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The media landscape in Sweden

In 1776 Sweden became one of the first countries to legally establish the freedom of the press. A key element in the right to the freedom of opinion, press freedom enjoys a strong status in the country.

Stadthaus, Stockholm
Foto: ooznu, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-sa/2.0

Characteristic for the Swedish media landscape is the relatively strong role still played by public television. Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio are financed by fees and show no advertising, while control structures are geared to keeping political influence as low as possible. The rise of private television and radio stations - primarily TV3, TV4 and Canal+ - since the start of the 1990s has also strongly influenced programming at the public stations.

The daily press also plays a very strong role despite the growing influence of the Internet. In the country of nine million inhabitants just under four million newspapers were printed every day in 2008. 83 percent of the population read at least one of the 165 daily newspapers. In recent decades the newspaper market has gone through a process of concentration. The large dailies include Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Sydsvenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, as well as the tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen. The state ensures the diversity of the press by supporting it with subsidies and a reduced sales tax. Sweden became a trendsetter in 1995 with the introduction of the free newspaper Metro. By its own account the paper has the most readers in the country.

The fastest development in Sweden is taking place on the Internet, which is used by well over 80 percent of the population. Blogs are highly popular: estimates put the number of Swedish blogs at over 350,000. Most dailies and radio stations have their own blogs, which exist alongside blog portals like Newsmill. The most popular blog is written by Blondinbella on her shopping and partying experiences.

This country's media at euro|topics