DRTV (Danmarks Radio TV Production)
www.dr.dk

Kanal 2
www.tvdanmark.dk

TV 2 Danmark
www.tv2.dk
tv2@tv2.dk

Viasat AS
www.viasat.dk

Denmark (population 5,349,212)

 Danish TV draws 88% of market share, despite widespread (80%) access to foreign TV. 75% of Danes can receive 24 channels.

Historically, DR was set up as Statsradiofonien in 1953, and in the 70s a studio in Århus was added to the Copenhagen base, with 50% of programming imported from the English-speaking world.

From the 1960s cable television has been available, and Swedish and both East and West German TV has been on offer nationally for over forty years. During the 1980s, 33% of market share was taken by foreign stations, some of which were broadcasting terrestrially across the Danish border.

1998 saw the onset of digitalization in the cable and satellite sectors. Denmark is actually the original home of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV (1982), but terrestrial digital is still in the pipeline.

In the public domain, TV-2 appeared in 1988, and was territorially biased, with a remit to preserve Danish cultural programming in return for a share of revenue from licence fees. As with Channel 4 in the UK, programme production was to be catered for predominantly through independent producers. Advertising is allowed, but not for alcohol.

Since 1983 local channels have also been broadcasting, and eleven of the initial thirty-four later formed tvDanmark, which is under the control of Luxembourg-based SBS (United States). Otherwise, only Copenhagen’s Kanal 2 is worthy of note here.

In 1990, the Scandinavian channel ScanSat (owned by MTG) formed TV-3 Danmark, based in the UK so that advertising of alcohol was permitted. 1995 saw the inception of MTG’s ZTV (youth) and TV-6 (women), which merged to form TV 3+ due to a disappointing start.

1996 witnessed the arrival on the scene of DR-2, a satellite public service channel with 75% market penetration. Nick-named ‘Channel Clever’, DR-2’s content is largely high-brow. TV-2’s satellite arm is called TV-2 Zulu (youth-oriented) and is funded by both licence fees and advertising.

In 2000, Tv Danmark also launched a satellite channel, tvDanmark 1 (London-based), and territorial operators were subsequently relabelled tvDanmark 2. Programming = TV-3.

Canal+ Danmark and TV 1000 are film channels, carrying Danish subtitling. eSCape tv will be targeting DR and TV-2 as well as satellite and cable operators catering more successfully for the youth market.

Public

TV-2                35%    99.7% penetration

DR 1               28%    99.8% penetration

DR 2               3%      78.1% penetration

TV 2 Zulu        2%      65.3% penetration

Private

TV-3                8%      70.9% penetration

TV-3+             4%      65.9% penetration

tvDanmark 2  6%      74.5% penetration

tvDanmark 1  2%      49.6% penetration