Country Denmark Official website Official Website Founded 1988 Owner Denmark | Key people Merete Eldrup (CEO) Founder Folketing Headquarters Odense, Denmark | |
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Type Broadcast television network First air date 1 October 1988 (television broadcast) Availability National, subscription only CEO Merete Eldrup (1 Dec 2007–) TV shows Vild med dans, Natholdet, Danmark Har Talent, Lykkehjulet, Live fra Bremen Profiles | ||
TV 2 is a publicly owned subscription television station in Denmark based in Odense.
Contents
History
Since 1949, Danmarks Radio had been the sole provider of television in Denmark, wanting to end the monopoly, the Danish Parliament voted on 30 May 1986, to create TV2, as a second choice for public service television. Its first air date was 1 October 1988, with Danish Symphony being broadcast at 17:00, followed by the news at 19:30.
Subscription
From 1 November 2009 all Danish television broadcasting became digital with DVB-T and MPEG4 standard. At the time, TV 2 did not encrypt their main channel, but TV 2 ZULU, TV 2 CHARLIE, TV 2 FRI, TV 2 NEWS and TV 2 SPORT are subscription only channels.
Although TV 2 has been broadcast terrestrially in the clear ever since the channel was launched, from 11 January 2012, it started to encrypt its main channel with a monthly subscription charge of 12.50 Danish Kroner required to be paid, along with the purchase or rental of a decoder
In southernmost Sweden and northernmost Germany (where a Danish minority lives), this means significant difficulties for their viewers in Germany and Sweden, as subscribers need a Danish postal address for ordering a decoder card.
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 as well as interviews originally conducted in a foreign language (e.g. for news and current affairs programmes) are shown in their original language with Danish subtitling. The exception to this practice is animated series aimed at children which are dubbed into Danish.
Funding
Historically TV 2 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.