MIPTV 2009 – CANNES. The Swedish state broadcaster SVT is doing very well with its catch-up TV websites. According to Lena Glaser, the head of new media, they recorded 204 million requested streams in 2008, as opposed to 170 million the previous year. “This is very good if you realise we only have 9 million inhabitants.”
SVT Play currently offer over 1,000 on-demand programmes and clips. Usually, programmes remain available up to 30 days after the original broadcast.
Along the the SVT Play catch-up website, the broadcaster has now also launched a better quality Play Prima service that offers programmes in better quality that can also be viewed on a regular TV screen using an IPTV set-top box.
With this service, SVT is also experimenting with “previews” of programmes, that are available before the actual broadcast.
The broadcaster is also launching a number of streaming niche channels on the web, including the kids channel Bolibompa and the news and current affairs channel Play Rapport. With this offer, SVT is among the top three video sites in Sweden, the others being Aftenbladett (a newspaper) and the inevitable YouTube.