Rapport (television programme)

Rapport (literally translated as Report) is one of the two main news programmes from the Swedish television broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT).

Rapport's main bulletin is broadcast everyday at 7.30 p. m. on SVT1 and is thirty minutes long (except on Saturdays when it is only fifteen minutes long). Ever since the 1970s, the bulletin has been the most watched news bulletin in Sweden.

The title is also used for most other news bulletins on SVT. On weekdays in 2006, Rapport is broadcast every half hour between 6 a.m. and 9.30 a.m (as part of Gomorron Sverige), at noon, at 4 p. m. and in the late evening on SVT1 and on-the-hour round-the-clock in SVT24. On weekends, only the prime time and late night editions are broadcast. In the night, it is broadcast every half hour in SVT24 (and on SVT1 once other programming finishes on that channel).

The 7.30 bulletin has special presenters (since 2005 they are Katarina Sandström, Lisbeth Åkerman and Morgan Olofsson). These presenters usually only host the 7.30 bulletin (except on weekends when they can also be seen hosting the late night edition). In the summer, both Aktuellt and Rapport 7.30 is frequently hosted by temps. The other editions are hosted by a larger team of presenters working in different time shifts.

A feature of Rapport at 7.30 is that the bulletin consists solely of filmed reports and some telegrams with almost no studio interviews allowed.

History

Rapport started in December 1969 with the start of TV2. It then broadcasted 20 minutes at 7.10 every weekday and was preceded by a bulletin from TV-nytt at 7 and followed by the main bulletin at 7.30 from TV-nytt in TV1. Rapport at this time mainly consisted of in-depth coverage of current events. It was often considered left-wing and brought a reputation of being "the red channel" to the entire TV2.

In 1972 there was a large re-organisation of the Swedish news programmes. This meant that TV-nytt of TV1 lost the viewer strong 7.30 bulletin to Rapport of TV2. The previous format has not been very popular among viewers, but with the move to the new time slot the format was broadened and the programme soon became the most popular news programme in Sweden.

In January 1979, a news update called "Rapport 2" was added at the end of the schedule.

In 1990s, Rapport got a dramatically increased responsibility. In 1993, Rapport started broadcasting news bulletins in the morning and also got to broadcast two bulletins at 4 and 5 in the afternoon in TV2. In 1995, the morning programme was rebranded as "Rapport Morgon" as Rapport had taken over the responsibility for the sofa-driven feature parts of the morning programme, that were formerly made by the regions. "Rapport Morgon" was SVT's answer to "Nyhetsmorgon" in TV4. Both "TV4Nyheterna" and "Rapport" started a half-hour bulletin at noon in 1997.

In 1999, SVT started a digital 24-hour news channel called SVT24. It was based on content from Rapport and Aktuellt, but soon it started taking over most Rapport broadcasts. In 1999, the updates at noon, 4, 5 and in the late evening were taken over by SVT24 and in 2000 SVT24 also took over the morning bulletins with Rapport Morgon moving to the SVT24 studio. Suddenly, Rapport did only broadcast the prime time bulletin (and the late evening edition on weekends).

In 2000 SVT merged all their news desks into one, so the relocation of the news bulletin to SVT24 would then only concern branding and technology (SVT24 used more efficient digital technology which made broadcasts from SVT24 cheaper). In 2001, the news programmes met more challenges. For example, the main news programmes, Rapport and Aktuellt 21 were to change channel with each other. The popular Rapport was moved to SVT1 which was to be a broader channel, while the more featuring and less popular Aktuellt was moved to SVT2 which was intended to be the more narrow channel. The re-organisation also meant that all former Rapport broadcasts that were now broadcast by SVT24 would be broadcast on SVT1 (the 5 o'clock update was scrapped).

In September 2001, Rapport moved to a new studio which was common for all the Stockholm-based news programmes. This meant that all bulletins that SVT24 had taken over would be Rapport broadcasts again. The 7.30 and late evening bulletins moved to the new studio on September 8, the day-time bulletins moved the following Monday while the morning editions waited another week. The move coincided with the September 11 attacks which made the first days from the new studio slightly chaotic.

The move also meant that Rapport abandoned their previous logo and jingle, which both had been in use (in several incarnations) since the programme started in 1969.

SVT24 was radically changed on February 24, 2003. This meant that the channel would broadcast news every half-hour round-the-clock (every hour during the day on weekdays) and that they would be made by Rapport. This meant a dramatic increase in the number of Rapport broadcasts. The number was drastically reduced the following autumn when the broadcast would be hourly rather than every half-hour.

In the end of 2004, long-time presenter Claes Elfsberg left Rapport. Lisbeth Åkerman and Morgon Olofsson would later on join Katarina Sandström as the regular hosts of the programme. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake brought the start of news updates through-out the weekend nights, a service which has continued ever since.

A 9.30 bulletin launches on January 15, 2007 as part of a relaunch of SVT24.

On November 19, 2007, the 6 p.m. edition of Aktuellt will become a Rapport bulletin. At the same time, all SVT news programmes switch to 16:9 widescreen transmission.

Trivia

*During the midnight news broadcast on the night of August 20th, 2006, a hard core Czech porno film called "Sex Tails" shown on the pay channel Canal+, could be seen on studio television monitors behind anchor Peter Dahlgren. Normally the monitors behind the anchor display news broadcasts, however, workers at the station had changed the channel earlier in the day to watch a sports event. Though there were no complaints from its viewers, the incident caused some uproar in the media. Swedish tabloids on Monday poked fun at the broadcast, jokingly changing the name of the programme - Rapport - to "Rapporn". [http://www.expressen.se/index.jsp?a=661576]

External links

*http://svt.se/rapport (in Swedish)