TV3 (Sweden)

The current logo, which was used since 2009.

TV3 is a Swedish pay commercial TV channel, which was launched on 31 December 1987 by businessman Jan Stenbeck. Now, the channel is part of Viaplay Group, which also owns TV3's sister channels, TV6 (Sweden), TV8 (Sweden), TV10, the V Film channels and the V Sport channels.

## Channel description

TV3 makes entertainment that is felt. Regardless of whether it depends on love drama, engaging characters or crime documentaries, you don't dare to watch alone. Here you will find the ultimate mix of drama, reality, humor and viewer favourites. All framed by acclaimed blockbusters and engaging series. We make you laugh out loud, fascinated, engaged, moved to tears and feel that you can make a difference. TV3 offers fascinating, funny and urgent entertainment for everyone. Our programs can be watched alone or together on all platforms. There is always something exciting on TV3!

## History

The channel was launched on 31 December 1987  and was the first purely commercial channel in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The initial capital came from Kinnevik , with the initiative of Jan Stenbeck, who had not really planned to produce TV but managed to sell his licenses on the Astra 1A satellite . After the channel had been started, however, the satellite was delayed and space was therefore bought on another satellite. The broadcasts took place from London to circumvent Scandinavian legislation that prohibited the broadcast of advertising to Swedish households.

The then Member of Parliament Maj Britt Theorin ( s ) spoke about banning satellite dishes and threatened fines and, in the worst case , prison.  Initially, TV3 broadcast the same version of the channel all over Scandinavia. In 1990, however, TV3 Denmark and TV3 Norway were launched in their own versions.

In 1989, the first Astra 1A was put into service, and it became easier to watch on TV3. The first satellite required a connection to the cable network, whereas now you could receive a signal from your own satellite dish. This rendered existing legislation ineffective. In the same year, TV3 broadcast the World Ice Hockey Championships and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships . Especially the orld CupC in ice hockey created big headlines in the newspapers becaus,e at the tim,e very few Swedes had access to TV3, while the interest in ice hockey in Sweden was great. An agreement was made with SV Tto have them broadcast 15 minutes later in exchange for producing the content.Ing 1989, the first sister channel, the pay TV channel TV 1000,wais also launche . Two years later, in 1991, the future sister channel ZTV was launched as a program blockoin TV3 and TV . In the same year, TV3 made a profit for the first time.

In mid-2006, Swedish TV3 began broadcasting in six different regional versions. The regionalization of TV3's broadcasts does not affect the program content, but only the advertising. Concretely, the division of TV3 means that it is now possible to broadcast advertising aimed at individual regions via the channel, a form of advertising that TV 4 previously had a monopoly on. All six versions are distributed via satellite. Other networks, Boxer, and the respective cable operator publish the correct regional version for the location. The different TV3 regions are: Stockholm, Mälardalen, Öst, Göteborg/Väst, Skåne and Norr.

From midnight on 12-13 February 2008, households with Canal Digital can also watch TV3.

In October 2020, it was announced that, due to Brexit, from 2021 onwards the channel will broadcast from Sweden to continue to be conducted within the EU.

## Programming

Originally, TV3 Sweden aired factual programs, news (originally for 20 minutes, later for 3 minutes), reality shows, game shows, children's shows and commercial programs. TV3 dropped any news programs in 2006, as TV3 Sweden became an entertainment channel. Acquired films and TV shows have formed the backbone of the channel's output after digital terrestrial television was launched in Sweden. Previous original programming included Expedition: Robinson (now Robinson), a Swedish version of reality show Survivor, which was bought from SVT in 2004. The channel showed some factual programs as well.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 TV3 (Sweden) - Wikipedia