Television in Sweden

Television began in Sweden in 1954 with test transmissions, prior to the opening of the first station, Radiotjänst, two years later.

The first television trials took place in February 1935, when a Stockholm radio manufacturer put up a transmitter and started broadcasting films.

[1] The first trial television broadcasts in Sweden were launched on October 29, 1954, from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

The service was funded by a license fee with no advertising and was operated by Radiotjänst, which was also in charge of the nation's two radio networks.

The first television news programme in Sweden, Aktuellt, was broadcast on 2 September 1958 and continues to this day on SVT2.

The arrival of commercial satellite channels fueled a debate on allowing advertising on terrestrial services.

Other cable channels available to receive in Sweden at the time included FilmNet (1985), TV1000 (1989), ZTV (1991), TV21 (1993), TV6 (1994), TV8 (1997) and Viasat Sport (1999).

The shutdown of the PAL analogue service in Sweden started on September 19, 2005, and was finished on October 15, 2007.