Skandinavian Broadcasting Corporation

Skandinavian Broadcasting Corporation (UBC)

Public-service broadcaster overview
Formed	1971
Jurisdiction	Skandinavia
Headquarters	Oslo
Employees	7481
Minister responsible	Ministry of Transport and Communications
Public-service broadcaster executive	Hans Tore Bjerkaas, Director
Website	www.ubc.sk

Skandinavian Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as SBC, is the Skandinavian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company. As heir of the former public companies from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, it is a founding member of the European Broadcasting Union.

Financing

It is primarily financed through a combination of a mandatory annual license fee for each person who is in possession of a TV (20%), a direct allocation from the nation budget (70%) and a number of commercial activities such as programme and DVD sales, spin-off products and certain types of sponsorship (10%).

History

The history of the corporation goes back to the origins of the Union. Just after the integration of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the new government decided to merge the public radio and television in both countries into a single organization. From that time and in subsequent years SBC would incorporate the public service broadcasters in the new countries that joined Skandinavia.

During the period 2007-2010 the corporation was restructured and reorganized to reach the actual size and organization divesting many radio and TV channels.

Organisation

The SBC is a corporation, independent from direct government intervention, with its activities being overseen by the SBC Executive Board. General management of the organisation is in the hands of a CEO, who is appointed by the Board; he is the SBC's Editor-in-Chief and chairs the Executive Board.

The currenet Charter specifies that the mission of the Corporation is to "inform, educate and entertain". It states that the Corporation exists to serve the public interest and to promote its public purposes:

• Sustaining citizenship and civil society;
• Promoting education and learning;
• Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;
• Representing Skandinavia, its regions and communities;
• Bringing Skandinavia to the world and the world to Skandinavia;
• Helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.

Corporate structure

• Executive Board
• CEO's Office
• Content Groups:
  • Journalism (incorporates News, Sport and Global News)
  • Vision (incorporates television production and commissioning)
  • Audio & Music (incorporates radio and music production and commissioning)
  • Future Media & Technology (incorporates web-based services plus Research and Development)
• Professional Services:
  • Operations (incorporates policy, strategy, legal, property and distribution)
  • Marketing, Communications and Audiences
  • Finance
• UBC People (incorporates human resources and training)
• Commercial Groups:
  • UBC Worldwide ASA
  • UBC Resources

Production divisions

• SBC News: It is the division of the group in charge of news programs, both national and from different regional offices.
• SBC Regional: It is the division of the group in charge of the regional channels and programs. It manages the regional offices.
• SBC Programs: It is the main base for producing entertainment, culture, facts, and drama programs.
• SBC Sport: It is the division of the group in charge for covering and producing sport events.

Radio channels

• SBC Radio 1: National entertainment and news
• SBC Radio 2: Commercial music
• SBC Radio 3: Classic and non commercial music
• SBC Radio 4: International broadcast
• SBC Radio 5: 24h news
• SBC Radio 6: Regional programs.

TV channels

• SBCTV 1: National entertainment and news
• SBCTV 2: National entertainment and news
• SBCTV Regional: Regional programs with national news
• SBCTV Sport: General sports programming
• SBCTV 24: 24 hour news
• SBCTV Culture: Diverse cultural programming
• SBCTV Family: Children and youth programming
• SBCTV International: Specialized programming for international broadcast satellite.