366,000 Swedish households have access to IPTV

Sweden is one of Europe's most active IPTV markets. Both Viasat and Canal Digital have made their packages available over broadband Internet in recent months. Viasat is available on broadband provider Bredbandsbolaget's fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to 300,000 households, 2,300 of which had signed up to the service at first quarter 2005. Canal Digital is available on nine FTTH city networks across Sweden, reaching 66,000 households. Both Viasat and Canal Digital hope that by offering their packages on IP networks they can extend their subscriber base. Incumbent telco TeliaSonera launched a pay TV offering in January 2005, Screen Digest says.

The service of 23 channels and the Canal Plus premium sports and movie channels is available in 15 cities over ADSL. TeliaSonera plans to make the service available to 70 per cent of its ADSL subscribers by year end. After selling off Com Hem, its cable operation, in 2003, the company is using its ADSL network to re-enter the market. A fourth significant IPTV operator is pan-Scandinavian operator FastTV, part of the Bonnier media group.