Viasat, the Nordic direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service operator, is closing in on 700,000 digital DTH subscribers in the Nordic and Baltic region. The majority of these are in the Nordic region. Viasat, a subsidiary of Modern Times Group (MTG), announced that at the end of March 2005, it had 693,000 digital subscribers. This compares to 680,000 at the end of 2004.

It has been a significant first three months of the year for Viasat, which also reached a key agreement with TV4 AB for the inclusion of its four TV channels in Viasat’s pay-TV packages during the first quarter. Three of the channels, TV4 Film, TV4+ and TV400, are now available on the platform. TV4 will by added by Jan. 1, 2006 at the latest. TV4 is seen as one of the key channels in the Swedish digital television market.

In a separate announcement, Viasat is claiming it is the first operator in Sweden to offer Sweden’s six biggest TV channels – SVT1, SVT2, TV3, TV4, Kanal 5, and ZTV, via broadband. Viasat launched its broadband TV offering in December 2004.