–1981
Sam Nilsson, 1981–1999
Maria Curman, 2000–2001
Christina Jutterström, 2001–2006
Eva Hamilton, 2006–2014
Hanna Stjärne, 2014–present
When Sam Nilsson retired, the executive chair was split between a CEO and a Programme Officer. This position was abolished in 2007.
Mikael Olsson, 2000–2000
Leif Jakobsson, 2001–2007
Share of viewing figures
Since the arrival of commercial television, SVT's combined viewing share has declined steadily and digital channels have also provided competition. The commercial TV4 became the most watched station in 1995 and maintained its position until 2002, when SVT1 regained the status. TV4 became the most watched channel again 2006.
The combined viewing share of the SVT channels declined from 50% in 1997 to 40% in 2005. SVT was the most watched network in Sweden with a share of 38.3% in 2006, although all three major commercial channels attract a higher share of 15- to 24-year-olds than the two SVT channels combined.
Audience trust
A media study released in 2020 showed that trust in SVT programming polarised the audience. 80-90% of viewers who supported liberal or left-leaning parties Green Party, Swedish Social Democratic Party, Liberals, Left Party and Centre Party had high trust in SVT whereas fewer viewers who supported conservative-leaning parties Christian Democrats (60%), Moderate Party (54%) and Sweden Democrats (30%) had high trust in SVT. This meant that SVT was an issue that polarised the audience more than the US president Donald Trump.