Television in Iceland

Television in Iceland began in September 1966. Channels can be received via analogue, or using broadband with the Skjárinn service from Síminn or Digital Ísland from Vodafone.

List of channels

Present channels

• Sjónvarpið, the television channel of RÚV, they are Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. Available as free-to-view on the satellite Thor 2.
• Stöð 2 The oldest privately owned television channel in Iceland (1986). Also available as Stöð 2+ with one hour delay.
• Stöð 2 Extra (previously called Sirkus) Entertainment channel previously available as free but is now only available as a complement to Stöð 2 subscription
• Stöð 2 Bíó Movies 24/7.
• Stöð 2 Sport (previously called Sýn) Mostly sports with one hour delay on Stöð 2 Sport+.
• Stöð 2 Sport 2 (previously called Sýn 2) FA Premier League and The Football League.
• Stöð 2 Sport 3, Stöð 2 Sport 4, Stöð 2 Sport 5 and Stöð 2 Sport 6 Extra channels for special sport events, used mostly for Champions League and Premier League matches.
• Nova TV (previously called Sirkus and before that Popp Tíví) Music videos. Free channel.
• Stöð 2 Sport HD Iceland's first HD channel. Launched in October 2007 broadcasting Sýn and Sýn 2 events in 1080i. To start with live games from the FA Premier League and UEFA Champions League. Expect many of Sýn and Sýn 2 sports to be available on Sýn HD in 2008 including major golf tournaments, NBA basketball, Wimbledon tennis, championship boxing and more football. Note: Since Iceland is outside a lot of satellite footprints and HD requiring more bandwidth, many events can only reach Iceland in standard definition although they are available in HD in other countries.
• SkjárEinn Entertainment channel - was free and run with advertisement revenue only until November, 2009. Only available through subscription after that. Also available with one hour delay on SkjárEinn plús
• Alþingi Parliament.
• N4 Television channel broadcasting only in the town of Akureyri.
• Omega Christian television channel,
• Fasteignasjónvarpið A channel that offers real estate.
• ÍNN All-talk.
• Stöð 1 Launched Oct 29th 2010. Entertainment channel, Free to air, non subscribtion. Reaches 98% of all households in Iceland.

Cancelled channels

• NFS, now a news service providing news for Vísir.is and television channels of 365
• Skjár tveir Was meant to be an ad-free channel paid for by the viewers. It didn't go as planned and soon merged with Skjár einn.
• Stöð þrjú The old channel was used. But was bought quickly and shut down in the meaning, it was merged by Stöð 2.
• Skjár sport Showed Premier League matches for the seasons 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.

International Channels available in Iceland

Additional international channels are available in Iceland through Vodafone Iceland, Síminn and Skjarinn

• Sky News
• CNN
• MTV Europe
• VH1 Europe
• ARD
• Sat.1
• TVE
• TV5MONDE
• CNBC Europe
• Euronews
• Nat Geo Wild
• National Geographic Channel
• NRK2
• BBC Entertainment
• BBC Lifestyle
• BBC World News
• TCM

Overview of Icelandic TV

TV Appearances

Test card for RUV

The testcard of RUV is PM5544 introduced in the 70's.

Text has been changed 3 times, minor change 5 times, returned 2 times

• 1970-1994 - "RUV - ISLAND"
  • 1993 - "RÚV - ÍSLAND"
• 1995 - Added time and date
• 2000 - Remove time and date
  • Remove "ÍSLAND" and replace with the moving bar
• 2002 - Return the 1995 version^{[citation needed]}
• 2006 - Return the 2000 version^{[citation needed]}
• 2009 - Changed to PM5644

RUV's testcard is beep, but the last 15 minutes plays classical music

Closing and Opening times

RUV still closes down at night.

RUV

• 1966–present opens at 16:30 for weekdays and closes at 0:00. Weekends and holidays open at 9:00, though sometimes with midday break.
• 2004–present weekends and holidays open at 8:00.

Stod 2

• 1986-1988 opens at 8:00 and close at 23:00
• 1988-1995 opens at 6:00 and close at 0:00
• 1995–present open 24 hours

Programming

Icelandic programming including LazyTown foreign shows with Icelandic captions.

Imported

The Amazing Race	The Simpsons	Beauty and the Geek	Hotel Babylon (BBC Series)	Mile High
The Oprah Winfrey Show	Neighbours	Fear Factor	Wife Swap	The Apprentice
Third Watch	24	Joey	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition	The Shield
NCIS	Kevin Hill	Two and a Half Men	The Osbournes	Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Monk	Shark	The 4400	Nip/Tuck	Prison Break
Rome	Huff	My Life in Film	Grey's Anatomy	You Are What You Eat
Punk'd	Listen Up!	How I Met Your Mother	Missing	Strong Medicine
Most Haunted	The Closer	NUMB3RS	Entourage	Cold Case
The George Lopez Show	The Bernie Mac Show	Studio 60	Alias	Broken News
Criminal Minds	Desperate Housewives	ER	Little Britain	Lost
Murphy's Law	My Family	Scrubs	The Sopranos	Veronica Mars
UEFA Euro 2008	Sonic X	Teen Titans	Teletubbies

External links

• (Icelandic) Sjónvarp Símans
• (English) Síminn Television