SVT24 launched on 15 March 1999 SVT24 used digital technology for broadcasting, so a bulletin from SVT24 was much cheaper to broadcast than a bulletin from
Rapport or
Aktuellt. That's why during 1999 and 2000 SVT24 took over all the short bulletins from
Rapport and the morning programme was moved to the SVT24 studio. In 2000 SVT24 merged with
Rapport and
Aktuellt into one central newsdesk. After some time, the channel was hit by cost savings. All broadcasts between 09:30 and 16:00 ceased for some time and the business news disappeared. On 8 September 2001,
Aktuellt and
Rapport moved to a new common studio and got a graphical make-over. That meant that all bulletins in SVT1 got the
Rapport brand, making SVT24 only broadcasting digitally (and on SVT1 at night). SVT24 moved into the common studio a week later. In the end of 2002, SVT declared that they were going to launch two new channels. That meant that SVT24 was about to be merged with
SVT Extra into a new channel, called only
24. 24 would include a wider range of programmes than SVT24 did, including acquired programming, sports events, and weekend broadcasts. The new channel was launched on 24 February 2003. It consisted of short three-minute bulletins from
Rapport every half-hour. Between these many different programs were shown. In the day-time, this consisted of
24 Direkt ("24 Live", Swedish version of
C-SPAN),
24 Måndag-Fredag ("24 Monday-Friday"), and reruns of the evening programmes. The prime time show at 20:00 was
24 minuter ("24 minutes"), a daily chat show hosted by
Claes Elfsberg. Other prime-time shows included
24 Nöje ("24 Entertainment"),
24 Konsument ("24 Consumer"),
Sverige Nu ("Sweden Now"), and acquired programming such as
Saturday Night Live, documentaries and World News from
BBC World. During the weekends, the "interactive news service"
24 Vision and sports events were shown. The relaunch also caused the closure of the full-time
SVT Extra, which was only reserved for special events. In the autumn of 2003, the channel was hit by cost savings. The short bulletins were now only shown every hour in the daytime and
24 Direkt started occupying the rest of the day-time schedule. New shows included a taped radio show,
Lantz i P3. In 2004 the acquired programming and
BBC World disappeared.
24 Konsument and
24 Nöje were however transformed into daily newscasts and sports bulletins were included in the evening. In 2005, the simulcasts of
Rapport at 19:30 and
Aktuellt at 18:00 and 21:00 ended and were replaced by mostly reruns of current affairs-based programmes from SVT1 and SVT2.
24 Konsument was axed in late 2005 and in 2006
24 Nöje rebranded as
Nöjesnytt with bulletins on both SVT1 (in the morning) and SVT2 (in the evening). The channel became subject to
must carry laws effective 1 July 2005 and SVT and UR subsequently agreed to have the channel carried on the basic analogue cable services of
UPC Sweden and
Com Hem. The ratings for the channel had been very modest from the start. 2006 did however mean a significant increase in the viewing. For the full year of 2005, the average Swede watched SVT24 for 0.7 minutes per day. For November 2006 this had doubled to 1.4 minutes. The next month, December 2006, the rating doubled once again, averaging 2.8 minutes per day and viewers, for the first time making SVT24 one of the ten most watched channels in Sweden. (Source: Mediamätning i Skandinavien) SVT decided in October 2006 to proceed to a series of cuts to change the channel's format from rolling news to repeats from the two main SVT channels. In December 2006, the daily current affairs show
Studio 24 got axed because of budget cuts at the SVT news department.
Sverige Nu was also axed. The channel was relaunched in January 2007. The new evening schedule mainly consists of reruns of programmes from SVT1 and SVT2 and a half-hour news bulletin from
Rapport with
Nöjesnytt at 21:30.
24 Direkt, the sports broadcasts and news updates were retained. On 18 January 2010, Kunskapskanalen began sharing channel space with SVT24 and SVT Barnkanalen, and at the same time
24 Direkt was renamed
SVT Forum and shifted to Kunskapskanalen. Under the current arrangement, SVT24 is aired from 20:00 until 05:00 the next day, with SVT Barnkanalen and Kunskapskanalen occupying the morning, afternoon, and early evening slots. On 25 November 2013, SVT announced its intention to launch a
high-definition (HD)
simulcast of SVT24. ==Name==