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TV Press Review |
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igating Uncharted Waters |
MTG Awarded with Two New Channel Licenses in Sweden
By Irene Lew
The Swedish Radio and TV Authority (Radio-och TV-verket) has granted Modern Times Group’s (MTG) Viasat Broadcasting two new channel broadcast licenses in the Swedish digital terrestrial network (DTT) and has renewed Viasat’s existing four licenses.
With the new licenses, Swedish premium sports channel Viasat Sport 1 and the premium movie channel TV1000 will join Viasat’s TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV free-to-air channels on the DTT network; all of the licenses are valid for six years. This most recent deal enables Viasat to make its premium pay-TV channels available in the Swedish DTT network for the first time.
Viasat Sport 1 and TV1000 will be broadcast in MPEG4 format on a new multiplex to be built during 2008. Viasat Sport 1 features live broadcasts of more than 20 Champions League football matches per year, Formula One and World Championship ice hockey. TV1000 showcases the latest blockbuster movies from both the Hollywood studios and local independent filmmakers. Both channels are currently available on Viasat’s pay-TV DTH satellite platform, in Viasat’s IPTV offerings and on cable.
The Swedish DTT network was launched in 1999 and the last analogue TV signal in Sweden was shut down in October 2007. Boxer is the sole DTT operator and had 709,000 subscribers as of December 31, 2007. TV3, TV8 and ZTV are included in Boxer’s basic “Boxerpaketet” pay-TV package of 30 channels.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, the president and CEO of MTG, commented: “We welcome the award of the new licenses and the opportunity to increase the subscriber base for two of our most popular and well-known premium pay channels. We now have a total of six Viasat channels available on digital terrestrial and we intend to become an operator in the DTT as soon as possible.”
Continued Albrecht: “The two new licenses reflect our strategy to offer as many of our channels as possible on as many platforms as possible and to as many viewers as possible. We have launched ten new Viasat or joint-venture channels since the beginning of last year and our free-to-air channels are now available on all of the [major] Swedish TV distribution networks. We are pursuing the same strategy of extending our penetration and launching new channels in our other markets and see the benefit of this strategy in increased combined viewing and market shares.”