Viasat 4 is a television channel broadcasting to Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 owned by the Modern Times Group

Modern Times Group

Modern Times Group is a Swedish media company. MTG was formed out of the media holdings of investment company Kinnevik, which in 1997 was distributed to the company stockholders. Among the assets were Viasat and Metro International...

. The channel was launched on 8th September 2007, a week after the launch of the digital terrestrial television network in Norway, replacing ZTV

ZTV Norway

ZTV was a Norwegian entertainment television channel. Its programming consisted of music videos, movies and sitcoms.The channel was launched in Norway for the first time in 1995. It was unsuccessful, however, and it closed down in 1996....

 which ceased broadcasting shortly before.

The channel opened with the European Championship qualifying match between Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

 and Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Its main focus is on entertainment, sports and documentaries, sending series such as Most Shocking

Most Shocking

Most Shocking is an American reality television show produced by Nash Entertainment and truTV Original Productions. It generally features narrated video of criminal behavior, police pursuits, robberies, and freak accidents...

, Stargate Atlantis

Stargate Atlantis

Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...

, The 4400

The 4400

The 4400 is a science fiction TV series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Sky Television, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network. The show was created and written by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, and it stars Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie...

, Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

, The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, Family Guy

Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

, The Riches

The Riches

The Riches is an FX television series, which originally ran from March 15, 2007 to April 29, 2008, and starred Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.-History:...

, UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 matches and Futurama

Futurama

Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

, with short news bulletins from P4

P4 Radio Hele Norge

P4 Radio Hele Norge AS Norway's leading national, private radio station with 24% national market share, about one million daily listeners and two million weekly....

 on weeknights. Viasat 4 is also sending a lot of comedy series, such as Cheers

Cheers

Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

, Married... With Children

Married... with Children

Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...

, 8 Simple Rules

8 Simple Rules

8 Simple Rules is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 17, 2002, to April 15, 2005, with 76 episodes produced over three seasons. It is based on the self-improvement book of the same name. The show starred John Ritter until his death on September 11, 2003...

, and many more.

The channel was originally to be named TV4, but after complaints from Swedish TV4 AB

TV4 AB

TV4 Group is a Swedish media company that owns the largest commercial television channel in Sweden, TV4.Since 2007, the company is fully owned by Bonnier through Nordic Broadcasting Oy...

 at the Patent Office, the channel was renamed 4 before becoming Viasat 4.

The original intention was that the channel would broadcast free-to-air

Free-to-air

Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...

 via RiksTV

RiksTV

RiksTV is the distributor of pay television in the Norwegian digital terrestrial television network. It is owned by Norges televisjon as, a consortium owned by Norsk rikskringkasting, the TV 2 Group and Telenor....

. The operator of the commercial muxes was however intending to broadcast pay television, so the channel would be a part of the encrypted RiksTV package.
In 2010, this channel boardcasted 16 World Cup matches from South Africa. Viasat4 boardcasted also the bronzefinal between Germany vs Uruguay. Viasat got the rights from NRK.