SVT to offer entire TV line-up online

Swedish public broadcaster SVT is to offer its entire broadcast output free of charge online. SVT CEO Eva Hamilton revealed the plan to offer all content online in an opinion piece in newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Hamilton said the launch of SVT’s channels online was likely to take place in February.

According to press reports, Radiotjänst, the agency responsible for collecting the country’s SEK2,076 (€240) annual TV licence fee, has confirmed that the move will mean it will start collecting fees from people who own computers and tablet devices but not TV.

Hamilton said that this would make little difference in practice, as a law was already in place that required anybody who could receive a TV channel on a device to pay the fee, something that has applied since last year when commercial broadcaster TV4 began broadcasting its channels on the web.