Sveriges Television

Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (Swedish: [ˈsvæ̌rjɛs tɛlɛvɪˈɧuːn ɛsveːˈteː] ^ⓘ), is the Swedish national public television broadcaster and news website, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national parliament). Prior to 2019, SVT was funded by a television licence fee payable by all owners of television sets. The Swedish public broadcasting system is largely modelled after the system used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Television shares many traits with its British counterpart, the BBC.

SVT is a public limited company that can be described as a "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation." Together with the other two public broadcasters, Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Utbildningsradio, it is owned by an independent foundation, Förvaltningsstiftelsen för Sveriges Radio AB, Sveriges Television AB och Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB. The foundation's board consists of 13 politicians, representing the political parties in the Riksdag and appointed by the Swedish government. The foundation in turn appoints the SVT board members.

SVT's regulatory framework is governed by Swedish law. SVT and Sveriges Radio were originally a joint company, but since 1979 they and Sveriges Utbildningsradio are sibling companies sharing some joint services.

SVT maintained a monopoly in domestic terrestrial broadcasting from its start in 1956 until the privately held TV4 started broadcasting terrestrially in 1992. It is barred from accepting advertisements except in the case of sponsors for sporting events. Until the launch of the Swedish language satellite television channel TV3 in 1987, Sveriges Television provided the only Swedish television available to the public. SVT is still the biggest TV network in Sweden, with an audience share of 36.4 per cent.^{[citation needed]}

When radio broadcasting was first organised in the 1920s in Sweden, it was decided to adopt a model similar to that of the British Broadcasting Company in the United Kingdom. Radio would be a monopoly funded by a licence fee and organised as a limited company, AB Radiotjänst ("Radio Service Ltd."), owned by the radio industry and the press. The transmitters were owned by the state through Telegrafverket and the press held a monopoly on newscasts through Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå. AB Radiotjänst was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1950.

Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå lost its monopoly on newscasts de jure in 1947 and de facto in 1956, but otherwise, the same model would be applied to television.

It was decided to start test transmissions of television in June 1954. The first transmissions were made on 29 October 1954 from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

In 1956 the Riksdag decided that television broadcasting should continue permanently and on 4 September Radiotjänst initiated official transmissions from the new Nacka transmitter. A television licence for those owning a television set was introduced in October of that year.