Inhabitants: 5.87 million (2021)
Religions: Evangelical Lutheran Church 80.4 percent, Muslims 3.8 percent, Catholics 0.6 percent (Federal Foreign Office)
Largest city: Copenhagen (0.64 million inhabitants)
Form of government: Constitutional monarchy with parliamentary-democratic system of government
Head of State: Queen Margrethe II (since 1972)
Prime Minister: Mette Frederiksen (Social Democrats, since 2019)
EU-member since: 1973 (then EC)
Unemployment rate: 5.1% (end of 2021), 7.1% (September 2013)

GDP per capita: approx. €49,420 (2021)
National debt as a percentage of GDP: 2021: 37.3%; 2019: 33.2%; 2013: 44.7%; 2009: 40.7%; 2007: 27.1% (Eurostat)
Budget balance relative to GDP: 2022: -0.8%; 2012: -4.1%; 2009: -2.7%; 2007: +4.8% (Eurostat)
Share of global GDP: 2021: 0,26 %; 2012: 0,25%
Total advertising revenue: 2021: approx. 10.5 billion DKK (approx. €1.4 billion); 2012: approx. 12.7 billion DKK (approx. 1.7 billion €)
Daily television viewing time per inhabitant: approx. 190 minutes (2021)
Broadcasting fee (“Medielicens”): 2022: No fees (now fully financed through taxes from the state budget); 2021: DKK 52 per month per household (approx. €7); 2012: DKK 203 per month per household (approx. €27.20)

Introduction

The Danish territory, which is mostly assigned to Scandinavia for cultural reasons, covers an area of 43,094 km² (excluding the Faroe Islands and Greenland). This makes Denmark larger than Switzerland or the Netherlands, but only about half the size of Austria.

After Denmark was hit by the global financial crisis of 2007/2008 – after years of boom, GDP shrank by 5.7 percent in 2009 – the country's economy has now stabilized. Unemployment rates have fallen, and with a per capita GDP of €49,420 in 2021, Denmark is one of the strongest economies in Europe relative to its population.
However, the global financial crisis at that time left lasting marks on the media industry, as evidenced by the steady decline in advertising revenues since then. Advertising prices are further depressed by increased competition.

In general, the Danish media landscape has undergone massive changes in recent years, primarily driven by increasing digitalization: New players have entered the long-stable radio and television market; newspaper companies are attempting to counteract their increasing decline in importance, primarily by expanding their offerings and switching to online media services, and are transforming themselves into multimedia companies. The use of video and music streaming services in Denmark, as in many neighboring European countries, has increased rapidly in recent years, and the trend continues to rise.

Newspaper

For many years, the Danish newspaper market struggled with such massive problems that several newspapers were forced to cease operations due to a sharp decline in subscription numbers, a growing loss of advertising revenue from television and the internet, and the aftermath of the "Danish Newspaper War," which raged from 2006 to 2008. Government subsidies in the form of VAT exemptions and reduced postage had little effect. The total circulation of daily newspapers fell from 1.73 million to 1.25 million copies between 2007 and 2012, a decline of almost 28 percent in just five years. Total advertising revenue for daily newspapers fell by a whopping 47 percent to DKK 1.7 billion (approximately €228 million) during this period.

Towards the end of the 2010s, the situation on the Danish newspaper market stabilized. Although some daily newspapers are still experiencing slight declines and many others are stagnating at roughly the same level, the far-reaching restructuring of the Danish newspaper market has significantly improved the situation for publishers. Many of the formerly purely print newspaper companies have continued to expand their online presence, transforming themselves into multimedia companies. The newspaper companies' diverse online offerings have been well received by the Danish population. In 2020, Denmark had a total of 36 daily newspapers with a total circulation of 1.5 million – more than in 2012.

For decades, the liberal-conservative Berlingske (until 2011 Berlingske Tidende) has been one of Denmark's largest daily newspapers. It is also Denmark's oldest daily newspaper still in publication, founded in 1749. It is published by Published by Berlingske Media, which was part of the Norwegian Orkla Media until 2006 and is now part of the British Mecom Group belongsUntil 2008, the company was called Det Berlingske Officin.
Berlingske Media publishes not only Denmark’s oldest daily newspaper still in circulation, but also several local newspapers and over 40 free regional newspapers, as well as the tabloid newspaper BT and the weekly newspaper Weekend noticeWhile the reach of most daily newspapers has remained relatively stable since the end of the 2010s, the tabloid BT has experienced massive declines in recent years, more than halving its reach in just three years between 2018 and 2021 (see Figure I).
From 2001 to January 2012, Berlingske Media also published the free newspaper Urban, which was distributed on streets and displayed on public transport. In 2006, Urban was Denmark's most widely read newspaper with an estimated 713,000 readers, but its circulation declined drastically in the following years.
In addition to its traditional newspaper offerings, Berlingske Media now operates numerous websites, several web shops, online TV channels, radio stations, as well as an advertising and photo agency.

Besides Berlingske, there are two other reputable daily newspapers in Denmark. JP/Politikens Hus In 2003, the publishers of Morning notice Jyllands-Post and policies, together. The editorial staff of the 1871-founded Jyllands-Posten, which is considered liberal-conservative, and the 1883-founded policies, which describes itself as social-liberal, remained independent of each other.
JP/Politikens Hus also publishes the tabloid newspaper Extra Bladet which boasts on the publisher's website that it was the first Danish newspaper to print a picture of a naked woman.
Several free local newspapers are also distributed through its subsidiary Politikens Lokalaviser. JP/Politikens Hus operates several websites, primarily the online presence of the newspapers, but also others, such as a job portal and a travel site. In addition, there are several online TV channels, an information service, a photo agency, and an advertising agency. According to the company, its primary focus in the coming years will be on expanding its online platforms and web TV channels.

Berlingske and JP/Politikens Hus dominate the Danish daily newspaper market, each with a market share of approximately 30 percent in paid editions. The rest of the market, however, is very fragmented. No other company has a double-digit market share in this segment.

In the 1990s, the first free newspapers were introduced in Denmark. In 2009, there were 235 free local newspapers, with a total of five million copies per week: internationally unique in this volume. At the national level, in addition to Urban, MetroXpress, which is also distributed on the street and on public transport. MetroXpress was originally part of the Luxembourg group Metro International, but was acquired in January 2013 by 20 Minuten AG, part of the Swiss media group Tamedia. In August 2019, the discontinuation of the print edition of MetroXpress was announced. The website, however, will continue to operate.

The "Danish Newspaper War" erupted in 2006 when the Icelandic media company Dagsbrun, part of the Icelandic investment group Baugur, announced that it would launch a newspaper called Nyhedsavisen in October of that year. It would not only be distributed free of charge, but also delivered free of charge directly to Danes' homes. The established newspaper publishers reacted in kind: In August 2006, Berlingske Media and JP/Politikens Hus each published their own newspapers, Dato and 24timer, which they in turn delivered free of charge to Danish households. MetroXpress published an additional afternoon edition that same month. By the time Nyhedsavisen was launched in October 2006, the country was already flooded with free newspapers. As a result of this oversupply, print advertising prices collapsed, and the circulation of paid newspapers also declined. Added to this were the additional costs of distributing the new free newspapers. The afternoon edition of MetroXpress was discontinued after just three months, in April 2007, following enormous financial losses. 24timer was distributed only on the street from 2008 onwards and was sold to Metro International in May of that year. The newspaper was discontinued in March 2013. Although Nyhedsavisen itself had over 500,000 readers in 2008, it still incurred significant losses and went bankrupt in September 2008.

Fig. I: Ranking of national daily newspapers in Denmark by number of weekly readers (comparison 2018 and 2021, in thousands)

Source: Watson (2022)

Television

Danish broadcasting is characterized by a strongly dominant public sector, which is now increasingly exposed to competition from private broadcasters. The public broadcasters were financed through a media license (Media Licenses), which had to be paid by all households with corresponding reception devices. Of the license fee revenue, which according to estimates by the Ministry of Culture amounted to 4.37 billion DKK (approximately 586 million euros) in 2013, almost 84 percent was paid to the public broadcaster DR and 11.6 percent to the regional stations of TV 2. The remainder was distributed among other things in subsidies to non-commercial local radio and television stations and the Danish Film Institute. Since the abolition of the license fee, public broadcasting has been financed entirely from tax revenues from the state budget. The distribution of the funds has remained roughly the same.

Because the Danish advertising market is too small for a larger number of broadcasters, the vast majority of private broadcasters are low-cost pay-TV channels that finance themselves through both advertising revenue and subscription fees. This business model proved successful during the 2009 collapse in advertising revenues following the global financial crisis. The legal requirements for broadcasting television advertising, regulated by the Radio and Television Broadcasting Act (Love the radio and fjernsynsvirksomhed), are also comparatively strict: advertising may only be placed between individual program contents, and paid product placement is prohibited.

DR (Denmarks Radio) is Denmark's public broadcaster. It was founded in 1925 as Statsradiofonien and renamed Danmarks Radio in 1959. The corporation is financed exclusively through media fees and the sale of its own programs; it does not advertise. DR is managed by an eleven-member board of directors, whose members are appointed by the Minister of Culture for four-year terms. Three of the members are nominated in advance by the Minister of Culture, six by Parliament, and two by DR employees.
DR operates several stations, most notably DR1, founded in 1951, which accounts for the largest budget item with 1.62 billion DKK (approximately 218 million euros). DR1 has been broadcasting a regular program since 1954, making it Denmark's oldest television station. It was not until 1988, with the founding of TV 2, that the station lost its monopoly as the sole national television station. The most important national news program, "TV Avisen," has been broadcast on DR1 since 1965. In the 1990s, DR1 increasingly shifted its focus from the production of game shows and television films to dramatic series, which are characterized primarily by their trend toward an American genre orientation; most recently, for example, "Borgen" and "Inspector Lundt – The Crime" (“Forbrydelsen”With an average market share of around 20 percent in 2022, DR1 is Denmark's second-strongest broadcaster.
The other DR channels account for approximately another 8 percent, giving DR a total market share of 27.9 percent. Both channels, DR1 and DR2, are so-called must-carry channels, meaning they must be broadcast on every cable system.
With the switch from terrestrial transmission to DVB-T, many new, smaller channels were added: the cultural channel DR K and the children's channel DR Ramasjang, which are still broadcasting, as well as DR HD and DR Update, which were replaced by the youth channels DR3 and DR Ultra at the beginning of 2013.
The company DR Multimedia, which handles merchandising for DR programs, operates on a commercial basis and has a budget independent of the broadcasters.

TV 2 was founded in 1988 as a semi-public broadcaster owned by the Danish government and initially partially financed through license fees. With a 51.7 percent market share in 2022, TV 2 remains Denmark's strongest broadcaster. Since 2003, TV 2 has been gradually privatized and is now a private limited company owned by the Danish government. The broadcaster no longer receives financial support from license fees. Since January 2012, TV 2 has been a pay channel.
To TV-2 broadcasting group It also includes eight regional TV stations, which in turn operate as independent public broadcasters. They are financed through media licenses and the sale of programs and, like DR1 and DR2, are considered must-carry broadcasters.
It also includes several private niche channels: TV 2 Zulu, TV 2 Film, TV 2 News, and TV 2 Charlie – the latter, with a 4.4 percent market share in 2012, becoming the country's third-largest channel for the first time. The most recent channel, TV2 Fri, launched on May 5, 2013. TV 2 Sport was sold to the Modern Times Group at the end of 2012 and has since been renamed TV 3 Sport.

The largest private broadcasting group is TV3, which is owned by the satellite operator Viasat based in Great Britain. Viasat belongs to the Swedish Modern Times Group (MTG)The group's channels are operated from London, which allows them to circumvent strict Danish advertising regulations and place advertising within the broadcast program blocks. The group includes the channels TV 3, TV 3+, TV 3 Puls, and most recently TV 3 Sport. TV 3 began broadcasting in 1995, making it the third nationwide television channel after DR1 and TV 2. For a long time, TV 3 was also the channel with the third highest ratings, but it now plays only a minor role.

The media group SBS Discovery Media was created in April 2013 after the US Discovery Communications acquired the Scandinavian TV and radio stations belonging to SBS Nordic from the German company ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG for DKK 10 billion (approximately EUR 1.34 billion). Discovery thus became one of the most important media companies in Denmark and Scandinavia in one fell swoop. SBS Discovery owns, among others, the channels Kanal 4 – which replaced TV Danmark, founded in 1997, in 2006 – Kanal 5, 6'eren, and the channel 7'eren, which was launched in January 2013 and replaced Voice TV. Like the channels of the TV 3 group, Kanal 4 and Kanal 5 broadcast from London.

The switch from terrestrial transmission to DVB-T was particularly significant for the Danish television landscape, as it created new capacities for the transmission of several nationwide channels, which meant that the broadcasters DR1 and TV 2 at least partially lost their privileged position. The first DVB-T multiplex began broadcasting on May 31, 2006, with five more multiplexes following over the next two years. Analog terrestrial transmission was finally switched off on the night of November 1, 2009. Television consumption has increased significantly during this period: from 148 minutes per day in 2007 – a figure that had hardly changed in 15 years – the average viewing time rose to a provisional high of 201 minutes in 2010. In 2019, it was around 190 minutes per day.

In January 2012, MPEG2 was replaced by MPEG4 as the standard encoding for DVB-T signals, allowing for an even larger number of channels to be transmitted in better quality. DR programs and TV 2's regional channels are broadcast via the MUX1 and MUX2 digital multiplexes, which have been freely available since 2006 and 2007, respectively. They are controlled by DIGI-TV, a joint subsidiary of DR and TV 2, which also owns the terrestrial broadcasting network.

Boxer TV has operated the four additional multiplexes MUX3-6, which broadcast private pay-TV channels, since 2008. Boxer TV is a subsidiary of the Swedish group Boxer TV Access, which in turn belongs to Teracom Teracom also acquired Broadcast Service Danmark, a broadcasting company owned by the Swedish government, in 2010. Broadcast Service Danmark, which manages the terrestrial broadcasting network and was merged into Teracom Denmark A/S was renamed.

Denmark’s largest cable network operator is YouTube, which, according to its own figures, supplies approximately 1.2 million households with cable television, almost half of the Danish population. YouSee belongs to Nuuday, an offshoot of TDC (Tele Danmark Communications), Denmark's largest telephone company, founded in 1990 under the name Tele Danmark as the parent company of the regional telephone companies and state-owned. Tele Danmark was fully privatized in 1998 and renamed itself TDC in 2000.
The second largest cable network operator is Stofa, owned by the Swedish telecommunications company Telia-Sonera from 1995 to October 2012, when it was acquired by SE (Syd Energi) Stofa, Denmark's third-largest energy company, supplies 600,000 households. The third-largest cable provider, Canal Digital, a former subsidiary of the Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor and a leading provider of HDTV channels, was sold to competitor Stofa in 2012 for 51 million DKK (approximately 6.8 million euros).

Fig. II: Audience share of television stations in Denmark, March to April 2022 (ages 12 and older)

Source: Stoll (2022)

radio

Over time, terrestrial radio transmission was gradually converted to the digital standard. 98 percent of the population can receive DAB+. Nearly 45 percent of Danish households have at least one digital radio. According to a parliamentary agreement in October 2012, FM broadcasting is to be discontinued in 2019, provided that at least half of radio consumption takes place via digital platforms by mid-2018. Since this target was narrowly missed, the phase-out of FM broadcasting has been postponed until at least 2023. The current framework agreement on media policy will remain in effect until then.

The public broadcaster DR DR has a dominant position in radio. In addition to two medium wave, 17 DAB, and nearly 30 internet stations, DR also operates three national and eleven regional stations.
The Danish government took over broadcasting operations on April 1, 1925, replacing several private radio clubs that had financed themselves through advertising and sponsorship. From then on, the state had a sole monopoly on broadcasting. For a long time, there was only one station, today's talk radio station P1, which was only supplemented by a second radio station in 1951 – the same year that the first television station, DR1, began test operations.

The first regional stations went live in April 1960. They now share channel P4, which was by far the most listened-to channel in 2021, with an audience share of 44.9 percent. The music and entertainment station P3 is the country's second-strongest radio station, with an average audience share of 12.5 percent in 2021. It was founded in 1963 in response to the commercial "pirate station" Radio Mercur, which had broadcast pop music for four years from a ship in international waters until it was stopped by a legislative initiative in 1962. The information station P5 has been broadcasting since 2003. Overall, the DR radio stations have a market share of approximately 76 percent.

After Parliament passed a corresponding amendment to the law in 1981, the state broadcaster began to face competition from private broadcasters in 1984, although advertising remained prohibited for these broadcasters until 1988. The first private radio stations with a national reach only went on air in 2003. With a 4.6 percent market share, radio station NOVA, distributed by Bauer Media Danmark, is the largest private radio station in the country. Other radio stations include The Voice, Radio Soft, Classic FM Total, and other smaller stations. In addition to these providers, there are also nearly 300 local radio stations on the air.

Fig. III: Listener market share of radio stations in Denmark, November 2021 (ages 12 and older)

Source: Göttingen (2021)

Internet

In 2013, 94 percent of all Danish households had an internet connection. Three-quarters of all Danes use the internet daily, and among those aged 25 to 39, the figure is 92 percent. Internet use via mobile devices is growing particularly rapidly. In 2011, 38 percent of all Danes owned a smartphone, and by 2012, this figure had risen to 52 percent. While the consumption of traditional websites has not changed significantly in recent years, the consumption of websites for mobile devices and the use of apps has grown exponentially.

After Netflix launched in October 2012, the streaming service quickly became the most successful provider in Denmark. According to statistics from 2021 (see Figure IV), Netflix series accounted for the largest audience share between February and April, with 46.1 percent. Disney+ (18 percent) and Amazon Prime Video (12 percent) followed by a large margin.

Fig. IV: Audience shares of original series by source platform in Denmark, February to April 2021

Source: Parrotanalytics.com

The most-used website among Danes in 2021 is the search engine Google, owned by the US corporation Alphabet Inc., followed by the video portal YouTube, owned by the same company. Meta Platforms' social network Facebook also remains strongly represented, ranking third. The most-visited website of Danish origin (5th place) is the website of the public broadcaster DR, which offers an online service including radio and television streaming, news, and a media library. Following closely behind, in 6th place, is the now entirely private broadcaster TV 2, which provides television and news programming.

Table I: The most visited websites in Denmark in 2022

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1.	Google.com	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
2.	YouTube.com	Video portal	Alphabet Inc.
3.	Facebook.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
4.	DR.dk	Broadcasting	DR
5.	TV2.dk	Television, news	TV 2
6.	Netflix.com	Streaming portal	Netflix
7.	Google.dk	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
8.	mitid.dk	identity management	MitID
9.	ekstrabladet.dk	News	JP/Politikens Hus A/S
10.	twitch.tv	Live streaming portal	Amazon.com, Inc.

Source: Similarweb.com

Regulations

Danish media legislation and regulation is divided among three ministries. The Ministry of Culture is responsible for broadcasting, the Prime Minister's Office is responsible for print media, and the Ministry of Enterprise and Growth is responsible for telecommunications.

The Danish Radio and Television Council (Radio and TV news) awards licenses to broadcasters and oversees compliance with legal requirements. It also manages subsidies for non-commercial local broadcasters and advises the Minister of Culture on broadcasting matters. The Council consists of eight members, who are appointed by the Minister of Culture for four years. Seven are nominated in advance by the Minister of Culture herself, and the eighth is nominated by the Cooperation Forum of the Danish Listeners' and Viewers' Organization (Samarbejdsforum for Danske Lytter- og Seerorganizer).
The Media Secretariat (Media Secretariat) is responsible for implementing the decisions of the Radio and Television Council. It reports to the Minister of Culture.

The ethical press guidelines are monitored by the Press Council (Press Release), which is regulated by the “Law on Media Responsibility” (Medieval Varsloven). It consists of eight members appointed by the Minister of Justice. The chairman and vice-chairman of the council are nominated by the President of the Supreme Court, and the other members are nominated by various associations. The Press Council is an independent, public arbitration tribunal that decides whether a publication complies with the "general ethical guidelines of the press" in the case of complaints about the media.

The top Trade Authority (Business Administration), which reports to the Ministry of Enterprise and Growth, is responsible for, among other things, the competitiveness of the market and the further expansion of the telecommunications network through its Telecommunications Regulation Department. Until 2011, this was the responsibility of the IT and Telecommunications Agency (IT and Telestyrelse) under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development.

After decades of collecting broadcasting fees in Denmark, which at times amounted to almost 30 euros per month per household, the government decided in 2018 to gradually reduce the fees over three years and ultimately abolish them completely. Following reductions in 2019, 2020, and 2021, the broadcasting fee most recently amounted to the equivalent of approximately 7 euros and was finally abolished in 2022. Public broadcasting has always been financed entirely from tax revenues from the state budget.

Sources/Literature

• Anderson, Chris; Lund, John (2009): A tragic tale of Free gone horribly wrong.
• Corneliussen, Carsten: The Danish DVB-T Network.
• Danish Agency for Culture
• Danish Business Authority: Telecom and internet regulation.
• Danish Ministry of Culture
• DR Audience Research (2013): Media Development 2012. Copenhagen.
• European Audiovisual Observatory (2012): Yearbook 2012. Volume 1. Television, film, video and on-demand audiovisual services in 38 European countries, Strasbourg.
• Fredborg, Bo (2011): Stofa køber ind hos Canal Digital cable TV.
• Götting, Marie-Charlotte (2022): Market share of radio stations in Denmark from 14 to 20 November 2022, Statista.
• Jauert, Per (2009): “The Danish Media System.” in: Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University of Hamburg (ed.): International Handbook of Media. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, pp. 242–256.
• Parrotanalytics (2021): SVOD Platform Trend Report – Denmark, February to April 2021
• Poulsen, Ib (1997): “Public Service radio in Demark Today”. in: Carlsson, Ulla (ed.): Radio Research in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Gothenburg: NORDICOM, pp.69-92.
• Similarweb (2022): Top Website Ranking: The most visited websites in Denmark
• Statistics Denmark
• Stoll, Julia (2022): Audience share of television stations in Denmark from 28 March to 3 April 2022, Statista.
• Watson, Amy (2022): Ranking of national daily newspapers in Denmark from 2018 to 2021, by number of weekly readers, Statista.
• World DAB