Barnkanalen

Infobox TV channel
name = Barnkanalen
logofile = Svtb logo.png launch = December 23, 2002
share = 1.5%
share as of = 2007
share source = [citation|url=http://www.mms.se/arsrapp/%C5rsrapport%202007.pdf|publisher=Mediamätning i Skandinavien|title=Årsrapport 2007]
owner = Sveriges Television
country = SWE
terr serv 1 = Digital terrestrial
terr chan 1 = Channel 98
sat serv 1 = Canal Digital
sat chan 1 = Channel 7
sat serv 2 = Viasat
sat chan 2 = Channel 39
cable serv 1 = Com Hem
cable chan 1 = Analogue
Channel 153
cable serv 2 = Canal Digital
cable serv 3 = Tele2Vision
adsl serv 1 = Canal Digital
adsl serv 2 = FastTV
adsl serv 3 = Telia Digital-tv
adsl chan 3 = Channel 11
adsl serv 4 = Viasat

SVTB ("SVT Barnkanalen") is a channel from Sveriges Television dedicated to children's programming.

History

Barnkanalen started broadcasting on 23 December, 2002. During its first year it was only available from 6.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on weekdays. The channel also took a "summer vacation" between 23 May and 18 August. The rest of the time could be used for other programming, some weekends one could see tennis in the schedule.

The programming was aimed at pre-school children in the mornings and the afternoon programming was targeted at older children (pre-teens). The morning block featured special announcers that presented programmes from "the TV ship". Right after it had finished, the morning programmes would rerun immediately. At 1.00 p.m., an interactive show called "Twebby" was broadcast and it was followed by programmes for older children presented by two animated continuity announcers called "Joppe and Nella". Afternoon programming included animation, English language programming as well as dramas from the SVT archives.

On 6 December, 2003, the channel started broadcasting on weekends, from 7.00 a.m.. From 2004, Barnkanalen would be a full year service.

During the 2004 Summer Olympics, SVT Extra would simulcast with Barnkanalen in the evenings and from 27 September, 2004, the evening slot would be occupied by Kunskapskanalen.

The TV ship was removed in the autumn of 2005 and its presenters was integrated with "Bolibompa", the evening children strand on SVT1. Bolibompa would from then bee the brand for pre-school programming on Barnkanalen as well. "Twebby" was discontinued later in the autumn.

In February 2006, Barnkanalen got new graphics and Joppe and Nella were removed. Instead, a new show called "Bobster" was shown between the programmes in the afternoon. Bobster would also broadcast between 7 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. in SVT1.

On September 1, 2007, Barnkanalen had its broadcasting hours extended to 7 p.m., allowing "Bobster" to broadcast for another hour.

On August 25, 2008, SVT made a major reshuffle in its schedules. This meant that the primetime broadcasts from "Bolibompa" at 6 p.m. and "Bobster" at 7 p.m. that where previously broadcast on SVT1 would be moved to Barnkanalen. Barnkanalen was upgraded as one of the three main channels from SVT, meaning that the channel would receive most of SVT's funding for children's programmes. With the reorganization, Barnkanalen was given a new look. The new logo reads "SVTB", but it is still reffered to as "Barnkanalen".

SVTB would now start every day at 6.30 a.m. with programmes aimed at pre-schoolers under the "Bolibompa" brand. This includes presenter-lead segments called "Bolibompamorgon" between 7 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. on Weekdays and "Bolibompahelg" between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Weekends. "Bolibompa" continues until 3 p.m. when "Bobster" for the older children starts. On Weekends, Bobster starts at 2 p.m. "Bobster" also includes a news update from "Lilla Aktuellt" every weekday at 4 p.m.

The primetime edition of "Bolibompa" broadcast between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. This is followed by "Bobster" between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Programming

Pre-schoolers

Since the programming in the mornings is mostly aimed and preschoolers, it is either Swedish language in original, dubbed into Swedish or silent. Dubbing is expensive to do, as is producing new programmes. So most of the shows have been shown on SVT before, except for a few ones that have been dubbed recently.

Older programming shown in the mornings include Professor Balthazar, Doctor Snuggles and the Alfons Åberg films.

Pre-teens and teens

Barnkanalen also show some animation aimed at older children with its original sound track, for example the Japanese "Cardcaptor Sakura" and American "AAAHH!!! Real Monsters". Notably, there is a version of Real Monsters dubbed into Swedish, but it is only shown in the competing satellite channel Nickelodeon Scandinavia. Other animated programmes are the animated "Mr. Bean", "Garfield and Friends" and "Code Lyoko".

Other acquired programming include drama series from several countries, such as Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan.

The many Australian drama series shown in the channel include "Mirror, Mirror", "Search for Treasure Island", "Home Farm Twins", "Saddle Club" and "Ocean Star". American shows include PBS series such as "Ramona" and Nickelodeon series "The Secret World of Alex Mack". From the UK comes the Central series "Woof!" and "Press Gang".

Availability

Initially Barnkanalen was available on satellite from Canal Digital, on certain digital cable distributors and free-to-air in the digital terrestrial network, being the first channel to broadcast without encryption in the network. An agreement of distribution on the Viasat platform was settled in 2003. A few days earlier, SVT had decided to allow cable networks to transform the digital signal into analogue format.

Many cable companies used copyright issues motivate an additional fee for the channel. An agreement that would make SVT pay the copyright costs was made some years later and made Barnkanalen (as well as Kunskapskanalen and SVT24) available in the analogue basic packages on the two major cable distributors, UPC Sverige and Com Hem, from 1 July, 2005. This increased the penetration of the channel dramatically.

References