 | |
| Country | Sweden |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Sweden |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled to16:9576i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Viaplay Group |
| Sister channels | TV6 TV8 TV10 V Film V Series V Sport |
| History | |
| Launched | 31 December 1987 |
| Links | |
| Website | tv3 |
TV3 (TV tre) is a Swedishpay television channel owned byViaplay Group. It was launched on 31 December 1987 by businessmanJan Stenbeck.
The channel was initially broadcast across all of Scandinavia. In 1990, separateDanish andNorwegian feeds were launched.[1] The channel's name refers to its launch at a time when television in Sweden was dominated by thetwochannels ofSVT.
TV3 was launched on 31 December 1987[2] and was the first commercial channel to broadcast in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The channel was transmitted fromLondon, in order to circumvent legislation that prohibited advertising being broadcast on Swedish television.
TV3 was one of the first channels to be broadcast on theAstra 1A satellite when that launched in 1989; in addition, TV3 Sweden became available through cable television in many cities. In 1989, TV3 bought the rights to broadcast theIce Hockey World Championships and theWimbledon tennis championships: their purchase of the former created major headlines in Swedish newspapers, as very few Swedes had access to TV3 at the time, whereas the interest in ice hockey in Sweden was high. As a result of this, TV3 made an agreement withSVT to allow them to broadcast the ice hockey matches on a 15 minute delay, in exchange for SVT producing the broadcasts. In 1991, music channelZTV was launched as a program block on TV3. That same year, TV3 made a profit for the first time.
In mid-2006, TV3 began to broadcast six different regional versions, for advertising purposes; this made it possible to broadcast advertising directed to individual regions via the channel, an advertising form thatTV4 previously had a monopoly on. On satellite, all six versions are distributed. On other networks, Boxer and their respective cable operators transmit the regional version for the relevant area. Today, the channel is available via satellite (DVB-S/S2 through the owner MTG's Viasat and also at competingCanal Digital, digital terrestrial and cable.
Post-Brexit, the channel announced in October 2020 that it would, for the first time in its history, broadcast with a Swedish licence beginning in 2021, in order to continue broadcasting from within the EU.[3]
TV3 originally aired factual programs, news (originally for 20 minutes, later only for 3 minutes only), reality TV shows, game shows, children's programs and pure commercial programmes. In 2006, it became an entertainment channel, having dropped all daily news programmes in 2008. After the launch of digital terrestrial television, bringing with it increased competition, acquired films and TV programming have formed the backbone of the channel's output. Previous original programming included reality and game shows likeExpedition: Robinson (bought from SVT in 2004) as well as some factual programs.
