Innovative ideas push Sweden's SVT forward during crisis and help take it ahead into 2021 By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, December 7, 2020 - 14:59
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SVT worked with the local organisation committee and the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation to secure this arena and make it COVID-safe for reporters, crew and athletes
As Europe went into lockdown earlier this year, one country stood out for choosing not to. While various restrictions were put in place and live sport was cancelled in Sweden, life was able to carry on as normal in more ways than many other countries experienced.
However, at Swedish national public television broadcaster SVT, the lack of live sport put them in the same position as all the other sports broadcasters in Europe.
sa Edlund J nsson, head of sports at SVT, explains to SVG Europe what happened in the early days of the pandemic: In the spring, Sweden never went into lockdown in the way other countries in Europe did. We, of course, had a lot of restrictions, among them restrictions around public gatherings, and from late March sports were not allowed to have more than 50 people in the stands. With that regulation, and with the pandemic hitting Sweden hard, no sports were played for almost three months.
I am so proud of my department; they never hesitated to switch over to news when sports shut down
The Swedish championship finals in ice bandy were played on 21 March in front of empty stands. Those finals were the last live sports to be played in Sweden for several months.
Edlund J nsson goes on: For us at SVT Sport this meant we had no live sports to broadcast and basically only COVID-19-related sports news to report on for our sports news programmes and online. Almost from one day to another we had to change the whole operation at the sports department and come up with a bunch of new ideas.
From sport to news and current affairs
Early on in the pandemic, the sports department turned to another genre to keep viewers entertained. In the middle of March, when almost all sports were shut down, the director of SVT news and the sports division, Anne Lagercrantz, asked Edlund J nsson if the sports department, could do something on the weekends since you will not be airing sports for a while .
Edlund J nsson immediately said yes and made a quick sketch of a new TV format. This was a news and current affairs programme, summarising the news week and answering live questions about COVID-19 from TV viewers, on air for three hours every Saturday and Sunday morning.
We wanted to be in command of things despite the new situation. I wanted the sports department to feel and know that we acted, that we were not sitting on our hands
I showed the brief to a project manager, talked to some members on the staff and five days later we were live with the first episode, Edlund J nsson says. Then we went on broadcasting the new programme, called Helgstudion (The Weekend Show), for 11 weeks.
The programme was so well received by viewers that we were asked to continue broadcasting the programme this autumn together with the news department, adds Edlund J nsson. What people really appreciated with Helgstudion was that we used the sports tonality when covering news and really gave time for people to explain when interviewed.
She continues: I am so proud of my department; they never hesitated to switch over to news when sports shut down. The department showed all that we are true professionals not only' sports journalists, and the SVT sports department was seen as an inspiration to other sports journalists in Sweden.
Staff from the sports department also went to join the news department at the start of the pandemic, as it found itself in the opposite situation to the sports teams. Says Edlund J nsson: When the pandemic hit both sports and society, we had a sports department with permanent staff, but they had no live sports to cover. At the same time the news department was working hard around the clock, so they asked if we could help out. I said yes, we can', and before I knew it we had around 30 people from the sports department working for the news department. Two of our cameramen also offered to produce the daily press conferences with the Public Health Authorities, a TV signal that was offered to all media companies in Sweden.
The outdoor SVT studio from the biathlon season opening in Sweden
International interest for new sports format
Another new idea was actually able to bring live sports back to TV for a limited time; SVT Sports created a new initiative alongside some federations in April with the creation of a TV format called The Challenge. This saw the two best players in tennis, table tennis and padel facing each other in a best of one game' challenge. These events followed all regulations in Sweden and were COVID-19 safe.
Notes Edlund J nsson: These events were the only live sports aired on television at this time. We even got international interest for the tennis and table tennis matches and I know that those matches were streamed on international platforms.
From the beginning of the crisis, SVT decided to take control of the situation it now found itself in. Explains Edlund J nsson: We wanted to be in command of things despite the new situation. I wanted the sports department to feel and know that we acted, that we were not sitting on our hands. It was important to me that everyone felt needed, that everyone had the right information about the situation and that we helped wherever needed within SVT.
We also wanted to make sure that the TV audience had sports to watch, even if it was different than normal, she continues. Therefore we tried to be as creative as possible, even though times were affecting us. And it was very important that we kept on bringing the sports news to everyone, both on linear TV a
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Innovative ideas push Sweden's SVT forward during crisis and help take it ahead into 2021 By Heather McLean, Editor 
