PHOTO: Bildbyrån
The Olympics are returning to SVT’s channels again.
A decision that caused many Swedes to rejoice.
But now comes unexpected criticism of the Olympics “returning home”.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, something historic happened in Swedish television. For the first time, Olympic broadcasts left SVT and moved to Viasat instead, and this led to a lot of criticism from television viewers.
Olympics to SVT again
The most common complaint back then was that the Swedes didn’t want any commercials when watching the Olympics. Since then, Viasat, now Viaplay, and in recent years Discovery, now Max, have taken care of the Olympic broadcasts in Sweden.
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But recently it was announced that the Olympics will “return home” to SVT again from the Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina 2026. Max will continue to own the rights for pay TV but the rights for free TV will now be shared between SVT and TV4.
Criticism of SVT
A decision that obviously raises some questions. The TV journalist Johan Croneman is one of the skeptical voices.
“What the party costs is hidden under the label ‘business secrets’, but of course one is curious about how much of SVT-sport’s total budget is used. Is it pushed to money from other parts of the house?”, he writes in a column on Dagens Nyheter.
“A TV4 that has been in crisis for a long time is surely facing a similar dilemma, where are the funds? It is of course seen as offensive investments for the future, but still.”
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There are many indications that SVT will primarily want to focus on cross-country skiing and biathlon during the 2026 Winter Olympics and thus hand over hockey and more to TV4. Which causes Croneman to direct clear criticism of the television channel.
“You’re almost drunk with laughter: If SVT sport were forced to choose between a soccer World Cup and a biathlon Olympics in the future, God knows what they would choose. Biathlon has become SVT’s holy grail. A tiny sport that really only affects a few European winter nations. And hardly that. But call SVT sport in the middle of the night and whisper ‘biathlon’ and it only takes seven minutes before the entire editorial team is sitting in the studio in knitted cardigans and hyperventilating,” he writes in the column.
The journalist profile is also critical of the sports broadcasts on SVT these days, especially during major championships.
“As SVT has been drained of all the world’s sports rights, the company has also been drained of both expertise and broadcasting habits. It became obvious during the last European football championship when SVT showed with all unwanted clarity that they no longer have either the people or the experience to do a decent job. Do they have that insight, to begin with?”, writes Croneman in the daily newspaper.
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