Boxer TV Access is the Swedish digital terrestrial television (DTT) pay-TV-provider. Modeled on the British ITV Digital, it was founded in October 1999. Some channels on the Swedish DTT are free-to-air, but most of the channels require subscription from Boxer. At the end of 2005, Boxer said they had 531 000 subscribers.

There are currently 23 channels or more, depending on location. 98 percent of the population can receive encrypted channels from Boxer, except for MUX5 which has much lower coverage. MUX1 has higher coverage (to be 99,8 percent at switch-off) but it doesn't contain any Boxer channels.

Boxer TV Access is owned by Teracom which is state-owned and controlled and 3i.

List of TV channels

Unless otherwise noted, a decoding card is necessary. As of December 2006.

LCN	Channel	Availability	Stream time	MUX
1.	SVT1	Free-to-air	24 hours	MUX1
2.	SVT2	Free-to-air	24 hours, regional variations.	MUX1
3.	TV3	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
4.	TV4	Free-to-air	24 hours, regional variations.	MUX2
5.	Kanal 5	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
6.	TV6	Free-to-air	24 hours	MUX2
7.	Eurosport Sweden	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX4
8.	Discovery Channel	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX4
9.	MTV Sweden	Encrypted	07.00-02.00	MUX4
10.	TV4 Plus	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX2
11.	Canal+ Film 1	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
12.	Canal+ Film 2 Sport Weekend	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
13.	Canal+ Sport 1	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
14.	TV4 Film	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX2
15.	TCM	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX5
17.	Silver	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX5
20.	Animal Planet	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX4
21.	Discovery Travel & Living	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX5
22.	BBC World	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX5
23.	TV8	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX3
24.	TV4 Fakta	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX2
25.	Axess TV	Free-to-air	Saturdays and Sundays	MUX5
26.	CNN International	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX2
30.	Nickelodeon	Encrypted	06.00-18.00	MUX4
31.	Disney Channel	Encrypted	06.00-22.00	MUX3
40.	VH1 Europe	Encrypted	02.00-07.00	MUX4
41.	ZTV	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX4
42.	The Voice TV	Free-to-air	06.00-18.00	MUX4
50.	TV400	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX2
51.	Star! Scandinavia	Encrypted	18:00-06:00	MUX4
52.	Kanal 9	Encrypted	24 hours	Unknown
54.	BBC Prime	Encrypted	24 hours	MUX5
55.	Aftonbladet TV7	Free-to-air	Weekdays	MUX5
80.	Canal 7	Encrypted	From 22.00	MUX3
81.	Gotlandskanalen	Free-to-air	24 hours, available in some regions.	MUX5
	Kanal Lokal Göteborg
	Kanal Lokal Skåne
	Kanal Lokal Stockholm
	Kanal Lokal Östergötland
91.	SVT1 Talande textremsa	Free-to-air	24 hours (audio stream)	MUX1
92.	SVT2 Talande textremsa	Free-to-air	24 hours (audio stream)	MUX1
96.	SVT Extra	Free-to-air	No regular broadcast	MUX1
97.	Extra version of SVT2 in most regions.			MUX1
98.	Barnkanalen/Kunskapskanalen	Free-to-air	24 hours	MUX1
99.	SVT24	Free-to-air	24 hours, regional variations.	MUX1

Controversy

Boxer has been criticized as the services provided begun highly unpopular with only 500 users of digital television transceiver the first year in operation. The services that are offered was already available through other means and because of this any normal private company would have gone bankrupt.

The state funneled huge amount of capital for advertisement which reached the cost equal of one Cataract surgery for one advertisement shown. While on Boxer's homepage they stated that money was to be spent moderately and responsible the commercial was broadcasted in every opportunity on all commercially funded channels however the sales of the digital television transceiver did not pick up speed. Not until 2003 when it was decided shutdown all analog television broadcasts before 2008, Boxer started to sell digital transceivers.

Critical voices has been raised within Sweden that the Swedish state drove the reformation from analog to digital broadcasting to ensure a state-control of what can be broadcasted. Because of the limited bandwidth only a select few channels is permitted to broadcast. These channels are hand picked by the state possibly limiting controversial channels.

Monopoly distribution

Boxer has a monopoly for encrypted of television signals in the digital terrestrial network. If a broadcaster gets to distribute television it must either broadcast free-to-air or use the encryption services of Boxer. This is a contravention to European Union rules which require that there is an open market for radio and television broadcasting. On October 17, 2006 the European Commission announced that it was taking Sweden to the European Court of Justice for failure to abolish the monopoly. Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Competition, said: "I regret that I have had to refer Sweden to the Court, but Swedish viewers should no longer be denied their right, guaranteed by (EU) law, to choose digital terrestrial TV suppliers".^[1]

External links

• http://www.boxer.se/ - Official site

References