Launched 30 August 1996 Audience share 4.1% (2008, ) | Network DR Website DR2 | |
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Headquarters DR Byen
Copenhagen, Denmark Sister channel(s) DR1
DR3
DR K
DR Ramasjang
DR Ultra | ||
Dr2 morgen intro 2014
DR2 (DR To) is a Danish television station. It is part of DR, Denmark's public service broadcasting company.
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It was launched in 1996 as a satellite-/cable-only channel. This was highly controversial at the time, as it was considered close to a breach of public service principles that the new station did not reach all viewers. Adding to the critics' cause was the fact that DR did in fact have broadband spectrum available for terrestrial broadcasts. However, this was being reserved for digital broadcasting tests. The less-than-100%-coverage coupled with a "highbrow" reputation resulted in low ratings which in turn earned it the nickname "the secret channel" to the regret of the director general who had been pushing the line "my channel" (in the sense of programmes appealing to individuals, not the whole family as DR1 supposedly). This was finally remedied on 31 March 2006, when terrestrial digital broadcasts started.
It most resembles the British BBC Four in that its main output is experimental comedy, documentaries and in-depth news programmes. It has earned much praise for high quality shows, especially in the first category, with series like Casper & Mandrilaftalen and Drengene fra Angora. Den 11. time was a talk show on the channel. It also broadcasts many British productions, e.g. crime dramas such as Prime Suspect.
Other programmes broadcast from the channel are The Power of Nightmares (as Frygtens politik) and The Great Global Warming Swindle (as Den store løgn om global opvarmning, 12 July 2007).
Every Saturday DR2 broadcasts the Greenlandic language News bulletin Nyheder fra Grønland produced by KNR
Following the introduction of digital television (and closing down of all analogue channels with exception of cable-TV) in Denmark, on 1 November 2009, the channel is broadcast free via the DVB-T standard and MPEG4 code. It now reaches the whole country and also the nearby east side of Øresund sea to southernmost Sweden. (Swedish channels reaches the Copenhagen metropolitan area as well)
In 2013 the channel was rebranded and converted to a 24-hour channel with the inclusion of hourly news and current affairs programming. DR Update previously aired some of the programming before the channel was closed to make room for DR Ultra. DR2, unlike DR Update will however not interrupt any programmes for breaking news.