Digital terrestrial television in Sweden

Digital terrestrial television was launched in Sweden in 1999. The shutdown of the analogue equivalent started on September 19, 2005, and was finalized on October 15, 2007.

The network uses the DVB-T-standard and broadcasts several free-to-air and encrypted channels on a number of multiplexes. The majority of the channels are encrypted and viewing them requires a decoding card.

On April 9, 1997, the Swedish Riksdag decided that digital terrestrial television (DTT) was to be introduced in Sweden. In June 1998, the government decided which channels were to broadcast in the network. The channels that received a national license were: TV3, Kanal 5, Canal+, Kunskaps-TV i Sverige (to be K World), TV8 and Cell Internet Commerce Development (eTV) in addition to SVT1, SVT24 and TV4. Originally, only two multiplexes were planned and therefore SVT2 was omitted. However, before the launch a third multiplex was decided on and SVT2 would be allowed to broadcast.

Two companies were created to handle the encryption services, as all channels would be encrypted: Senda i Sverige who managed the system and decoding cards and Boxer who rented out set-top-boxes.

The digital terrestrial television network was launched on April 1, 1999, making Sweden the second country in Europe to launch digital terrestrial television. It then contained only SVT1, SVT2 and SVT24. Five regional SVT channels launched some months later.

Private companies didn't launch until the autumn when TV3, TV4, Kanal 5, TV8, K World, Canal+ and eTV launched. Canal+ were granted two extra licenses to broadcast Canal+ Gul and Canal+ Blå. Boxer started their business in the autumn.

The take-up was slow at first. When the network had been running for six months, only about 500 households had rented the necessary set-top-boxes.

New licenses were granted in January 2000. A fourth multiplex was launched in the spring. After this, the DTT network looked like this:

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