Country | Sweden |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Sweden |
Programming | |
Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Viaplay Group |
Sister channels | TV6 TV8 TV10 V Film V Series V Sport |
History | |
Launched | 31 December 1987 |
Links | |
Website | tv3 |
Availability | |
Terrestrial | |
Boxer | Channel 3 Channel 63 (HD) |
TV3 (TV tre) is a Swedish pay television channel owned by Viaplay Group. It was launched on 31 December 1987 by businessman Jan Stenbeck.
The channel was initially broadcast across all of Scandinavia. In 1990, separate Danish and Norwegian feeds were launched. [1] The channel's name refers to its launch at a time when television in Sweden was dominated by the two channels of SVT.
TV3 was launched on December 31, 1987 [2] and was the first commercial channel to broadcast in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The channel was transmitted from London, in order to circumvent legislation that prohibited advertising being broadcast on Swedish television.
TV3 was one of the first channels to be broadcast on the Astra 1A satellite when that launched in 1989; in addition, TV3 Sweden became available through cable television in many cities. In 1989, TV3 bought the rights to broadcast the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Wimbledon tennis championships: their purchase of the former created major headlines in Swedish newspapers, as very few Swedes had access to TV3 at the time, whereas the interest in ice hockey in Sweden was high. As a result of this, TV3 made an agreement with SVT to allow them to broadcast the ice hockey matches on a 15 minute delay, in exchange for SVT producing the broadcasts. In 1991, music channel ZTV was launched as a program block on TV3. That same year, TV3 made a profit for the first time.
In mid-2006, TV3 began to broadcast six different regional versions, for advertising purposes; this made it possible to broadcast advertising directed to individual regions via the channel, an advertising form that TV4 previously had a monopoly on. On satellite, all six versions are distributed. On other networks, Boxer and their respective cable operators transmit the regional version for the relevant area. Today, the channel is available via satellite (DVB-S/S2 through the owner MTG's Viasat and also at competing Canal Digital, digital terrestrial and cable.
Post-Brexit, the channel announced in October 2020 that it would, for the first time in its history, broadcast with a Swedish licence beginning in 2021, in order to continue broadcasting from within the EU. [3]
TV3 originally aired factual programs, news (originally for 20 minutes, later only for 3 minutes only), reality TV shows, game shows, children's programs and pure commercial programmes. In 2006, it became an entertainment channel, having dropped all daily news programmes. After the launch of digital terrestrial television, bringing with it increased competition, acquired films and TV programming have formed the backbone of the channel's output. Previous original programming included reality and game shows like Expedition: Robinson (bought from SVT in 2004) as well as some factual programs.
Sveriges Television AB, shortened to SVT, is the Swedish national public television broadcaster, 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.
TV 2 Direkte is a Norwegian terrestrial television channel. Its headquarters are located in Bergen. TV 2 began test broadcasting on 13 November 1991, and a year later, it was officially launched on 5 September 1992, becoming Norway's first commercial free-to-air television channel. In 1992, TV 2 A/S was admitted as full active member of the European Broadcasting Union.
TV4 AB is a Swedish media company owned by Telia Company through TV4 Media. The company owns the largest commercial television channel in Sweden, TV4.
Modern Times Group (MTG) is a digital entertainment company based in Stockholm, Sweden. It formed from the media holdings of investment company Kinnevik, which in 1997 was distributed to the company stockholders. It is a strategic and operational investment holding company, managing a portfolio including gaming companies InnoGames, Ninja Kiwi and Kongregate, and digital network company Zoomin.TV.
Boxer TV Access is a Swedish brand owned by Tele2 AB providing pay television channels on the digital terrestrial television network in Sweden. Modeled on the British ITV Digital, it was founded in October 1999. Some channels on the Swedish DTT are free-to-air, but most of the channels require subscription from Boxer. Boxer has claimed to have around 500,000 subscribers by June 2016 when it was acquired by ComHem.
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Canal Digital was a Nordic pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor.
Kunskapskanalen is a Swedish television channel operated by Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Utbildningsradio (UR) broadcasting educational and factual programming. The channel broadcasts between 15:00 and 01:00 on all days of the week, having previously aired between 09:00 and 01:00. Kunskapskanalen is broadcast by satellite, cable, and digital terrestrial television to Sweden, by cable to Norway and parts of Finland, and terrestrially on Åland. The channel can also be received over DVB-T in Copenhagen due to its proximity to southern Sweden.
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TV4 is a Swedish free-to-air television network owned by TV4 AB, a subsidiary of the TV4 Media AB. It started broadcasting by satellite in 1990 and, since 1992, on terrestrial television. In 1994, TV4 became the largest channel and remained so for a number of years. The two channels of Sveriges Television (SVT) lost more and more viewers for a couple of years. After making schedule changes in 2001, SVT1 had practically the same numbers of viewers as TV4. From 2004 to 2019, the TV4 Group was a fully active member of the European Broadcasting Union.
Disney Channel is a Scandinavian children's television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Limited. On 5 June 2023, it was shut down and merged into Disney Channel EMEA, but was relaunched on 1 April 2024.
TV6 is a Swedish television channel broadcasting owned by Viaplay Group. It has origins in the youth channel ZTV that started broadcasting in the early 1990s. In 2004, MTG started repositioning the channel by introducing sports broadcasts and other programming that mainly targeted men.
SVT HD was a high-definition television channel from Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). The channel broadcasts high-definition simulcasts of programmes from the other SVT channels, where available.
TV3 Norway is a commercial television channel targeting Norway owned by Viaplay Group. It was separated from the earlier Pan-Scandinavian version in 1990.
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Television in Norway was introduced in 1954, but the first television program was only shown in 1958, and regular broadcasts did not start until 1960. Like Denmark, Norway had only one television channel until the 1980s. Some 40% of the population have cable TV, and 30% have satellite TV. Another 30% have terrestrial television only.
TV3+ Norway is a television channel broadcasting to Norway owned by the Viaplay Group. The channel was launched on 8. September 2007 replacing ZTV Norway on cable, satellite and terrestrial in preparation for the launch of the digital terrestrial television network in Norway which launched in 2009 and after ZTV was declining in viewers. Viasat 4 took over all of TV3 football segments which have been broadcast there since 1988
Television began in Sweden in 1954 with test transmissions, prior to the opening of the first station, Radiotjänst, two years later. A second channel was launched in 1969. Commercial television arrived in the 1980s through cable television and in 1992, the country's first terrestrial commercial channel was launched.