From broadcast volume to on-demand value: DR’s strategic response to changes in Danish media policy

The growing importance of Video on Demand (VOD) services as way to expose TV programming to viewers implies that the study of public service scheduling must include a new territory, namely VOD interfaces. The visibility of programming with a high public service value remains however an important media political topic even if the mode of exposure has changed. Evaluating exposure at the VOD interface presents however new methodological challenges which must be addressed.

With the Danish public service media “DR” as case, this paper examines the presence at DR’s VOD service “DRTV” of three types of content which both in the PSB literature and by DR is seen as very valuable public service content. The analysis takes place on the backdrop of a 2018 political decision to transform DR from “a broad media entreprise” to a “significant beacon for i.a. news, enlightenment, culture and education” (Kulturministeriet, 2018, p.2). The then centre-right wing Danish government decided to cut the income of the Danish public service broadcaster DR by 20 per cent between 2019 and 2023 and reduce the number of linear television and radio channels (Media political agreement for 2019-2023, 2018: 1-2). In 2019 DR announced a shift in their publishing strategy, from “volume” to “value”. In January 2020 three of DR’s six linear television channels was closed down, as was one radio channel.

To identify DR’s publishing strategies in this transition from broadcast to on-demand, and from volume to value, we have collected and documented DRTV’s interfaces over 17 months (520 days). We conduct a longitudinal analysis, comparing DRTV’s content with DR’s programming schedules for the broadcast (“linear”) channels. The findings are contextualised through interviews with DR practitioners at different levels, and via document analysis.