Population:	9.1 million
Coverage:	35%

Last update: 03-09-2011

DAB transmissions started in 1995 and today reaches 35% of the population with 7 services from public service broadcaster Swedish Radio. The license which SR operates under is valid until 31^st December 2013 and it does not allow Swedish Radio to expand the digital radio network further. 

In 2009, pilot transmissions of DAB+ started and the coverage quickly reached 22% of the population with 16 services from public service radio, commercial radio and community local radio

In 2010, the new Radio and TV Act came into effect which, for the first time, allowed commercial radio companies to apply for digital licenses. This paved the way for a radio industry united behind DAB+, something for which both public and commercial services have been lobbying for some time. In 2011, the licensing process for commercial digital radio started. It is expected that commercial licenses will be issued in 2012 with a possible start of transmissions in 2013. 

Today, in 2012, Sweden is anticipating the launch of commercial digital radio. The license process for commercial digital radio is expected to run to the end of 2012.  As for the public service digital radio network, this awaits political decisions expected to come 2012-2013, meaning they can be effective in the coming licensing period that starts 1^st January 2014.       

The DAB network (mux 1) is operated by Teracom and covers major cities Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Alvsbyn on a single frequency 12B, currently with coverage of about 35% of the population. 

The DAB+ network (mux 2) is operated by Teracom and covers major cities Stockholm, Uppsala and Gavle using a multifrequency network. DAB+ coverage reaches 22% of the population with around 16 services from all the major broadcasters; Swedish Radio, MTG radio and SBS radio, aswell as some local community radios.

Current coverage maps can be found here:
http://www.teracom.se/Sandarinformation/Tackningskartor/Tackningskarta-digitalradio/

In this country there are

• National multiplex: 1 Regular
• Regional multiplex: 1 Trial

Mux 1 carries 7 programmes from public service broadcaster Swedish Radio. Most of them are webbchannels only broadcasted in DAB and not on FM.

SR Varlden (world news/music)
SR Klassiskt (classical music)
SR Knattekanalen (childrens channel)
SR Minnen (archives)
SR P1 (spoken word)
SR P3 Star (youth channel)
SR P7 Sisuradio (finnish speaking channel)

Mux 2 carries 16 programmes from all major broadcasters; Swedish Radio, MTG radio and SBS radio, as well as community radio channels and channels today only available on the Internet.

SR P2 Musik (classical music)
SR P3 (youth channel)
SR P4 Stockholm (local/regional news and sports)
Alltid Nyheter (24/7 news)
Mix Megapol (adult contemporary‎)
Rockklassiker (rock channel)
Vinyl (oldies channel)
The Voice (hip-hop and RnB)
Hitzone (various/hits music)
Skärgårdsradion (archipelago news/weather)
Radio Seven (dance/hits music)
Dansbandskanalen (dance hall channel)
Rix FM (adult contemporary‎)
Bandit (rock channel)
NRJ (youth channel)
Radio 1 (spoken word)

In addition to the audio services there are also a few data services available which include: SR Plus, a BWS service which contains a condensed version of the SR web and SR EPG, a trial version for testing electronic programme guides and SR TPEG, which is a test service for future TPEG streams.  

Digital radio marketing activities in Sweden are today awaiting the regulatory process. This also means that there are no official DAB/DAB+ sales records as of today. The Swedish home-electronics organization has however roughly estimated the n:o households with DAB and/or DAB+ digital radio receivers to 15-20,000. Volvo Cars, which have a 20% market share in Sweden, have stated that in5% of the cases where a new Volvo is sold, the customer have requested the optional DAB/DAB+ tuner.

The size of the Swedish market is roughly 3,8 million radio receivers sold each year.
The market is divided into the following categories:

• Heavy/light audio market: approx. 500,000 units/year sold with radio
• The car market:  approx 300,000 new cars sold per year, (4,3 million legacy cars)
• The mobile phone market: approx 3 million units/year sold with radio (4/5)

In 2009, Teracom started pilot transmissions of DAB+ with the purpose of letting commercial, community and public service broadcasters trial the latest technology.

A brief summary on the DAB+ pilot can be found here 

Regulation for public service radio

The Government proposes and the Parliament decides on the national Broadcasting Act in which license conditions and terms are set for the public service broadcaster, Swedish Radio. The license period is six years. The current license is valid until 31th December 2013 and it allows Swedish Radio to broadcast digital radio using DAB/DAB+, to four regions in Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Norrbotten) with a max n:o of 9 services (Stockholm and Norrbotten) or 10 (Gothenburg and Malmo). In 2011, the Government commissioned an inquiry to broadly review the license terms for radio and television public service under the new licensing period starting 2014. Issues to be reviewed include digital radio. The assignment must be reported no later than 1 September 2012. A bill is expected to be presented to parliament in 2013 for the new license terms to take effect from first January 2014.

Regulation for commercial radio

In 2011, the national authority for Radio and Television, together with the Post and Telecom Agency and following a public consultation, issued a strategy for licensing commercial digital radio. It is expected that commercial licenses will be issued 2012 with a possible start of transmissions in 2013-2014. Some positions in the digital strategy are:

. :

• The licenses will be decided in the form of a beauty contest. There will be only a smaller administrative fee for application and annual use of spectrum
• The technology T-DAB and compatible technology should be used and DAB+ could further be specified in the license conditions.
• The entire broadcast space that the government has dedicated to digital commercial radio, two multiplexers in band III, each divided in 34 regions, will be included in the licensing process.
• It will be possible to seek licenses for both national and regional broadcasts. How many such permits granted and the breakdown between national and regional licenses will be determined after an overall assessment of the applications received in each region.
• There will be no requirements in the license for an average minimum or maximum bit rate per service. Each applicant should state their capacity needs per service knowing that the starting point of licensing is that each transmitter can accommodate max 16 services @72 kbit/s each.
• The license holders shall cooperate in technical matters including choice of network operator. Coverage requirements may be imposed to ensure that the digital broadcasts reach a certain proportion of the population within the broadcasting area.