Based on the archived material that SF and Svenska Bio have kept since the Stockholm exhibition 1897, the idea of the Sahlberg film was that it could contribute financially to the "renewal of the archive" as he expressed it. Time had been hard on the old newsreels and short films in SF's casemates at Råsunda outside Stockholm. Certainly in 1960 the film material was kept in 12 degrees Celsius, the material had been checked and it had even been scantily catalogued. But according to Sahlberg it was absolutely necessary to take preservation actions with the production of master copies "in order to free the casemates from all nitrate film". He also needed means to create a proper catalogue with the films.

In 1964, SF decided to sell their old newsreels and short films to SR. Sahlberg accompanied the film material and ended up in the SVT archive organization where he became responsible for the restoration and the documentation of the films, which had been initiated at SR already in 1958. Even though there was never any official responsibility for preservation of the so called "SF archive", SR came to invest considerably in this film material over the years. In a first phase, which Sahlberg pointed out in his memo, it was necessary to re-copy the films to replace the dangerous nitrate film. Among other things, master copies, duplicate copies and 16 mm copies were produced, and later even VHS copies.

The SVT archive collection of older film material has lately increased and also includes examples of newsreels from Nordisk Tonefilm (Nuet), films from the state owned railways, productions from several film companies as well as films with a variety of other origins. All of these are included in "Reel History".