DR TV

DR TV[1] is the part of DR, the Danish national broadcasting corporation, concerned with television programming.

DR1

Main article: DR1

DR was Denmark's first television channel. It began broadcasting on 2 October 1951. Since the introduction of DR2 on 30 August 1996 it has been known as DR1.

DR2

Main article: DR2

DR2 is the third national subscription-free TV channel in Denmark (it followed the establishment of TV 2 and its sister channel). It was known in its earliest years as den hemmelige kanal ("the secret channel") because it could not be seen nationwide at its launch — a situation much ridiculed by its competitors. Its early programme content was also fairly narrow. In recent times, however, it has become one of the strongest brands in Danish television and on several occasions gained more viewers than TV 3. DR2's traditional specialisms are cultural programmes, satirical comedy, in-depth news programmes, documentaries, and a weekly temalørdag (Theme Saturday) strand examining diverse aspects of one chosen subject in a series of linked programmes. During 2013 a programming realignment took place in which the news programmes from DR Update were moved over to DR 2, and DR 2 now has a much larger news focus.

DR Update

Main article: DR Update

DR Update was a 24-hour news channel that was closed on 4 March 2013 to make room for DR Ultra. The Internet portion of DR Update now redirects to the most recent news clips aired on DR 1 and DR 2. This network was available on the digital broadcasting system, DVB-T.

Web television

In June 2007, DR launched an Internet-based news channel called DR Update. DR also provides live streaming of DR1 and DR2, as well as on-demand streaming of many individual programmes, to internet users in Denmark. Currently each channel of DR TV is streamed to internet users in Denmark. International users can view most of the original programming produced by Danmarks Radio through the video on demand library.

The web television efforts by DR has been criticised for not being friendly to computers not running Microsoft Windows as well as for being very difficult to gain access to even when running Microsoft Windows. There has been some effort to remedy this though and it should be possible to gain access on other platforms, but there are still severe limits to the number of viewers at any given time. During January 2014, DR outsourced its streaming service to cloud provider Akamai. A larger variety of devices are supported, and streaming performance has improved somewhat. A larger archive of old programs previously transmitted by DR is expected to launch sometime in the middle of 2014 due to the larger capacity of the cloud based service.[2] [3]


The web platform was used to justify the new type of receivers fee, which many claimed was unjust because they had chosen to live without television or radio. The argument was then that because people could now receive the broadcasts of DR over the internet, they were receivers just like everyone else. Protests against this was overheard and included arguments that DR could have a login system for people who paid the fee so that people who did not want to receive the content did not have to pay. Another argument was that the shows on the website were very few and of very poor quality.

DR is currently conducting experiments with the H.264 video streaming format,[4] but when this format is made the standard format or if already available shows will be converted, is not known.

Reception outside Denmark

DR1 and 2 are available in Sweden and Norway via Canal Digital's cable and satellite, and in Iceland via Síminn's cable and IPTV service.

References

  1. ↑ "DR in brief". DR. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  2. ↑ "Efter bøvl i årevis: Nu virker DR-streaming". Version2. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "DR vil streame Forbrydelsen fra skyen - dr.dk outsources". Version2. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "H264 Åben beta test" (Press release). DR. January 8, 2008.

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