Stockholm – FOX International Channels (FIC), 21st Century FOX’s international multimedia business, announced on June 4 the upcoming launch of the world’s renowned general entertainment channel, FOX, in Sweden. The channel will be made available to 1.8 million Swedish viewers after the summer, through television distributor Com Hem’s analogue and digital packages. Com Hem is a Swedish cable operator, with nearly two million connected households and 830,000 unique customers subscribing to the company’s TV, high speed broadband and fixed telephony services.
The launch of FOX in Sweden is another milestone in the distribution strategy for FIC brands, which for more than a decade have included the factual channels National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild. FOX will be the first FIC entertainment channel in the Swedish market and is an integral part of FIC’s strategy to boost the distribution of its flagship brand throughout Europe. FIC now broadcasts FOX entertainment channels in 25 European markets, including Nordic neighbours Norway and Finland. In Europe and Africa, FOX is distributed to 59.5 million subscribers and in over 216 million homes across 125 countries worldwide.
The new channel will embody FOX’s global brand spirit but, like all FOX channels worldwide, be tailored to its local market and audience – a strategy that has allowed FIC to consolidate the presence of its global flagship brand worldwide. FOX Sweden will comply with the global mantra as expected by its fans, “First on FOX” – meaning first run premieres immediately after their U.S. premiere. The Swedish channel’s schedule will further include a broad variety of entertainment genres and content, including the new FOX series Wayward Pines, featuring Matt Dillon and Juliette Lewis, new global FIC productions already in the pipeline, high profile acquisitions and non-scripted entertainment programmes, European productions, and also acquisitions specifically selected for a Swedish audience and Swedish taste.
“Com Hem has the strongest channel line-up amongst Swedish TV suppliers today and we are constantly looking for new great content for our customers. We welcome FOX to the Com Hem-family and are particularly excited to be the first operator in Sweden to bring this great new entertainment channel to all our customers and connected households,” says Jon James, COO at Com Hem.”
“We’re thrilled to be working with our partners Com Hem to bring FOX to Sweden. This bold move further strengthens the FIC presence in the Nordic region,” says Ase Ytreland, Managing Director of Nordic Region. “As we have proven in Norway and Finland already, Swedish viewers will be offered the very best of the FOX experience, which we see as a natural step in our growth here. We expect Sweden to become one of our most important markets so we are already hiring many new staff to be located in the beautiful new FOX offices in central Stockholm. We are here to build a great new entertainment channel for the Swedish viewers.”
The Swedish launch is part of FIC’s broader European expansion strategy for its flagship brand. FOX has been broadcast in Finland since April 2012 and in Norway since 2011. FOX is also available in European countries such as the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
