ΚΛΕΙΝΟΥΝ ΠΕΡΙΦΕΡΕΙΑΚΟΙ ΣΤΑΘΜΟΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΣΟΥΗΔΙΑ

Swedish commercial television closing all regional stations

The Swedish Broadcaster TV4 last week decided to close all 25 local and regional stations. This is a major shift in the strategies of the private broadcaster who have had regional service for over 20 years. The advertisement will still be local but there will be no local or regional programming. The closing is not because of financial reasons. The money will be allocated to the company's interactive activities to meet the competition from Netflix and other new entrants. TV4 is the largest commercial operator in Sweden and the closing of the stations has caused a major debate amongst politicians, pundits and in the Swedish society. Now only public service broadcasting, SVT and SR, are covering and reporting from the whole of the country. "This seems to be a very disturbing trend in Europe. First Hungary, Greece, Valencia and now the commercial broadcaster in Sweden. And we know that many broadcasters have a very tough time and might face the same difficulties. It clearly shows that we need to bring the threat to regional broadcasting, in the end democracy, to the attention of the EU", says Johan Lindén, Secretary General of CIRCOM Regional.