When Swedens four most powerful TV executives talk about digital TV and the future, there are several clear lines:
- The government and politicians have been extremely bad at telling about the changeover to digital TV.
- There will be more channels, although not in the same way as today.
- It will be more expensive for consumers.
- There is a risk of deterioration in quality.
On Monday, February 21, a discussion was held at the Publicist Club in Stockholm. The topic was: “Your Brave New Digital World — Will the screen turn black?
The panelists were: Christina Jutterstrm, managing director, Swedish Television; Jan Scherman, managing director, TV4; Marie Nilsson, analyst, Mediavision; Anders Nilsson, managing director, TV3; Manfred Aronsson, managing director, Channel 5. Moderator: Stig Fredrikson, president of the Publicist Club.
In March 2008 Swedish television will go from analog completely over to digital broadcasting. Already this year digitalization will be introduced in Motala, Gvle and Gotland. Other parts of the country will follow later. This means that those viewers who today are not connected to cable or have not bought a digital box will have to buy a box in order to continue watching TV.
Furthermore, viewers will have to have a box for each TV set. At present the price is between 500 and 1,500 kronor. But there is also a special offer from various distributors in which the boxes can become cheaper if one signs up for a longer and very extensive plan.
The TV executives agreed that, among many other things, the government was awfully bad at telling about the changeover. For example, the digital-TV commission has received only 5 million for providing information about it, which can be compared the high-traffic changeover in 1967 when the information budget was 160 million.
Some quotes from the discussion:
Marie Nilsson: There is a nonchalance toward TV as a medium. Politicians think that things will sort themselves out. They have not grasped how important TV is for a great many people.
Christina Jutterstrm: The government does not want to put money in digitalization.
Jan Scherman: It is strange that people talk all the time about freedom of speech being threatened when newspapers cease publication, but no one says anything about the selection being expanded when new TV channels come.
Anders Nilsson: There is a risk that there will not be enough digital boxes when everyone realizes all at once that a viewer must buy one in order to be able to continue watching.
Manfred Aronsson: Deregulation of the TV market is a positive thing. Today 65% have cable and 25% have digital boxes, which leaves about 10% who must get boxes.
Whether or not he is right, it is certain that, according to the latest MMS [Media Measurement of Scandinavia] survey, 4.109 million households have access to TV in Sweden. 3.184 million households have access to a so-
Digital TV 2 called multi-channel universe, i.e. more channels than SVT1, SVT2 and TV4. In other words, 22 0o not have access to more channels.
Both Jan Scherman and Christina Jutterstrm agreed that there will be new channels, although they will come via broadband or else on the Internet and mobile telephones.
And Manfred Aronsson said: It will be significantly cheaper with digital TV, which takes approximately 1/5 of the present costs. It should be able to go back to the viewers.
Christina Jutterstrm: SVT needs money.
When the discussion turned to increased selection, Marie Nilsson said:
The digital changeover means that it will be more fragmentary, pay TV will be a necessity. Advertising will provide revenue to a lesser degree. There will be a larger selection for the many who can pay, but many will be outsiders. And the households media costs have increased dramatically.
Unfortunately, the discussion was too technically oriented in a rather sparsely attended meeting at the Publicist Club. The plans content was hardly mentioned. However, one fear is that the new inexpensive technology can, in the worst case, lead to poorer quality. Fewer persons will do more what will happen, for example, with foreign reportage if in the future one person is the reporter, photographer and editor? with things that are significantly cheap but in some cases also inferior.
Nevertheless, Jan Scherman thought that the quality will be better with more new channels and more new material.
