TV 2 (Denmark)

TV2 Danmark A/S
Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country Denmark
Availability National
Owner Itself & the public
Key people
 Merete Eldrup, CEO
Niels Boserup, Chairman of the Board
Launch date
 1 October 1988 (television broadcast)
23 August 2006 (radio broadcast)

TV 2 is a publicly owned television station in Denmark based in Odense. The station began broadcasting on 1 October 1988, thereby ending the television monopoly previously exercised by the Danmarks Radio (DR).

History

TV 2 has six subsidiary stations known as TV 2 Zulu, targeted at the youth; TV 2 Charlie, oriented towards older audiences; TV 2 News, a 24-hour news channel (launched on 1 December 2006); TV 2 Film, a non-stop movie channel (launched on 1 November 2005); TV 2 Sport, a dedicated sports channel; and TV 2 Fri, a leisure and hobby channel (launched on 5 May 2013), as well as the internet-based pay-per-view channel TV 2 Sputnik which started broadcasting in December 2004.

In 2006 TV 2 had about 1,000 employees and revenues of 1.9 billion DKK. The station has been a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union since 1990.

On 23 August 2006 TV 2 acquired at an auction the FM radio license relinquished by Sky Radio (part of Rupert Murdoch's Australia-based News Corporation) when it closed down its Danish operations in November 2005. The auction lasted 20 minutes, and TV 2's winning bid was worth 23,000,000 DKK.

From 1 November 2009 all Danish television broadcasting became digital with DVB-T and MPEG4 standard. At the time, TV2 did not encrypt their main channel, but TV2 Zulu, TV2 Charlie, TV2 Film, TV2 News and TV2 Sport now need payment cards to be decoded.

From its beginning, it has been possible to receive the main channel (TV2) outside of Denmark, primarily in southernmost Sweden and northernmost Germany (where a Danish minority lives), but starting 11 January 2012 TV2 decided to encrypt its main channel as well. This means significant difficulties for their viewers in Germany and Sweden. The main problem is that subscribers need a Danish postal address for ordering a decoder card. The channel has, however, declared that it aims to find some sort of solution to this problem, as TV2 Danmark is considered a "traditional channel" in the non-Danish territories described.

TV 2 Regions

Channel logo for TV 2
TV 2 Region Area Served
TV Syd Southern Jutland including Southern Schleswig
TV 2/Fyn Funen
TV 2/Øst Western Zealand
TV 2/Nord Northern Jutland and Faroe Islands
TV 2/Lorry North Zealand and Copenhagen
TV/Midt-Vest Central and Western Jutland
TV 2/Østjylland Eastern Jutland
TV 2/Bornholm Bornholm

Programming

On weekdays, TV 2 starts with Go'morgen Danmark (Literally: Good Morning Denmark), Denmark's only breakfast talkshow on national TV.

At 11:00 they hand over to the regions who broadcast to 12:30 (with an interruption for national news). That is followed by TV 2's afternoon programming that mostly consists of American drama series and sitcoms. The regional stations also broadcast bulletins in the afternoon and evening, as well as a longer newscast at 19:30.

TV 2's main national newscasts are shown at 19:00 and 22:00 but bulletins in the morning (first newscast at 7:00), at 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 18:00 have been added over the years.

Most shows not produced in Denmark are shown in their original language with Danish subtitling, however animated series aimed at children are shown dubbed into Danish.

Funding

Historically TV2 was funded by television license fees and advertising sales. However, although the regional channels are still partly funded this way, funding by television license for the main channel ended in July 2004.

This form of double financing, along with a large injection of capital (to cover a deficit of 1 billion DKK (€134 million)) from the Danish State, is currently under investigation by the EU; accusations being that the dual funding has constituted illegal state aid.

Today TV2 is no longer owned by the public, as stated on this site. TV2 is a commercial television channel paid by their viewers.

See also

External links