I think Internet penetration and education will go hand in hand in the future. The 24-hour channel, which launched Oct. 31 and has carriage on local cable and satellite systems, will broadcast in digital and analog until the country switches fully to digital transmission. For programming, K-World's head of acquisitions, Mats Orbrink, went on a spree a last year's Mip TV market and secured 450 hours.
Programming is distributed in daily themed blocks.
Wednesday is all about medicine and health. Companies such as Swedish employment agency Proffice, Volvo Cars and Ericsson have already logged on to give their employees an opportunity to get additional job training or expand their knowledge base. The Swedish site is likely to add multilanguage edition as its European rollout plans, targeted for fall 2000, move forward. Above all, Wegelius insists the venture is a Web portal first and a TV channel second. But it's going to be the other way around in the future.