SVT2

SVT2 is Sweden's second television channel. It was launched in December 1969 as TV2.

Some of the programmes initially were more 'left wing' than they were on TV1, so the channel was sometimes called "the red channel" in its early years. Some years after the launch the news programme Rapport got its current 7:30 slot and soon became the most popular news programme, a position still held over 30 years later.

TV2 was national at launch (just as TV1), but during the 1970–1987 regional news programmes where started on TV2 throughout the nation. In 1987, TV1 became the home of all Stockholm-made programmes while TV2 showed all non-Stockholm programmes. During this period, TV2 also called itself Sverigekanalen, "Channel Sweden". In 1996, the channels were merged and where renamed SVT1 and SVT2.

For a long time, TV2 was the most popular channel in Sweden. When commercial television arrived in the late '80s and early '90s, SVT faced competition. TV4 managed to became the largest channel in 1994, with audience shares for both SVT1 and SVT2 decreasing. In 2001, many popular programmes, such as Rapport and the saturday night entertainment, was moved to SVT1 and SVT2 became more narrow.

Today (2005) SVT2 has the ambition to be the third largest channel in Sweden. TV4 and SVT1 generally have larger ratings and SVT2 is often outperformed by TV3 and Kanal 5, and even channels not belonging to the "big 5" (Channels 1 to 5) such as TV4 Plus.

Foreign programmes

• Dead Like Me (Season 2)
• Nip/Tuck
• Six Feet Under
• The Kumars at No. 42
• Veronica Mars

Swedish programmes

• Aktuellt

Presentation

Sverigekanalen

TV2 was called Sverigekanalen for some time in the late '80s and early '90s. The example show how the clock looked like then.

-1996

2001-2002

In 2001 new presentation designed English and Pockett came along. The jingles would animate with the "SVT flower" moving around on the screen...	...before settling down like this.
The presenter background was animated and changed depeneding on season. In the winter it was the logo spinning slowly (pictured right), in the summer the flower would "float on a pond" and in the autumn the flowers would fall like autumn leaves.

Summer 2002

In the summer of 2002 the presentation got a brighter color when the dark blue was replaced by white and some light blue shades. The jingles contained actual flowers instead of the "SVT flower".

Autumn 2002

The blue colors were back in the autumn with some minor changes in the trailers. All the jingles were replaced by new one's produced by students at Konstfack, a design college in Stockholm.

2003-2005

In 2003, SVT2 changed the schedule to improve the channels ratings. With this came a new graphical look where the dark blue colors once again where changed into white and light blue. The background of the presenters now included programme listings. The example on the left is from autumn 2004.	The Konstfack films where kept, and additions would be made during the two years the graphical package was in use.
The Konstfack films where usually shown directly after a programme. Before the programme presenters some short jingles would be used. They animated differently...	...but they all ended like this.

2005-

In January 2005, live in-vision presentation was removed from SVT2 and was replaced by pre-recorded messages. The graphics were replaced at the same time.	The new idents had a "mirror" that would fold up, showing something different from what was seen in the rest of the picture. The example on the left show a glamourous lobby, with a street in the "mirror".
In the summer SVT2 adopted graphics that would show what was on all the SVT channels at the moment.	Initially, the style of promos was unaltered and used the 2003 look. But after a few months, the caption was changed from white into light blue with a little opacity, as seen on the right.