The Danish Media by Katrine Lund Nielsen

The media has a big influence for the Danish people. All day you meet the media: in the mornings you read in your free-paper about the world news. On your way to school, you turn on the radio, too hear music. In school you look for information on the internet. And when you’re home again at night, you watch television with your family.
And it’s exactly TV which is the “head” of the media. There is something for everyone and every taste. TV is entertaining, it’s educating - especially smaller kids - and it’s informing us in a visual way.

The radio was in Denmark the most important media, before television was presented on the Danish market. But when we got television in the start of the sixties, the television replaced the meaning and task, the radio used to have: the media which informs, entertains and educates.
DR (at that time it was called “Statsradiofonen”), which you can compare to the Italian “Rai 3,” started as the first TV-channel in Denmark. The first shows were really educating and they were only showed one hour three times a week.
In the late sixties television was almost generalized. It was also in this decade that “Television News” – an informing television program – was broadcast for the first time. The DR was the only national TV-channel. And that’s why they could decide, which programs they wanted to show or which they didn’t want to show. There wasn’t any specific competition – until TV2 was established in the eighties. TV2 (it’s almost like the Italian “Canale 5”) was supposed to be a competitive against DR. The TV2 had to pass on the news, as well as DR. But it also had to secure the Danish people a Danish quality alternative to the growing part of the international channels.

Both channels were subjected to the Danish media law with public service commissions. This media law, which they are subjected to, has a task to ensure that the radio or television companies which are in public service, inform the citizens about news which is relevant.
The public service channels (DR and TV2 for example) must show television which includes information, teaching, art and entertainment in a quality, comprehensiveness and in a variety way. It’s important in TV-programs like “Television News” that it’s objective and even-handed. And not least must there be a special focus on the Danish language and culture.
DR and TV2 are especially important these days, because there are countless different commercial TV-channels, which aren’t subjected to the media law. These channels are focused a lot more on entertainment instead of culture, and due to that, there will be a big stream of almost the same TV-programs. And that’s why it’s important to have DR and TV2 as a quality choice for the consumers.