The channel was available on satellite in Europe and much of Africa, Australia and Asia, terrestrially in parts of Finland and worldwide via IPTV.

The channel launched in 1988 as TV4 broadcasting a mix of SVT1 and SVT2 terrestrially to the Swedish-speaking areas of southern Finland.

[citation needed] On December 10, 1997 the channel started broadcasting from the Sirius 2 satellite to all of Europe and was renamed SVT Europa.

[2] To reflect the fact that the channel is now broadcast in four continents, its name was changed to SVT World in mid-April 2009.

The decision was taken because the business was no longer seen as economically viable, as a result of increased competition as well as the impending end of simulcasts of SVT World on Yle Fem in Finland, when it and Yle Teema would eventually merge into a new single channel in April 2017.