Swedish free-to-air broadcaster TV4 has today shut off its terrestrial broadcasts, thirty-four years after it was first awarded a government licence to broadcast a free ad-funded channel terrestrially, in something of a watershed moment. The company announced the decision last year, stating that the role of terrestrial TV has shrunk significantly due to changing media habits in Sweden, and that the economics of terrestrial broadcasts no longer add up. The move leaves Swedish public broadcaster SVT in a tough spot as the sole supporter of terrestrial TV in the market, and could hasten the end of terrestrial TV in the country as a whole.
In a statement released today, TV4 said that being on the terrestrial network is no longer a prerequisite for it to reach its audiences in a commercially sustainable way. A survey carried out by the business found that only four percent of Swedish households use the terrestrial network as their only means of receiving TV. The rest of the population either receives TV4’s channels via a fibre, cable, or satellite TV subscription, or watches via the broadcaster’s streaming service TV4 Play.
As TV4 acknowledges, the move is most likely to affect older and less tech savvy viewers who don’t already have an internet connection or TV subscription, and who might struggle to set one up. The broadcaster says it is actively working to support these viewers, and is encouraging friends, relatives, and landlords of those likely to be affected to lend a hand in switching to an alternative means of watching TV4’s channels.
It is certainly possible there could be a drop in overall viewership following the move, which would have implications for the company’s ads business. In a statement targeted at advertisers, TV4 says it is confident it will retain its overall reach, though viewership will be geared more towards digital platforms. This is painted by the broadcaster as a strength, as greater digital distribution brings more opportunities to run targeted campaigns.
The switch-off looms
The move leaves public service broadcaster SVT as the only company still broadcasting TV terrestrially in Sweden, according to TV4. Tele2-owned channel Boxer also broadcast via the terrestrial network until relatively recently, but shut down these broadcasts last January.
SVT and TV4 have shared the costs of maintaining the terrestrial network, with SVT paying through the licence fee (or the public service fee which replaced the licence fee seven years ago) and TV4 paying with its ad revenues. With TV4 gone, the cost burden falls solely on SVT. When TV4 announced its decision last year, SVT CEO Anne Lagercrantz said that while she understands the decision, it will place a big financial burden on her own company — one which the government must find a solution to.
The challenge for SVT is that as a public service broadcaster, it can’t simply shut off its terrestrial broadcasts like other commercial broadcasters can. This is commonly the case for PSBs, to ensure that older and less tech savvy audiences continue to have access to their channels.
But as media habits continue to evolve and more broadcasters drift away from terrestrial broadcasts, PSBs are pushing for the regulators who set their licence conditions to help them adapt and prepare for older distribution technologies to be shut down. Back in 2022, the BBC’s director general at the time Tim Davie said in a speech to the UK’s Royal Television Society that “a switch-off of broadcast will and should happen over time, and we should be active in planning for it”.
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