Conference turris::scandia

    I agree that it is unfortunate that certain media in Scandinavian
    countries choose to paint a negative picture of the USA. 
    
    I'm not sure what the remedy for this is.  What part does not
    broadcasting on Thursdays play in goverment control of the media?
    And how did Thursday get choosen? Why not Wednesday, or Monday,
    for instance?

	Re: note 147.0

	****** Flame on *******

	 Your view of Scandinavia seems very naive and narrow-minded indeed.
	 First, you are making the mistake of assuming that 'Scandinavia' is
	 a  homogenous  entity,  which  it  isn't. Making that assumption is
	 almost  as  bad  as  saying  that  Louisiana  and  Connecticut  are
	 culturally  identical.  Of  course  the Nordic people have a common
	 heritage,   but  that's  a  long  way  from  being  demographically
	 homogenous.  The  rest  of this note refers to Sweden, but I'm sure
	 most of it could apply to the rest of Scandinavia as well.

	 The Swedish  political  system  is  not based on the Anglo-American
	 model.  Sweden  has always been a monarchy and still is - there has
	 been a long tradition of more or less one-man rule by the king. The
	 king  is now more or less a figurehead, but the traditional respect
	 for  authority  more  or less remains - this is probably the reason
	 you Americans get the 'enormous homogenity of attitude' impression.

	 You are  entirely wrong when you say that the political spectrum is
	 narrow.  The  five  parties  currently  represented  in the Swedish
	 Parliament,   from   the   very   small   Communist  Party  to  the
	 Conservatives,  represent extremely diverse political philosophies,
	 I  can  assure  you. I would say that the U.S political spectrum is
	 VERY  narrow indeed, what with only two parties - parties which are
	 not as much ideological entities as election machines.

	 You are  further  wrong  in  assuming  that  the  government,  once
	 elected,  has the ability to 'monopolise and control the freedom of
	 information',  or  for  that  matter make any decisions of its own.
	 Even  disregarding  the  fact that there is a constitution to worry
	 about,  all  political  decisions  must  be made by the Parliament.
	 Quite  unlike the U.S President, the Prime Minister has no right to
	 veto any decision. All decisions affecting the Constitution have to
	 be  taken  twice  by  Parliament  -  and  there must be an election
	 separating the two decisions.
	
	 Finally, the  United  States isn't immune to criticism. Even though
	 some  (most?)  Americans,  and  certainly  your  politicians,  have
	 assumed the self-appointed role of the saviour and 'parole officer'
	 of  the  human  race,  you  can  not take it for granted that other
	 countries  will  accept  everything  emanating  from  the  U.S! The
	 self-consciuos  attitude  of  looking at everything not American as
	 'quaint  and interesting' is not the way to go if the United States
	 wishes to gain respect and admiration.

	 All nations have their good and bad points, Scandinavia and the U.S
	 not  excluded.  I  think  you  will find very few Scandinavians who
	 consider  the  United States a 'bad, corrupt and evil place to live
	 in'.  I, for one, most certainly don't. You do have to realise that
	 the United States is heavily plagued by crime, poverty, drug abuse,
	 political  dishonesty  and  money-fixation/greed  -  these  are not
	 entirely  pleasant  properties. These are problems that affect most
	 nations  to  a  varying degree, but if you come to Sweden, you will
	 find  that even though we have those problems as well, they are far
	 less  apparent  than  you  may  expect.  Granted that we have other
	 problems,  our politicians being the worst, but I think that before
	 you  place  us  behind the Iron Curtain you should catch up on your
	 homework, or better still, come here and have a look.

	 ***** Flame off ******

	 Respectfully, Per-Olof
	 Inhabitant of Stockholm (haven't been arrested in a while  :-)

Re: 0
	A risk ? What kind of risk you mean?

Re: .2
	It's good that you get it before me, because I agree.
	Finnland is not monarchy, but all exept this is quite
	similar. 

	Maybe we see too much american series at television, 
	because I hope that all we see is not true 8-)

		Asko

    re .2: If you had read .0 more carefully, you might have noticed
    that Anker talks about having immigrated to US... I would bet he's
    visited Sweden quite a few times (after all, it's very close to
    Copenhagen).
    
    Not that I agree with his views, though... except maybe for the
    state-run electronic media (radio, TV). But at least Finland has
    not *only* state-run radio/TV but private as well...
    

        Re:< Note 147.2 by STKTSC::LITBY "Per-Olof Litby, CSC Stockholm/Sweden" >

        Per-Olof.
        
                Wow!  There's no need to be  that defensive.  All I asked
        for was discussion, not condemnation.
        
                As someone  commented in a response, I emmigrated here in
        1978  from  Denmark  and  don't  need a lecture on the  political
        system.    But  you  did  miss  the  point  that  there  is  less
        constitutional  protection  in  the  scandinavian    systems   of
        government than here and a party  with  a  parliamentary majority
        can make dramatic changes with no checks and balances.
        
                I'm really surprised that nobody thinks it's bad  to have
        a state monopolize the communications industry.
        
                There  are  lots  of  other  parties in the US  than  the
        Democarats and Republicans, and they can be really extreme.
        
        Anker

	Re: note 147.5 by Anker -

	 Well, I  suppose  I  overreacted  slightly. No offence intended - I
	 didn't  intend to lecture you on Scandinavian politics, but I still
	 think  you  were  generalising. And the somewhat condescending view
	 many  Americans have on Scandinavia or Northern Europe, represented
	 by your 'quaint and interesting' statement, still annoys me.
	 Also, state-run television (which I am against) is not exactly  the
	 same  as government-monopolised media.

	 Well, you  had  your  discussion  -  I  think the subject certainly
	 warrants discussion, let's hope for some other people's views!

	 Regards, P-O
	 

        Re:< Note 147.6 by STKTSC::LITBY "Per-Olof Litby, CSC Stockholm/Sweden" >

                Apology accepted, and no offence taken.

                It was  exactly the condescending attitude of "quaint and
        interesting" that I  objected  to  and  suggested some discussion
        around the underlying issues.
        
                A state monopoly exists  when  there's no opportunity for
        private enterprise to enter the market.  This is exactly true for
        the airwave media in Denmark and  to  my  knowledge  elsewhere in
        Scandinavia.    (Except Finland, which I believe  isn't  part  of
        Scandinavia to be 100% correct).
        
        Anker

    In Denmark they have an expression, that Summer is a Thursday. 
    Given that in the other three seasons it gets dark too early to
    do much other than watch television, that probably explains why
    at least one day a year/week they get out and get some fresh air 
    and sunshine.
    
    Frankly, I'm surprised that the American news media dared to report
    on such a practice.  What if it should spread to this continent.
    What if people stood up on their hind legs and said "I can't be
    bothered watching this crap".  
    
    Television has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses and
    as long as everyone is curled up with the Cosbys or cowering from
    the crisis of Communist conspiracies, then they can be talked into
    anything, whether it's soap or sophistry.

For a moment, I was suspecting that this conference was waking up from a
deep slumber, but after an initial flurry of activity, all the
Scandinavians (Nords?) start apologizing to each other, thus showing
their common heritage, and narrow range of views. (:-) 

Having lived in Sweden for ten years, perhaps I might comment from the
other side: 

In both America and Sweden, the majority of citizens hold similar views
on issues of importance -- most Americans believe in the "power of the
free-market economy", for example.  Of course, there are a few hard-core
socialists and libertarians, but they are in no ways representative of
the majority.  Similarly, in Sweden, the majority believes in a mixed
economy with control split between labor, managment, and the government.
This includes the the "communists" (VPK) and the self-described bourgeois
parties.

Thus, I would claim, on issues of importance, there is a narrow range of
opinion displayed because there is an equally narrow range of opinion in
the society.  Furthermore, I would claim that this narrow range is
not solely due to the effect of mass-media, whether state run or not.

Both Sweden and the USA have been guilty of over-emphasizing aspects of
the other society that the local populace finds exotic.  The official
(as opposed to the actual) sexual morality of the USA is such that
European "openness" is remarkable (watch the tourists parading along the
beaches in the South of France).  Similarly, Swedish tv is obsessed with
American violence.  (The last year I lived in Sweden, just about every
tv newscast began with film from the South Boston school bussing riots
followed by interviews with police explaining their "shoot 'em first"
attitude.) 

Because Scandinavia is superficially very similar to America, there is a
tendancy to underestimate the differences, thus finding what differences
that do exist more noteworthy than they actually are. This is true even
within Scandinavia: the Scandinavians should be able to see this by
examining their attitude to their neighbours, and the way their
neighbours are portrayed in the media. ("Danes are happy and open,"
"Swedes have a law for everything.") 

Martin.

    Martin make some interesting points in .9: and has the edge on me
    for length and strength of contact with Scandinavian countries.
    
    Nevertheless, I submit that the similarity between the Scandinavian
    countries and the US is more than superficial (perhaps I'm taking
    this characterization out of context, Martin?).
    
    The Scandinavian countries, Sweden in particular, seem very much to
    be WESTERN nations, culturally and philosophically as well as
    technologically (is this the superficial?).  I think Martin is right
    on target with his comment to the effect that the US on the one
    hand, and Sweden on the other hand, have been making too much of
    the other country's distinctive "sins" (so to speak).
    
    Let's not forget how quickly and forcefully Scandinavians integrate
    into North American society.  We Americans think of our heritage
    as English; let's not forget, as the PBS series "The Story of English"
    has so recently reminded us, that this heritage (including the language)
    owes a lot to Scandinavian influences (Danish in particular).
    
    Within this conference, we can do a lot to dispell the false
    characterizations perpetrated by the media on both continents.
                                                                  
    As to the alleged "narrowness" of shared opinion, that's not a
    characterization I would choose.  I rather think the opinions
    could be characterized better as 'fair' and 'open-minded'.
    Certainly I would defend the Scandinavian people I have meet and read
    as 'rational.'

    re .7: Be careful, you might insult the Finns when you say they're
    not in Scandinavia...   and they're know to be good in using a Finnish
    knife...          :-)
    
    Well, today I guess the word Scandinavia us used as a geopolitical
    term describing the *Nordic* countries and Nordic Council, and Finland
    definitely belongs to these.
    
    Yes, I think the Nordic countries are somewhat similar to the US;
    whether one calls it superficial is more a matter of defining what
    is superficial. But then, at the same level, I would say Germany
    is very similar to US (even more so than e.g. Denmark I would dare 
    to say).
    
    I think the biggest not so superficial difference is in the social
    security system. The society (=the people) takes care of it's members;
    and I would dare to say this fact is accepted and supported by a
    majority in these countries. [There are a few notes on this topic
    already in this file].
    
    
    
    

    re: .11
    
    I find it interesting that you find Germany more like America than
    Denmark.  I cannot speak for Denmark, as I only travelled through
    it, and I can barely speak for Sweden, having spent only two weeks
    there, but I found Sweden much more like the U.S.A. than  the B.R.D.
    was.  The Swedes seemed much more open to change, and in fact embraced
    technology more whole heartedly than the Germans.  In my short time
    there, my cousins spoke glowingly of the possibility that cable
    t.v. might be coming to Sweden soon, but the Bavarians on the other
    hand, seemed to have an un-natural fear of the "cable monster",
    and seemed to believe that it would ruin their culture.
    
    Another example: try to find an automatic-teller bank machine in
    a city much smaller than N�rnberg in Germany, and you'll look a
    long time, whereas I was informed that these machines are "old hat"
    in Sweden.
    
    Granted, these are superficial differences (or similarities), but
    nonetheless, there.  I would be greatly interested as to others'
    opinions on this matter.  I should clarify, I cannot really speak
    for "Germany", as I spent most of my time in Bavaria, which I realize
    is the most conservative province.
    
    H�lsningar,
    
    Scott
    
    P.S. Back to the original topic, Germany also has state-run t.v.,
    and I found the quality of programming was vastly inferior to that
    of American t.v.  I don't know if this is *because* it was state-run,
    or in spite of that fact.   :-)

    I agree with most notes you made. It is true that the Scandinavian
    countries are usually more open-minded towards new technologies.
    
    Talking of banking, though, I would say that (except maybe automatic
    tellers) the banking system in both germany and Scandinavia is much
    more advanced. BTW, to my knowledge the world's *first* real-time
    banking system was installed in Finland (by Burroughs). I don't
    remember exactly, but it was a *long* time ago.
    
    I would also disagree on the quality of TV programming (though this
    tends to be a matter of taste). The main difference is *quantity*,
    but obviously if you have umpteen channels to choose from, you#ll
    find quality also.
    
    Germany *does* have private TV and radio nowadays. There are 4 private
    radio stations in Munich nowadays, plus the first (normal
    non-satellite)TV station just started some time ago.
    
    

Group soc.culture.nordic
article 649

    From: [email protected] (Anders Andersson)
    Subject: Re: Swedish Radio (TV)
    Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden

    . . .

    The term "Sveriges Radio" (literally Radio of Sweden) was once the
    common name of the company, but is now a formal, less used name of a
    combine, consisting of:
    
  Sveriges Television (SVT), the TV network of two channels + regional news;
  Riksradion (RR), the three nation-wide radio channels;
  Lokalradion, the regional radio stations (about two dozen, I think);
  Utbildningsradion (UR), the educational services in both radio and TV.

    I could be wrong on some details, especially I'm uncertain about the
    organization of the regional radio services. I don't know where to put
    the Overseas Services, maybe they are outside the combine. True, the
    term "radio" is of course inappropriate, and thus the name of the
    combine is not used in everyday speech, only when discussing
    organizational matters. Virtually the same company has been in charge
    all the time since the introduction of radio in the thirties, and
    public TV transmissions were introduced only in the late fifties
    (colour and second channel came 1969).

    . . .

    I would say TV doesn't in effect go ON air until 18:00 with their
    regular schedule, including news, children's programs, game shows,
    science, more news, documentaries, soaps, news and sports,
    entertainment and movies until near midnight. During summer weekdays
    there is a one-hour block of children's programs in the morning (09:00)
    as well. Now, I don't have the schedule in front of me, but I believe
    during (term) daytime there are educational programs mainly intended
    for recording in schools, and sometimes there are of course live
    broadcasts of sports events and similar things. (In the early
    seventies, Apollo launches were among these things, and we saw the
    first shuttle launch live, too...)

    On Saturdays and Sundays however, there is transmission a great deal of
    the day with children's programs, news and documentaries in various
    immigrant languages (Finnish, Serbo-Croat, Greek and Turkish mostly),
    rebroadcast of last week's late soaps and documentaries, religious
    services, old movies and even more children's programs.

    SVT does transmit imbedded teletext (I believe that's the proper name)
    information over both channels, but I don't think there is any great
    demand for it. A few pages are also transmitted as picture five minutes
    a day. During non-programmed times there is usually a test pattern
    (with radio music or tuning tone) in the day, but no carrier at all in
    the night.

    Speaking about children's programs, I understand that parents might
    have a hard time explaining to their kids why the SVT pedagogic stuff
    is so much better than cable Marvel-style cartoons (He-man,
    Transformers etc) going on and on in Sky/Super Channel. I wonder if it
    was in a sudden whim of "competitive spirit" that SVT started to
    broadcast the ridiculous (sorry!) Batman series of the sixties (?) last
    season (he had been seen on Sky Channel for some time then)...

    In case you wonder what American series have been shown here for the
    last ten years, I could mention Soap, Dallas, Benson, Dynasty, Falcon
    Crest, V, The Hulk, Huxtables and Cheers, among many others. Sounds
    pretty familiar, right?

    The radio channels have schedules as follows:
    Channel 1: News, documentaries, science, culture, drama and debate
    Channel 2: Educational programs, immigrant service, classical music
    Channel 3: 24-hour service with light music and hourly news in brief

    I would say listening to foreign radio broadcasts is not too common
    among ordinary people, since most modern receivers have nothing but an
    88-104 MHz FM band (or poor AM reception anyway). DX-ing is uncommon
    nowadays.

    A side note: When travelling in central Europe last year, I found it
    much easier to get hold on Swedish news in Czechoslovakia than in
    Austria, simply because the old-fashioned radio in my hotel room in
    Prague had an AM band and a loose antenna, while I couldn't find a
    Swedish newspaper in Vienna (and *their* radio had only preset
    buttons)... Guest service, eh? :-)
    
    --
    Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University
    Paper Mail: P.O. Box 520, S-751 20 UPPSALA, Sweden
    Phone: +46 18 183170   EMail: [email protected]                          

    From: [email protected] (Ulf Dahlen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Free enterprise in Sweden
    Date: 15 Oct 90 11:31:23 GMT
    Organization: CIS Dept, Univ of Linkoping, Sweden
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Lars-Henrik
    Eriksson) writes:

  >I really bugs me that some people in all possible circumstances try to point 
  >out public media (especially Swedish) as particularly stupid or gullible.
 
    Well, it is! Swedish television news programs are *horrible*! Maybe you
    love it, but I'm not alone in recognizing the bad quality. Swedish
    radio is better and newspapers are almost readable, but TV...
 
    The main problem with Swedish TV and radio is of course
     a) state owned
     b) monopoly
    Nothing good comes out of this.
 
    This probably sounds like the situation in a communist country to many
    Americans, but it isn't as bad as that! Most European countries have
    had a similar situation in the past. Britain had only BBC, Italy only
    RAI etc, but now almost every country has independent TV and radio
    stations. Sweden hasn't yet, but we have two satellite channels
    competing with Swedish Television's two channels.
 
    It is enormously refreshing too see new Swedish and Scandinavian
    satellite channels starting. This gives media a new start in Sweden and
    will probably improve the quality of state-owned media as well. The
    media future looks bright!
 
    ----------
    Ulf Dahlen
    Work:  Dept of Computer & Info Science, University of Linkoping, Sweden
    Email: [email protected], [email protected]
    Home:  Troskaregatan 51:23, S-583 30  Linkoping, Sweden
    "The beginning is a very delicate time."

    From: [email protected] (Torkel Franzen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Free enterprise (cable TV) in Sweden
    Date: 17 Oct 90 17:39:28 GMT
    Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
 
    Some comments from a Grade A Couch Potato.

    There is indeed plenty of rubbish.  But TV3 isn't all that bad. For
    example, Rumpole has appeared only on TV3.  Also, they show some good
    movies, like Time Bandits. I also like some of their old US stuff, like
    Alias Smith and Jones. They do tend to overdo the commercials and break
    up movies in a disgusting way.

    The recently created TV4 (also Swedish) is not so hot so far; it
    remains to be seen how it will develop. Then we have Super Channel, now
    owned by Italians. They're hard up for cash, and show a lot of movies
    from the forties...sometimes you'll find a gem, though - say, Return of
    the Dismal Swamp Creature.

    Of course we can enjoy the pleasant mindlessness of MTV! Also, there
    are some channels not (I suppose) available in the US, such as the
    Russian Horizont and the French TV5.

    The Discovery channel shows quite a lot of interesting documentary
    stuff. And there are some channels you have to shell out for
    explicitly, such as Filmnet, which has a good turnout of movies around
    the clock. -In all, we have 26 or so cable channels available at the
    moment. Quite a lot of garbage, US style - game shows, soaps - but
    also, for around $40 a month, enough to keep any enthusiast occupied.

    Article         5793
    From: [email protected] (Jorma M�ntyl�)
    Newsgroups: rec.radio.noncomm,rec.radio.shortwave,soc.culture.nordic,
	sci.electronics
    Subject: Re: Swedish government source of LPFM transmitters?
    Date: 14 Mar 91 11:18:11 GMT
    Organization: University of Tampere, Finland
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Robert Horvitz)
    writes:

    >
    >Does anyone know anything about the Narradionamndn in Sweden, a
    >government agency which apparently sells transmitters to community
    >radio stations?  (I have the name, address and phone number from the
    >1991 World Radio-TV Handbook).
    > 
    >In particular, I want to know about those transmitters - cost,
    >specifications, etc.  Are they sold outside of Sweden?
    > 
    >Does anyone have the name of someone at the agency who could
    >discuss the availability of their equipment to new licensed
    >low-power stations in Eastern Europe?
 
    The body which regulates local radio in Sweden is called
    "N�rradion�mnden" ("Naerradionaemnden" = local radio body).  This body
    gives licences to various (non-commercial) organizations who usually
    share transmitters which, on the other hand, are made available by
    Televerket.  Televerket is the Swedish post&tele authority which owns
    all radio&tv-transmitters in Sweden, including the state-owned Swedish
    radio & tv as well as these small community stations.  
 
    The community stations do not own their transmitters but they are
    leased from Televerket.  Here are the prices for one YEAR:
 
	30 Watts: SEK 12440 (+SEK 3110 if stereo)
	300 Watts: SEK 19900 (+SEK 3110 if stereo)
          (Info based on fact sheet of 1989)
 
    Televerket also charges from links between studio & transmitter &
    antenna but these costs are smaller.
 
    At this moment there are 155 community stations ("Naerradiostationer")
    in Sweden.  Some of them are very small in the rural areas with only
    some hours of weekly broadcasting but in major cities as Stockholm etc.
    there are large stations broadcasting 24 hrs.  All stations are
    non-commercial and usually the background is religious or political,
    and immigrants are also active (in Stockholm you can listen eg. to an
    islamic radio station).
 
    There are growing demands for commercial radio in Sweden; I think
    somebody from Sweden might tell us what is happening just now (is Radio
    Nova still on the air?).  Sweden and Albania are the only countries in
    Europe where advertising is not allowed on radio (!).
 
    I don't know if Televerket is willing to lease their transmitters to
    Eastern Europe but I am sure that they have many small & medium size
    tramsitters in their stocks.  I think Naerradionamnden will give you
    the address of Televerket where you'll find some person to negotiate
    with.
 
    #Jorma Mantyla
    #University of Tampere
    #Finland

    From: [email protected] (Hans Huttel)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Text-TV info?
    Date: 27 Apr 92 13:09:39 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (UseNet News)
    Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University
 
           
    In <[email protected]> [email protected] (Marc S. Jensen)
    writes:
 
  > I know that there is a 'tekst-TV' channel in Denmark, and I have a few
  > questions regarding this:
  >
  >	-  Is it DK-only, or is there a similar service in Norway & Sweden?
 
    There are two national Danish text-TV (or Teletext, as they call it in
    Britain):
 
    The fully-fledged, very extensive service provided by Danmarks
    Radio/TV, and the much smaller, as yet experimental text-TV service by
    TV2 (which currently offers nothing but TV listings).
 
    Both Swedish and Norwegian TV offer similar services (similar to those
    of Danmarks Radio/TV, that is). 
 
  >	-  Exactly what services are offered?  (i.e. is it a news-retrieval
  >	   service only, or can it be used for other things like paying bills
  >	   or ordering tickets?)
 
    Text-TV is transmitted in parallel with the normal TV signal and as a
    consequence there is a low degree of user interaction involved, apart
    from the user being able to switch between the 800-odd pages and to
    show/hide text. One of its major applications is providing
    hearing-impaired people with subtitles, another is TV-listings; some
    advanced video systems even allow the user to make use of these
    listingst o programme a VCR. Listings of ferry and train timetables
    also come in handy from time to time. 
 
  > 	-  What other countries, if any, have implemented a similar system?
 
    There are probably lots of European stations that offer text-TV. Off
    the top of my head, I can think of at least four countries: Britain has
    three services (Ceefax (BBC), Oracle (ITV) and 4-Tel (C4)); the major
    ground-based German TV stations all offer text-TV, as does the Italian
    RAI. I don't know what the exact situation is like in France, but of
    course they have it. The British-based satellite channel Super Channel
    also has a text-TV service. Recently I discovered that even our local
    TV channel, TV Aalborg, now has a text-TV service of its own!
 
  >    	-  Do you know of any implementation details? (i.e. how frequently
  >	   is the news database updated?  Is this done by Danmarks Radio or
  >	   by an independent company?  Where can I find statistics on the
  >	   number of users, etc.?)
 
    The pages of the Danmarks Radio/TV text-TV are updated by Danmarks
    Radio/TV. The news pages are updated daily, and in some cases more
    frequently. The best source of statistics is, ahem, text-TV itself,
    which has a number of pages exclusively devoted to this.
 
 
    - Hans

  --
  Hans H{\"u}ttel, Office E1-111                   -   [email protected]  
  Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University
  Fredrik Bajersvej 7E, 9220 Aalborg {\O} DENMARK - North Jutland is for lovers.

Re. .18

Danish text TV may be expensive - but not for the user. For the 
user it a free service! Text TV is one of the few areas in TV
where Europe is far ahead of the U.S.

I can via text TV find out about highway conditions throughout 
Europe. I can find out what the petrol prices are in each 
country in Europe  for regular, unleaded, and diesel. You can 
check all the latest sports and betting results. I can check the
latest ski reports all over Europe (Alps plus Norway/Sweden). I
can read domestic and international news articles. I can see the
week's TV programs - including reviews of the week's movies. I
can check out the weather throughout Europe (also aeronautical
and nautical weather reports). I can check arrival and departure
times at Copenhagen airport. (Text TV is hooked directly up to
the big board at the airport.) And there is much, much more
available. 

Text TV is a wonderful tool to have available! I hope the U.S. 
gets it someday...

Cheers,

Geoff

    From: [email protected] (Thor Hovden)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Text-TV info?
    Date: 28 Apr 92 07:04:58 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Thor Hovden)
    Organization: Institute of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway
 
    We have a 'Tekst-TV' here in Norway.  In it, we have one page from each
    of the other nordic countries; Denmark, Sweden and Finland.  This page
    contains news (nyheter) and is a multi-page: 4 or 5 pages continually
    looping.
 
    The norwegian Tekst-TV has the news, both 'Innenriks' and 'Utenriks'
    (domestic and foreign), sports results, weather forecast, a sort of
    magazine (recipes, jokes,  book/film reviews), and the tv/radio
    programs for the next week.
 
    [email protected] (Hans Huttel) writes;

 { Recently I discovered that even our local TV channel, TV Aalborg, now
 { has a text-TV service of its own!
 
    TV-Bergen has too!

    re a few back: I don't know of any French channels offering Teletext
    (called Videotext here in Germany).
    
    Others, besides those already mentioned (not a comprehensive list):
    YLE in Finland (whose news pages, as already mentioned, are linked to
    the Swedish and Norwegian systems); all public channels in Germany;
    Sat1 (commercial German channel); ORF1/2 (Austria); all 'Sky' channels
    (UK); Hungarian TV; Croatian TV; Estonian TV; FilmNet; Turkish TV;
    RTL-4 (Luxembourg).
    
    I'm sure I've forgot a few... these  are all off the top of my head.
    

    From: [email protected] (Gary Berkson)
    To: "International Swedish Interest discussion list"
    
    There is Swedish Television and Swedish Radio at (respectively):
    
            http://www.svt.se/
            http://www.sr.se/
    
    Gary Berkson
    Artistic Manager
    The Royal Swedish Opera
    
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