Swedish commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV4 has announced that its new TV12 channel will launch on March 29, combining sports and lifestyle programming.
The new channel will focus on lifestyle content during the week, reverting to a sports-focused schedule at weekends.
TV12 will replace the TV4 Sport Xtra channel and will offer French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and domestic Superettan football. TV4 in November signed a one-year extension to its rights deal for Ligue 1, the top division of French football, with Paris Saint-Germain and Swedish national team star Zlatan Ibrahimovic a major draw for Swedish viewers.
TV4 holds the rights to the current 2013-14 season and will also broadcast Ligue 1’s 2014-15 campaign on TV12. Additionally, the new channel will show the equestrian discipline of trotting.
TV4 is launching TV12 with the goal of the new channel becoming the group’s third entry on the top-10 list of Sweden’s biggest television channels. Anton Glanzelius, deputy channel director for the TV4 Group, said: “With TV12, we will fill the existing gap for lifestyle television. By combining it with really strong sports coverage on the weekends, we believe that the channel will appeal to both viewers and advertisers.”