pic: freepik.com
“There’s nothing on” is a favorite refrain, but the worry is now that the choice of things not to watch could be even less.
When Telia (the huge telecom company) got the go-ahead, and went ahead, to buy Bonnier Broadcasting there were some concerned voices. Namely that the Swedish state owns a whole 38% of Telia. Bonnier owned TV4 and C-more. Now that Telia bought Bonniers, the state now also owns a chunk of TV4 and C-more. Remember that the state also has the state-owned channels SVT1 and SVT2. This means that the state has pretty much a lock on a big part of the media landscape in Sweden.
There are many voices that say that the state doesn’t really, really control SVT1 and SVT2 – there are independent boards in between, there are laws saying the state can’t get too involved… but the uncomfortable fact remains that the state has pretty much a lock on a big part of the media landscape in Sweden.
One little uncomfortable blip came up only last week when SVT News announced that they planned a big new news program on SVT1 at 10pm every night. 10pm is when TV4 has (and has had for years) their own news program. This meant that the broadcasts conflicted with each other, and that “the public had to choose between the programs instead of being able to take advantage of a variety of news in the evenings” wrote TV4 journalists in a debate article. The journalists asserted that sending a news program at the exact same time as TV4 broke the newly agreed upon broadcasting license in which it is stated that SVT must work to present a variety of perspectives.
SVT changed their plans for their program, but the problem highlighted what can happen when they both largely belong to the same actor: two programs could easily have become one. Two perspectives could have become one. Representation could have been halved.
Both the Sweden Democrats and the Moderate party are pushing for the state to first look over how much of Telia and its network that the state should hold on to for national security purposes, and then to sell the rest, SvD reported back when the sale was initiated. Ibrahim Baylan, the social democratic Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation was less direct but said that it was up to Telia to be a responsible owner as the deal was getting a lot of political heat.
There’s been more shenanigans recently, although a TV4-less Christmas holiday has been avoided. Com hem, the cable distributor, is owned by Telias competitor Tele2. TV4 (now owned by Telia and by extension partly also by the state) is distributed by Com hem (DN.se/TV4). The contract between them is up at 12 tonight, but they somehow haven’t been able to reach a new agreement: TV4 was about to go to black on a third of Sweden’s televisions at the stroke of midnight. However, just this afternoon, TV4 said that they’d allow Com hem to send their programs without being paid for them until January 10th. In other words, fans of Jul med Ernst are saved. Also it would have looked bad for Telia (see above) if TV4 wasn’t able to be seen by a third of the country just when everyone is free to watch TV.
correction: news tweets have just gone out to say that TV4 will actually go to black at midnight tonight – the free offer wasn’t a free offer it turns out, and negotiations have broken down. This isn’t good, as it basically leaves viewers with SVT if they’d like some news besides from international cable channels. TV3 has The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition though, so that’s something.
It’s time for the government to get out of the broadcasting business.