MTG wins 2 in Sweden

chris

Viasat has won two DTT licences in Sweden.

Sweden’s Radio & TV Authority (Radio-och TV Verket) has awarded Viasat Broadcasting two new terrestrial broadcasting licences, additional to the four it already holds. Viasat is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Modern Times Group.

Viasat will use the new frequencies to transmit the Viasat Sport 1 and TV1000 premium channels, and add them to its existing TV3, TV6, TV8 and ZTV channels. The licences run for at least six years.

MTG says that Viasat Sport 1 is Sweden’s leading premium sports channel and transmits live more than 20 Champions League football matches per year, plus Formula One and World Championship Ice hockey. TV1000 is Sweden’s most popular premium movie channel and features the latest blockbuster movies from both the Hollywood studios and local independent film makers. Both channels are currently available on Viasat’s pay-TV DTH satellite platform, in Viasat’s IPTV offerings, and on cable.

MTG said: “The new licenses enable 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.”

Sweden’s 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 at December 31 2007. TV3, TV8 and ZTV are included in Boxer’s basic Boxerpaketet pay-TV package of 30 channels. TV6 is broadcast on an unencrypted basis so it is also available to customers without subscriptions. New legislation will allow competition in the digital terrestrial environment and, combined with these new licenses, enhances the potential for Viasat to offer a competitive channel package as an operator in the digital terrestrial network.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President/CEO of MTG, said in a statement: “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.”

“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 10 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.”

Source: Rapid TV News

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