Inhabitants: 5.43 million (January 2022)
Households: 2.6 million (2021)
Average household size: 2.1 people (2021)
Religions: Evangelical Lutheran (68.7%), Muslim (3.4%), Roman Catholic (3.1%), other Christian denominations (3.7%), as of 2019
Largest city: Oslo (699,827, 2021)
Form of government: parliamentary monarchy
Head of State: King Harald V (since 1991)
Head of the government: Jonas Gahr Støre (Social Democrats, since 2021)
Unemployment rate: 3.2% (May 2022)
State indebtedness: 43.16% of GDP (2021)
Gross domestic product: 482.4 billion US dollars (2021)

Digital advertising spending: 1.47 billion euros (2022)
Television viewing time per inhabitant: 109 minutes (2020)
Large media and communication companies: Telenor, Schibsted, NRK, Amedia, Gylendal Norsk Forlag, Polaris Media, Cappelen Damm
Broadcasting fees: Since 2020, the fees have been financed by an income-related tax, which amounts to a maximum of NOK 1,700 per year (approximately EUR 160).

Introduction

According to the Democracy Index of the British magazine "The Economist", Norway is not only the most democratic country in the world, but also one of the most highly developed countries according to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). For many years, Norway even led both indices, but fell to second place behind Switzerland in the HDI in 2021. The wealthy country on the Scandinavian peninsula has a well-developed social system, which is often described as one of the best in the world, as well as a strong economic output relative to its population.

The natural gas industry in particular is of enormous importance to the Norwegian economy. In 2019, natural gas accounted for 47 percent of all Norwegian exports, and export revenues amounted to NOK 424 billion. At the same time, the industry generated around 25 percent of Norway's GDP. With the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Norway's role as a gas and oil exporter has become even more important.

Even though Norway is not a member of the European Union - a possible accession was rejected in two referendums - the country is very closely linked to the EU not only because of its geographical location, but also through the European Economic Area (EEA), in which it participates as a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and through its participation in the Schengen area.

In one of the largest countries in Europe in terms of area, where many regions are remote and far from the metropolises due to the low population density, media appear to play an important role. However, the media landscape in Norway has changed enormously since the 2000s as a result of digitization. Broadcasting has been completely digitized. After the digitization of television was completed in 2008, Norway was the first country in the world to fully complete the switch from FM to DAB+ in 2018. During the same period, the circulation of print newspapers continued to decline and the role of online media became increasingly important. However, Norway's media policy has always proven to be adaptable during this time and has not shied away from implementing extensive reforms of public broadcasting.

Newspaper

For a long time, Norway was considered the country of newspaper readers. The usage and reach values of print and, today, especially online newspapers are traditionally high in Norway. At the beginning of the 2000s, Norway was the country with the most print newspaper readers in the world after Japan. Even in 2009, the proportion of daily newspaper readers in print form was still at a record high at 65 percent. However, as the Internet and especially smartphones became increasingly established, the proportion of daily print newspaper readers declined rapidly, falling to below 50 percent in 2014. Seven years later, in 2021, only 22 percent of Norwegians read a newspaper in print form every day.

Fig. I: Share of daily print newspaper readers in Norway 2009 to 2021

Source: Watson (2022a)

The fact that a large proportion of Norwegians now use smartphones, tablets, etc. instead of print newspapers is shown by the increasing proportion of daily consumers of online newspapers. This has risen almost continuously over the years to almost 60 percent in 2021. Many Norwegians are therefore still diligent newspaper readers today, albeit now in digital form. However, a comparison of the two statistics also shows that the previous proportions of daily print newspaper readers have not yet been fully reached by the new online newspapers. The increasing diversity of news consumption via online media has generally reduced the relevance of daily newspapers (both online and print). An effect that is becoming increasingly stronger as generations pass: while newspaper consumption is uninhibitedly high among older population groups, it is increasingly declining among younger population groups.

Fig. II: Share of daily online newspaper readers in Norway 2009 to 2021

Source: Watson (2022b)

The most important publisher of daily newspapers in Norway is the Schibsted-Verlag based in Oslo. The media group is active in a total of 29 countries, mainly in Sweden and Norway. With the daily newspapers Aftenposten (336,000) and Verdens Gang (206,000), Schibsted Publishing publishes the two daily newspapers with the largest circulation in the country (as of 2021), making it the race for the most important daily newspaper. After Verdens Gang (VG) had been the Norwegian daily newspaper with the largest circulation for almost 30 years from 1981, it was overtaken by Aftenposten in 2010, which has always clearly led this statistic.

While Aftenposten is seen as a traditional, conservative evening newspaper, Verdens Gang is considered a tabloid newspaper, which in terms of content and layout can most easily be compared to the German tabloid Bild. But the financial and economic sectors are also strongly represented by the leading daily newspaper Næringsliv (144,000). Other Norwegian daily newspapers with high circulation are the Dagbladet (128,000) from Aller-Verlag and the left-wing newspaper Klassekampen (113,000).

Broadcasting

Radio in Norway was already provided by the private company Kringkastningselskapet A/S This company was the predecessor of the public broadcasting company founded in 1933 NRK (Norsk rikskringkasting), through which television was finally launched in 1954. The first television channel in Norway, NRK1, was officially launched in 1960 under the name NRK, but had already had regular programs since the beginning of television broadcasting in Norway in 1954. While radio consumption is above average compared to many other European countries, with 2.9 million Norwegians (10+ years) listening to the radio every day, the amount of time spent watching television is comparatively low at 109 minutes per inhabitant per day.

Until the late 1980s, NRK had a monopoly in broadcasting. TVNorge The first advertising-financed TV station was launched in 1988, and in 1990 the Norwegian Parliament decided to allow a nationwide commercial TV station. In 1992, TV 2 The first commercial, free-to-air television channel in Norway and is now the largest private television station in the country. TV 2 is owned by Egmont Fonden and Schibsted, two central media groups in Norway. In 1993, P4 Radio Hele Norge theNordic Entertainment Group the largest private radio station today. With a market share of 24 percent and around one million daily listeners, P4 reaches far more people than the second largest private station, founded in 2004 Radio Norway.

Even though NRK lost its monopoly position due to the establishment of private broadcasting, the public broadcasting company still dominates radio and television today and is also the third largest media group in the country. NRK now has three TV channels and 15 radio channels that broadcast nationwide. The radio station NRK P1, which started in 1993 as the direct successor to NRK's first radio station in 1933, is by far Norway's most popular radio station with 1.9 million daily listeners. Although the complete switch to DAB+ in 2018 made room for a huge variety of stations, the success of Norwegian public radio has so far remained unabated.

With the television channel NRK1, the public broadcasting company also has by far the largest television channel in Norway. With a market share of 35.9 percent among viewers between the ages of 10 and 79 in 2021, it significantly exceeds the market share of the private and second largest television channel TV 2 and has even been able to increase its market share in recent years. While NRK1 broadcasts Norwegian and many English-language productions in addition to news, the channel NRK2, founded in 1996, broadcasts news almost nonstop during the day and debates, documentaries and cultural programs in the evening. The third television channel of the public broadcaster NRK3/Super, founded in 2007, serves as an entertainment channel for young adults between the ages of 12 and 29. In 2021, the three public television channels together achieved a market share of 42.7 percent.

Tab. I: Market shares of Norwegian television channels among 10- to 79-year-olds

television station	market share (%)
	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
NRK1	31,8	30,7	32,8	30,5	31,9	35,7	35,9
TV 2	18,2	18,3	18,8	19,0	18,7	16,9	17,8
TVNorge	7,4	7,1	6,4	7,9	5,6	5,2	5,7
NRK2	5,2	5,3	5,1	5,0	5,3	5,1	5,2
TV 2 Nyhet	2,7	2,8	3,0	3,7	3,5	4,3	4,5
TV3	3,8	4,7	3,7	3,9	4,2	4,1	4,2
VOX	1,9	1,8	2,2	2,1	2,4	2,4	1,6
MAX	3,2	3,1	3,2	2,9	2,6	2,3	1,9
ViaSat 4	2,1	2,1	1,9	1,9	1,9	1,7	1,8
TV 2 Zebra	2,3	2,2	2,0	1,6	1,9	1,6	1,8
NRK3/ Super	3,4	3,0	2,9	2,4	2,2	1,9	1,6
FEM	2,2	2,0	1,9	2,0	2,1	1,9	1,5
Other channels	15,8	16,9	16,1	17,1	17,7	16,9	16,5

Source: medienorge.uib.no

Internet

When it comes to internet user surveys, Norway regularly has high figures compared to other countries. According to Eurostat, the proportion of daily internet users among 9- to 74-year-olds in 2021 was 95 percent, which shows that the internet has already become established in a very broad section of the population. Developments in recent years also show that the potential of internet users in Norway was largely exhausted during the 2010s. As early as 2019, 95 percent of 9- to 74-year-olds used the internet every day, which represents an increase of 16 percentage points compared to 2009 (79 percent). In 2005, only every second Norwegian in this age group used the internet every day.

The average internet speed in Norway is also comparatively high. With an average download speed of 98.87 Mbit/second on the fixed network's broadband internet, Norway was in 26th place in an international comparison in 2022. The upload rate was 78.75 Mbit/second (19th place). The quality of the internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and delays (latency), is also ranked quite high in an international comparison at 28th place. Norway achieved a particularly good value in the area of mobile internet. With a download speed of 106.91 Mbit/second, the country ranked 4th worldwide in 2022. The upload speed of around 14.71 Mbit/second on the mobile internet was enough for 20th place. With existing internet access for 97 percent of the population and broadband internet access for over 90 percent of the population, Norway achieves very high values here in international and European comparison.

The most visited website by Norwegians in 2021 was the Internet search engine Google of the US media group Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google Inc.). Equally popular websites of international companies were the social network Facebook (4th place), the video portal YouTube (6th place, also Alphabet Inc.) and the encyclopedia Wikipedia (9th place). The online format of the daily newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) from Schibsted Publishing takes second place in the ranking and underlines the increasing importance of online news among the Norwegian population. It is also clear that radio and television services in Norway are also increasingly being consumed via the Internet. The public broadcaster NRK, which offers news, radio and television on its website, takes third place in the ranking. Norway's largest private television station, TV 2, also receives a high response (7th place).

Tab. II: The most visited websites in Norway 2021

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1.	Google.com	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
2.	VG.no	News	Schibsted
3.	NRK.no	Broadcasting	NRK
4.	Facebook.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
5.	Dagbladet.no	News	All
6.	YouTube.com	Video portal	Alphabet Inc.
7.	TV2.no	Television	Vital, Schibsted, Egmont Fonden
8.	Finn.no	e-commerce	Schibsted, Polaris Media
9.	Wikipedia.org	Encyclopedia	Wikimedia Foundation
10.	Aid.no	identity management	Amedia

Source: Clement (2022)

Regulations

Until the digitization of television (2008) and radio (2018), terrestrial broadcasting required a license from the Ministry of Culture (for national services) or the Norwegian Media Authority (for local services). Smaller local radio stations, which were allowed to continue broadcasting on FM until 2022, still required a license from the Norwegian Media Authority. In the case of the digital terrestrial television and radio network, it is their owners who grant the television and radio stations access to the network. The digital television network is operated by the company Norges Televisjon (NTV), which is owned one-third each by NRK, TV 2 and Telenor On the other hand, the digital radio network is Norkring AS Norking AS is in turn owned by the media company Telenor.

Since the establishment of private broadcasters, they have had to comply with specific regulations regarding the broadcast of advertising (hours, percentages, advertising breaks in the program, etc.). However, the regulations regarding the extent of advertising broadcast have been increasingly liberalized over time. In Norway, however, all advertising with political messages and advertising for children under 12 years of age on radio and television is still prohibited. The television station is exempt from this regulation. TV3 based in Oslo, as it broadcasts from the United Kingdom, even though its programming is aimed almost exclusively at Norwegian viewers.

The radio and television programs of the public broadcaster, however, are free of advertising. The NRK is only allowed to display advertising on its Internet offerings, but this also excludes programs for children under 12 years of age. Sponsors are also allowed to show commercials before and after television programs. The NRK also broadcast advertising via teletext until December 30, 2008. However, this had to be removed following a decision by the Norwegian Parliament.

Norwegian media policy is strongly committed to promoting newspapers and books. These are exempt from VAT. A similar regulation for magazines and journals is a constant part of media policy debates. In the course of digitalization, this debate in the 2010s increasingly focused on those digital media that publish similar content to print media. In 2016, the Ministry of Finance finally announced that electronic news services would also be exempt from VAT.

In addition, to maintain local competition and national diversity, Norway has a system for subsidising newspapers. In 2022, direct subsidies amounted to NOK 389 million (approx. €39 million) and accounted for about two percent of the newspapers' total revenue. The subsidies are distributed according to certain criteria in order to be able to support, for example, national newspapers and newspapers in areas with high local competition, as well as the smallest local newspapers. There are also separate subsidies for newspapers that focus on the Sámi language and the Sámi population. The criteria for distributing these subsidies to the newspapers are constantly reviewed and widely discussed.

Since the mid-1990s, the question of media ownership has become an increasingly important issue in Norwegian media policy. There are strong ownership structures in all media sectors (radio, television, newspapers, etc.). It is extremely common for the same media groups to exercise power over several media outlets. One example is the private media group Schibsted, the second largest media group in the country. Schibsted not only publishes Norway's two largest daily newspapers (Aftenposten and Verdens Gang), but is also one of the co-owners of the television station TV2 and the e-commerce portal Finn.no. These interrelations between media groups even extend beyond their own national borders. In general, there are strong interrelations between the media groups in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Danish media groups Egmont Fonden and Aller as well as the Swedish Kinnevik/MTG and Bonnier are key owners of Norwegian media. Since 2008, Egmont Fonden has been even larger in Norway than in Denmark, where the group is headquartered. The American media group Discovery is also an important player in the Norwegian television market. The German Bauer Media Group holds a similar position in the radio sector. In contrast, the Norwegian state owns the third largest media group, the public media group NRK, and is the majority shareholder in the company Telenor, which is responsible for telecommunications, satellites, cable networks and terrestrial broadcasting (initially analogue and later digital) and thus plays a gatekeeper role.

In order to regulate ownership structures, the Norwegian Parliament passed the Medieeierskapsloven (Media Ownership Act) in 1998. To implement the new law, a new authority was established in 1999, the Eierskapstilsynet (Media Ownership Authority), which was integrated into the Medietilsynet (Norwegian Media Authority). In 2016, the Medieeierskapsloven (Media Ownership Act) was finally abolished and the regulation of media structures is now overseen by the Konkurransetilsynet (Competition Supervisory Authority).

The state-run public broadcaster is seen by a large part of the population as an important component of the diversity of the Norwegian media system. Nevertheless, in the 2010s, a media policy debate sparked about a contemporary financing model to meet the demands of modern media use. In 2016, the then Norwegian government finally announced that it wanted to make corresponding changes to the financing model for public broadcasting, which would come into force from 2020. Until now, the NRK was mainly financed through broadcasting fees, which amounted to NOK 3,039 (approx. EUR 306) per year per household. In 2019, revenues amounted to around NOK 5.78 billion (approx. EUR 580 million). Since 2020, public broadcasting has been financed through taxes, which are collected by reducing the tax allowance and are calculated at up to NOK 1,700 per year (approx. EUR 160), depending on the level of income. The level of funding thus remained roughly the same. In order to meet the changing requirements of public broadcasting, initial plans to move to a smaller and more modern building were announced in 2016. In May 2021, it was finally announced that a new headquarters would be built in Ensjø in eastern Oslo.

literature

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Herlofsen, Ragnhild & Midthun, Thomas: Norway RAM Radiolytting 2021: Total electronic audio measurement, 2022.

MedieNorge: TV-kanalenes seertall per år, 2021.

MedieNorge: Pressestøtte, 2022.

Østbye, Helge & Aalberg, Toril: Media and politics in Norway. Communicating Politics: political communication in the Nordic countries, 2008, 83-102.

Østbye, Helge: Media Landscapes: Norway, 2022. 

Skogerbø, Eli: A History of Local Media in Norway: The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism. Routledge, 2020, 54-62.

Skogerbø, Eli & Karlsen, Rune: Media and politics in Norway, 2021.

Watson, Amy: Share of population reading newspapers daily in Norway from 2009 to 2021, 2022a.

Watson, Amy: Population reading online newspapers daily in Norway 2009-2021, 2022b.