I know that Swedish TV channels such as TV3 and TV4 broadcast from Middlesex to get around Sweden's tight adveritising laws e.g children's advertising is banned. My query is how do this work? Naturally TV3 and TV4 headquarters would be in Stockholm but I don't understand the whole concept.
Well I do know Viasat 3 in Hungary is part of the same group and they do the same thing, but they tend to abide by the Hungarian rules, such as Guidance ratings on each programme (it's the norm on Hungarian TV) and that some programmes they show are made in the country, as the vast majority seem to be US imports with a few UK programmes.
I guess it's just that its only the playout that comes from the UK, and that they also get around these flaws as it's a foreign service, but their HQ's must do all the comissioning and the rest of it. I guess it would be no different than an English channel being broadcast from Italy to UK homes being different but with all the comissiong coming from the UK.
The main reasons why Viasat do this is because of the loophole and the fact their entire European operation comes from Middlesex, probably to save a few quid, but they do run alot of channels through several European countries.
I know that Swedish TV channels such as TV3 and TV4 broadcast from Middlesex to get around Sweden's tight adveritising laws e.g children's advertising is banned. My query is how do this work? Naturally TV3 and TV4 headquarters would be in Stockholm but I don't understand the whole concept.
Thanks
Well the main uplink (and thus uplink/service licence) would be in the UK - so that the channel has to comply by UK licensing laws, as the UK is the country of origin for that channel. It doesn't matter where you are broadcasting TO, it is where you are broadcasting FROM which defines your licensing. ISTR that GOD channels moved from the UK to overseas for this reason - as they found it difficult to comply with UK broadcast law when it came to televangelism.
This probably means that the channel playout is also based in the UK - in West Drayton I believe for TV3 and TV1000 for Sweden?- for cost reasons (to avoid having to fibre/satellite playout from Sweden to the UK). ISTR that some of the UK-based Scandinavian channels broadcast adult content that would have been illegal to playout in the UK - and for these periods they used to briefly switch off the UK uplink and uplink from elsewhere in Europe for this content - meaning there was a brief break in transmission.
Shows can still be made in Sweden on tape and sent over to the UK for playout, though whether the ad sales operation can be based in Sweden legally I don't know. I suspect it could be. I believe live shows could be made in Sweden and backhauled - it would just be like ITV making a show in Sweden? I also believe that some Swedish shows are made in the UK though - but not in the major studios.