Denmark - Culture - Mass Media

Denmark
4. Culture
4.13 Mass Media

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4.13.1 1634-1848: The Breakthrough of the Printed Media
4.13.2 1848-1914: The Four Paper System
4.13.3 1914-45: Press Reform
4.13.4 1945-2002: Newspaper Closures and the Present Situation
4.13.5 Radio 1922-80
4.13.6 Television 1932-80
4.13.7 Radio and Television Since the 1980s
4.13.8 Video
4.13.9 Graphs

Radio 1922-80 [top]

The first Danish radio broadcasts aimed at a broad public were transmitted in 1922. Radio was controlled by legislation on telegraphy and as such a state monopoly according to an act from 1907, which nevertheless opened the way for experimental broadcasts. Such experiments were undertaken especially by two amateur radio associations with the participation of newspapers. The contents were mainly music and, from 1923, weekly news broadcasts, of which the daily newspaper Politiken's Radioavis was the first.

After increased competition - known as the "ether war" - the associations and other interested parties were experimentally brought together under the aegis of the State in 1925 in Radioordningen (The Radio System), which in 1926 was replaced by Statsradiofonien (The State Radio). In 1959 this was renamed Danmarks Radio (DR). Radio became a special element in the policy governing education and culture, and the programmes were to be of an "all-round cultural and informative nature" (so-called public service). Finance was to be derived from a licence fee, which ensured that it was only those making use of the radio who paid for it. Broadcasting hours were gradually increased from 2-3 hours a day to 14 hours in 1939, by which time 80% of the population had a radio. News broadcasts were brief and controlled by the print media as Pressens Radioavis until 1964.

During the German occupation radio was subjected to German censorship, but programmes in Danish were broadcast by the BBC from 1940-1945 and by Swedish Radio from 1944-1945. The introduction of more than one radio channel started in 1951 with Program 2 (P2), which was given the task of broadcasting classical music, lengthy discussion programmes and background information. Program 3 (P3), with pop music, arrived in 1963 after competition from the private and advertisement-funded stations Radio Mercur (1958-1962) and Danmarks Commercielle Radio (1960-1961). Their broadcasts consisted of pop music and light entertainment programmes of a kind only occasionally heard on DR, and they reached as many listeners as the broadly based Program 1 (P1), until they ceased broadcasting: Mercur as the result of a change in legislation making its broadcasts illegal. Mercur broadcast programmes in stereo from 1961, and DR from 1969. From the 1950s the medium wave frequencies had gradually been supplemented with FM frequencies, in which P3 had been placed. To this was added in the 1960s a nationwide system of regional radio that was gathered together under a provincial department in 1973.

Television 1932-80 [top]

The first Danish experimental television transmissions were arranged by Politiken in 1932, and it was possible to receive the BBC programmes between 1936 and 1939. Television technology was publicly demonstrated 1947-1948, and Statsradiofonien put out experimental transmissions 1949-1950, regular programmes 1951-1953 and daily transmissions starting in 1954. Since it was regarded as merely "radio with pictures" television was at first placed within the purview of the Radio Act of 1959 and thereby automatically formed part of the state monopoly. The network was serviced by the Post and Telegraph Authority, which provided country-wide coverage from 1960. The number of hours has risen steadily from c. 1 hour a day in the 1950s to 10 hours from DR at the beginning of the 1990s.

As in the case of radio, the programmes were originally made by DR itself, but this required a large production apparatus with a large number of employees, and a top-heavy bureaucracy and the inability to make changes became a problem. Since the 1960s, about 50% or the programmes have been of a factual nature, including news transmission, in which TV-Avisen replaced the newsreel TV-Aktuelt in 1965, and c. 50% have been foreign programmes with the emphasis on films and series. Colour transmissions were started in 1968 and stereo was introduced c. 1990.

Radio and Television Since the 1980s [top]

Concessions for local television and radio were introduced in 1983 as an experiment, in which for instance the Copenhagen channel Kanal 2 was established as a pay channel in foreign ownership. Local radio was finally permitted in 1985, local television in 1988, and financing from advertisements from 1988-1989. A number of television stations with Kanal 2 at their head formed an almost national network in the form of Kanal Danmark under the multinational Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS). The Copenhagen music radio The Voice (1984-) established a network and was a great success, as were Radio Viborg (1984-) and other west Danish local radio stations.

DR's national television monopoly was broken with the opening in 1988 of TV 2/Danmark and eight regional TV 2 stations. Both DR and TV 2 were given professional boards of directors, which in the case of DR took the place of the Radio Council (a politically constituted board of management), and TV 2, like DR, has a public service duty. But TV 2, in contrast to DR, is independent, financed by advertisements and primarily running on the basis of commissioned programmes from independent producers, which has been of advantage not least to the film industry. This led to programmes of a popular nature in contrast to DR and in competition with the commercial, especially foreign, channels.

With the Act on the multi-use cable network from 1985, foreign channels, including satellite channels, could be made available by cable, which was outside the broadcasting monopoly of the Post and Telegraph Authority. This gave the telephone companies an important role in the broadcasting of TV, and in 1999 60% of Danes were able to watch cable TV on hybrid net. In addition, 16% had dish arials. One of the newcomers to the extended range of TV was the advertising - financed, Swedish-owned TV3, which in 1999 had a 11% share of Danish viewers. TV 2 had a 36% share, and DR, which in 1996 started up its second channel, DR2, had a 31% share. The proportion of households with more than one TV set was 44%. In October 2000 TV 2 introduced a second channel, TV 2 Zulu.

Video [top]

In the 1970s video was launched without success, but improved machines employing the VHS system, and the marketing of video films has since the beginning of the 1980s led to a rapid increase in use. In 1997 75% of the population owned a video recorder. Expenditure on video films has been rising, from about 500 million kroner in 1985 to about 690 million kroner in 1999. In the 1980s rentals dominated the field almost exclusively, but from the 1990s purchased cassettes have accounted for an increasing percentage.

Kaare Schmidt

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