Application for all commercial radio licenses for 2026-2034
All current commercial audio broadcast licenses in Sweden, both analogue and digital, will terminate on the 31st of July 2026. The Swedish Broadcasting Authority (Mediemyndigheten) will issue a call for applications for all licenses in November 2025. The new licenses will apply for 1st of August 2026 to 31st of July 2034.
Available licenses
Analogue FM radio There are currently three national licenses (FM5, FM6 and FM7) and 35 regional licenses in 21 areas.
Analogue AM radio Although there aren’t any current commercial AM radio licenses in operation, the Swedish Broadcasting Authority will make a request for interest in this form of broadcasting.
Digital radio There are currently two national DAB-networks operating for commercial radio. Each network have technical room for 15 audio services, according to the Swedish Broadcasting Authority. Of these services, 14 in each network is designated for national licenses, whereas one service each in 34 local areas is designated to local or regional licenses.
Awarding licenses
The Swedish Broadcasting Authority will award licenses according to a ”beauty contest” if there are more applicants than licenses.
Every applicant must pay a registration fee of 45 000 SEK (4 500 EUR)
The Broadcasting Authority will award each license according to the following criterias:
A variety of formats, for both national and local licenses
Mutually independent ownership of the different license holders
The Broadcasting Authority must judge that the applying license holder has both financial and technical abilities to uphold broadcasting during the entire eight year period.
License fees
Those who are awarded a digital license won’t have to pay any license fee, in exchange for expanding the digital broadcasting network.
Future analogue FM-broadcasting license holders must pay an annual fee, corresponding to 3 % of the overall commercial radio business’ annual income last year. The total fee will be dispersed to individual licenses according to system to be decided by the Swedish government.
The fee for any future analogue AM-broadcasting license holders is not set yet.
All 28 digital licenses have been awarded for the 2014-2026 period, but currently only 23 licenses are operating. Currently both DAB networks are broadcasting in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, but the DAB 4 network is also broadcasting in the cities of Uppsala and Gävle. The Swedish Broadcasting Authority allocates each license to one of the two DAB networks, but it is the holders of each license that collectively are obliged to expand the networks with transmitters.
For the period of 2014-2026, only two local licenses have been awarded, for eight broadcasting areas. One of these licenses is not operational, and the license that is operational only broadcast in one out of five areas.
Broadcasting Area
Current owner
Current format
Awarded 2026
Promised format
Område
Nuvarande ägare
Nuvarande format
Vinnare 2026
Utlovat format
Stockholm
X
X
Uppsala
X
X
Eskilstuna
X
X
Nyköping
Norrköping
X
X
Linköping
X
X
Jönköping
X
X
Värnamo
X
X
Växjö
X
X
Västervik
X
X
Kalmar
X
X
Visby
X
X
Karlskrona
X
X
Helsingborg
DB Media
X
Kristianstad
DB Media
X
Malmö
DB Media
X
Halmstad
Bauer
X
Borås
Bauer
X
Göteborg
Bauer
Mix Megapol Göteborg
Skövde
Bauer
X
Trollhättan
Bauer
X
Karlstad
X
X
Örebro
X
X
Västerås
Mora
X
X
Falun
X
X
Gävle
X
X
Hudiksvall
X
X
Sundsvall
X
X
Örnsköldsvik
X
X
Östersund
X
X
Lycksele
X
X
Skellefteå
X
X
Umeå
X
X
Kiruna
X
X
Luleå
X
X
DAB 4
For the period of 2014-2026, only one local license have been awarded, for three broadcasting areas. The holder of the license is only broadcasting in one broadcasting area.
