Boxer TV Access

Boxer TV Access is a Swedish company providing pay television channels on the digital terrestrial television network in Sweden. 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. Boxer has claimed to have 709,000 subscribers by the end of 2007.

Boxer offers dozens of channels, with the number of channels varying depending on location and how one wants to count. As of early 2008, channels from Boxer broadcast on four national transmitter networks, of which three (MUX2, MUX3 and MUX4) can be received by 98 percent of the population using a regular antenna. The fourth network, named MUX5, has lower coverage. Another transmitter network (MUX1) has higher coverage but it doesn't contain any Boxer channels.

The majority shareholder was held in Boxer TV Access by Teracom which is owned by the Swedish state. The British venture capital firm 3i held a 30 percent stake. Teracom acquired this 30% stake from 3i in November 2008. Teracom sees this 100% stake as a logical next step. 3I had held the 30% having acquired the shares from Skandia Media Invest in 2005. With its 100% stake, Teracom moves from majority to sole shareholder in Boxer.

"Teracom has always been the main shareholder in Boxer and acquiring all the shares is a logical continuation of that ownership. Boxer will continue its successful business in the same manner as before, that is being a pay-TV operator dedicated to terrestrial platforms and working independently of any individual broadcaster", says Crister Fritzson, CEO of Teracom.

In March 2008, Boxer TV A/S, a subsidiary of Boxer TV Access, won the franchise to build and operate the terrestrial pay television platform in Denmark. In February 2009 it launched this service in Jutland covering West Denmark. This service will extend during 2009 to most of Denmark

In 2008, Boxer announced that it had put in a bid to operate three of the four multiplexes of the DTT service for Ireland, in conjunction with Irish company Communicorp. On July 21, 2008, Boxer DTT Ireland were awarded the Irish franchise Boxer TV Ireland subject to contract. However on 20 April 2009 the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland announced that contract negotiations had ended and Boxer DTT Ireland had withdrawn its application to operate the multiplexes.

Channels

Note: For a period Radio services SR P1, SR P2 and SR P3 were broadcasted in the Swedish DTT network as a test transminssion but this has been discontinued. |}

Boxer's channels are sold in five basic packages:

The free channels SVT1, SVT2, SVT1 HD, SVT2 HD, SVT24, SVTB, Kunskapskanalen, TV4 and TV6 are always included.

In addition one can buy extra cards for all five packages, as well as:

Monopoly distribution

The case against Sweden at the European Court of Justice taken by the European Commission, has since been withdrawn as a result of Sweden’s amendment of the broadcast regulations. Previously, Sweden only allowed a single operator to handle all encryption services on the DTT platform but under the amended regulation, new operators will be able to offer encrypted DTT services making it possible for them to launch pay-DTT services.

See also

References