{{Unreferenced, date=March 2008 TV3 is the brand name used by Viasat's flagship channels in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

, the Baltic States,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Viasat is part of the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

media company Modern Times Group. The first TV3 channel was launched on New Year's Eve 1987, breaking the monopoly on broadcasting in the Scandinavian languages. TV3 broadcasts at least six separate channels in

and the Baltic States, each with a share of localized entertainment and documentaries produced in the respective domestic languages. All the channels are broadcast from

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. Th ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, which means that Viasat is able to circumvent the more stringent criteria for commercial messages that apply in the Scandinavian countries, specifically in relation to advertisements aimed directly at children, and the stricter rules on interrupting programs with commercials.

Countries

At launch, there was one TV3 channel for all the Scandinavian countries. Separate channels for Denmark and Norway were soon launched so that there was a TV3 channel for each country. In the 1990s, TV3 expanded to cover the Baltic countries. Although Viasat's latest channels are not named TV3 they are all very much based on the TV3 model. The channels that use the TV3 concept are: * TV3 Sweden * TV3 Denmark * TV3 Norway *

TV3 Estonia TV3 is a commercial television channel targeted at an Estonian language audience owned by Providence Equity Partners. History It was founded in 1996 after two recently established television stations, EVTV and RTV, were merged. TV3 has two sist ...

TV3 Latvia Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPT ...

TV3 Lithuania TV3 Lithuania (''TV trys'') is a Lithuanian free-to-air television channel that was launched on 11 April 1993. It was owned by Modern Times Group (MTG) until 2017, when it was acquired by Providence Equity Partners for €115 million. Broadca ...

* TV3 Slovenia * Viasat 3 Hungary

Countries

See also

External links