Boxer TV Access is a Swedish brand owned by Tele2 AB providing pay television channels on the

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

network in Sweden. Modeled on the British

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

, it was founded in October 1999. Some channels on the Swedish DTT are free-to-air, but most of the channels require subscription from Boxer. Boxer has claimed to have around 500,000 subscribers by June 2016 when it was acquired by ComHem. Boxer offers dozens of channels, with the number of channels varying depending on location and how one wants to count. As of early 2008, channels from Boxer broadcast on four national transmitter networks, of which three (MUX2, MUX3 and MUX4) can be received by 98 percent of the population using a regular antenna. The fourth network, named MUX5, has lower coverage. Another transmitter network (MUX1) has higher coverage but it doesn't contain any Boxer channels. The majority shareholder was held in Boxer TV Access by Teracom which is owned by the Swedish state. The British venture capital firm 3i held a 30 percent stake. Teracom acquired this 30% stake from 3i in November 2008. Teracom sees this 100% stake as a logical next step. 3I had held the 30% having acquired the shares from Skandia Media Invest in 2005. With its 100% stake, Teracom moves from majority to sole shareholder in Boxer. "Teracom has always been the main shareholder in Boxer and acquiring all the shares is a logical continuation of that ownership. Boxer will continue its successful business in the same manner as before, that is being a pay-TV operator dedicated to terrestrial platforms and working independently of any individual broadcaster", says Crister Fritzson, CEO of Teracom. In March 2008,

Boxer TV A/S Boxer TV A/S is a company that is broadcasting pay television channels on the digital terrestrial television network in Denmark since February 1, 2009. It is a subsidiary of Boxer TV Access, a Swedish company which is owned by Com Hem. History B ...

, a subsidiary of Boxer TV Access, won the franchise to build and operate the terrestrial pay television platform in Denmark. In February 2009 it launched this service in Jutland covering West Denmark. This service will extend during 2009 to most of Denmark. In 2008, Boxer announced that it had put in a bid to operate three of the four multiplexes of the DTT service for Ireland, in conjunction with Irish company

Communicorp Bauer Media Audio Ireland (formerly Communicorp Group) is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia ...

. On 21 July 2008 Boxer DTT Ireland were awarded the Irish franchise

Boxer TV Ireland Boxer DTT Limited (which intended to trade as Boxer) was a company that had been awarded the contract to operate a mainly pay-TV digital terrestrial television service in Republic of Ireland. Boxer was a joint venture between Boxer TV Access ...

subject to contract. However, on 20 April 2009 the

Broadcasting Commission of Ireland The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) ( ga, Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann) was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) ( ga, Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann). The BAI is ...

announced that contract negotiations had ended and Boxer DTT Ireland had withdrawn its application to operate the multiplexes. In 2016, Sweden's operator

Com Hem Com Hem was a Swedish brand owned by Tele2 AB which supplied Triple Play services that included cable television, broadband internet and fixed-line telephone. Founded in 1983 as Televerket Kabel-TV as part of the former state-owned Televerke ...

announced it had acquired Boxer TV-Access AB for an enterprise value of SEK 1,330m.

Channels

* MPEG-4 indicates that the channel requires a DVB-T or

DVB-T2 DVB-T2 is an abbreviation for "Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial"; it is the extension of the television standard DVB-T, issued by the consortium DVB, devised for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial tele ...

receiver with MPEG-4 support. * HDTV indicates that the channel requires a HD-ready TV and a

HDTV receiver.

Monopoly distribution

Boxer had a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

for encrypted of television signals in the digital terrestrial network. If a broadcaster got to distribute television it had to either broadcast

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

or use the encryption services of Boxer. This was a contravention to European Union rules which require that there is an open market for radio and television broadcasting. On 17 October 2006 the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

announced that it was taking Sweden to the European Court of Justice for failure to abolish the monopoly. Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Competition, said: "''I regret that I have had to refer Sweden to the Court, but Swedish viewers should no longer be denied their right, guaranteed by (EU) law, to choose digital terrestrial TV suppliers''". The case against Sweden at the European Court of Justice taken by the European Commission, has since been withdrawn as a result of Sweden's amendment of the broadcast regulations. Previously, Sweden only allowed a single operator to handle all encryption services on the DTT platform but under the amended regulation, new operators will be able to offer encrypted DTT services making it possible for them to launch pay-DTT services.

References

External links

*http://www.boxer.se/ – Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Boxer Tv Access Television in Sweden 1999 establishments in Sweden 3i Group companies Digital television Pay television da:Boxer TV

Channels

Monopoly distribution

See also

References

External links