Sweden

Sweden is the largest of the Nordic countries with 8.5 million inhabitants. Swedish television began in September 1956 after a two-year trial period. Television was established as a continuation of the radio monopoly Radiotjänst.

In 1924 a major policy debate occurred in Sweden to consider how the radio medium should be organised. Radio amateurs, the press, and private companies were all interested in being broadcasters. The policy makers were divided on the question of monopoly or competition. Some found radio too important to be controlled by one company, while the prevailing opinion was that the state and the general public had an interest in controlling the medium.

The Parliament gave Radiotjänst an exclusive licence to broadcast under certain public service obligations. Radiotjänst (later renamed Sveriges Radio AB) was owned by three different groups: the association of newspaper owners, which also owned the national press agency (with a 40% share), different popular movements and special interest groups (40%), and the electronics industry (20%). The Parliament controlled both the revenue (licence fees) and the expenditures of the company, and the government appointed half of the board in accordance with the political parties' representation in the Parliament.

When television was introduced in Sweden in the early 1950s, some large scale industries, the advertisers' association, and some liberal and conservative parties challenged the monopoly model and advocated a commercial TV system, while Radiotjänst wanted to extend its monopoly to television. The press strongly supported Radiotjänst, because the newspaper owners feared the competition for advertising revenue from a commercial television system. The Social Democratic government decided to maintain the public service monopoly mainly because of the same political and cultural arguments heard in the debate about radio three decades earlier.

The print press has played an important role in Swedish radio and television, and until 1956 the press association's news agency delivered and thus controlled the news coverage on the radio. It is possible to argue that this influence was caused by the special ownership of the company, but it is more likely that it was caused by the general political and cultural influence of the press in the Scandinavian countries. In Denmark, as in Sweden, the Danish press agency delivered news to Danmarks Radio until 1964, even though there was no ownership relation.

Swedish television experienced a rapid growth. In 1959 there were around 400,000 set owners in Sweden, and in 1960 the number had increased to one million. There was very little audience research at the time, but the rapid growth indicates that television immediately became a success, and box office in the cinema was halved within the first decade of television.

The programming was characterised by great variety. Beside newscasts, there were many national social and political reports and documentaries. From the mid-1960s and onwards there was an increasing number of international reports, e.g. critical coverage of the Vietnam War. National drama productions were an important part of programming, first in live broadcasts, then taped. From the very beginning Ingmar Bergman produced several plays, e.g. August Strindberg's Oväder (Thunder In The Air, 1960). In 1966 Sveriges Radio had a huge audience success with a serial based on Strindberg's Hemsöboerna (The Natives Of Hemsö). Children's programming had top priority with both educational programs and artistically successful dramatic series based on Astrid Lindgren's books, including two of the most well-known Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn (Children of Noisy Village) and Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking).

In 1969 Sweden decided to launch a second independent television channel within Sveriges Radio. The two channels were to coexist in a form of coordinated competition. The aim was to present the viewers with an actual choice. The two channels broadcast contrasting programs, instead of direct competition of similar program types.

The viewers used the new possibilities to choose more entertainment and less political programs. These program preferences created some concerns, and some skeptics complained that the two channels competed more in terms of ratings than in terms of quality. In any event, the programming policy did not change radically, although the more artistic documentaries gradually were replaced by more magazine programs containing a mixture of entertainment and social and political reports. The dramatic productions were also changed from TV theatre to TV films and series; even Ingmar Bergman started to produce serials. The second channel also had a formal obligation to put more emphasis on regionally produced programs.

From an overall point of view, the two-channel monopoly has been a unique two-decade-long period in Scandinavian television. The coordinated competition gave the audience a choice between different program types within a general public service ideology.

Cable and satellite penetration in Sweden increased rapidly from the late 1980s. In 1991 penetration was 40% and in 1994 57%. Here, as throughout Europe, a great number of cable and satellite stations are available in Sweden. The most important satellite channel is the above mentioned TV3 (Kinnevik), but there are several providers aimed at Sweden. Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS), an American company partly owned by ABC/Disney and operating from Luxembourg, has launched a basic cable station, Femman, which provides a schedule consisting predominantly of subtitled second-rate American series and talk shows. Kinnevik has launched two low-budget niche stations, ZTV and TV 6, which like TV3 have special feeds to Denmark and Norway. The latter mainly carries subtitled programs aimed at women, while ZTV is aimed at young people. ZTV was first launched as a local station in Stockholm, and the station has many low-budget national productions. Even though the ratings are insignificant, ZTV has been able to create public awareness and critical acclaim for being very innovative aesthetically, with new formats of talk shows. Beside these basic cable stations, there are three film pay-channels.

Sweden was the last Nordic country to introduce national commercial television. TV 4 started out in 1992 after a short trial period on satellite from 1991. TV 4 is a private company owned by a consortium consisting of Kinnevik, 25%, Wallenberg, 23%, and some smaller shareholders. The station is subject to public service obligations, and as a part of the concession conditions TV 4 must pay Sveriges Radio (now renamed SVT) $7 million and between 20% and 50% of the advertising revenue, amounting to more than $100 million. In 1995 the Parliament is discussing the conditions for a fourth national channel.

SVT has been reorganised several times to be prepared for the competition. In 1987 the regional aspect of the company was given a higher priority in the independent second channel. From January 1996 the two channels will merge to make the most of the combined resources. So far SVT has done very well in the new competitive situation.

In 1994 the average viewing time in Sweden was 139 minutes per day per person. Out of this time each of the two SVT channels had 27%, or a combined share of 54%. TV 4 had 26%, TV3 had 9%, Femman had 3%, and all the rest combined 8%. The three public service channels had a combined share of 80%.

SVT has maintained a traditional public service programming policy and even increased the amount of news and social and cultural reports. Since 1987 SVT has also given top priority to the production of national drama. The public service tradition, with prestigious high-profile productions, has been kept alive with works such as Den goda vilja (The Best Intentions, 1993) directed by Bille August and based on a script by Ingmar Bergman. Apart from that the station has purposefully developed popular series (soaps, situation comedies, and crime serials), which traditionally have been neglected in the Nordic countries.

Denmark

Denmark is geographically a small country with 5 million inhabitants. It is the most continental of the Nordic countries and has been a member of the European Union since 1972. The first Danish television experiments started in the late 1940s in the radio monopoly Statsradiofonien (later renamed Danmarks Radio), and from 1951 there were 3 hours of transmission weekly for a trial period. In 1954 public service television was inaugurated officially in Denmark. One of the main reasons for this delay was a tight economic situation in the post-war period. The minister of finance in a liberal-conservative government was against spending money on television until the electronics industry had convinced him that domestic broadcasting would support the export of television sets.

In 1953 a new Social Democratic government removed the remaining opposition against television by referring to the "threat" of cultural influence from German television. A similar argument was used 30 years later for establishing a second TV station. Danish television was mostly conceived as part of industrial and financial policy, but since then television policy has indisputably been viewed as a matter of cultural policy.

Television developed slowly in Denmark because of the economic situation and very high prices on television sets. In 1953 the number of licensed viewers was 800, in 1956 16,000, and in 1959 250,000. In the beginning Danmarks Radio used every opportunity to broadcast popular programs as a tool to attract new viewers, so they could increase the revenue. The transmission time per week was extended from 10 hours in 1954 to 25 hours in 1961. From the mid-1960s television was well established with about one million set owners, and gradually the programming policy was changed to one of more classical public service programming.

Even though there has in general been political consensus for maintaining public service television in Denmark, the programming policy has been discussed fiercely within a political and a cultural framework. The formal responsibility for the programming policy in Danmarks Radio was placed in a Radio Council, where the members were appointed by the political parties in accordance with their representation in the Parliament. This organisational construction resulted in a politicized television environment, both externally and internally. Danmarks Radio had a privileged position and therefore was under constant monitoring, especially in terms of news coverage and journalistic programs. Politicians from both the right and the left complained over a biased programming policy, and there were continuous debates over whether a given single program should be impartial, or whether it was the total output which should be balanced. This question was never solved, and after some fierce battles in the Radio Council in the late 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, it seemed that the producers gave up progressive ideas and began to practice forms of self-censorship in order to avoid further trouble.

The department of youth programming had, since the late 1960s, produced many controversial programs that depicted essential political and cultural issues in a provocative way. Det er en kold tid (It is a cold time) from 1981 discussed the problems of youth unemployment using the aesthetic codes of a journalistic report--but the report was fictitious. In the "report" one small municipality had solved youth unemployment by freezing young people in large cold storage houses (a process depicted in realistic visual codes). When society needed more workers, the young people would be defrosted. This was an innovative and controversial way of using the medium to demonstrate in a symbolic and disturbing way that young people were frozen out of society.

The cultural conflict was caused by Danmarks Radio's paternalistic attitude. Under shelter of the public service obligations to educate, enlighten, and give the public access to a unified culture, the station presented the middle- and high-brow culture of the cultural elite in Copenhagen, and the station showed contempt for the popular culture and the popular products from the entertainment industry. Growing public pressure in the late 1970s caused some changes in the programming policy, but even in the 1980s popular programs were canceled, and when Dynasty turned out to be a huge success in Denmark, the programmers tried to diminish the series' popularity by scheduling the show in odd time slots. National drama production has also demonstrably avoided popular genre formats. This cultural conflict has been essential, and it is one of the main reasons why Danmarks Radio has had many problems in adjusting to the new competitive situation.

When TV 2 was conceived in 1987 the right wing politicians wanted a private alternative to the monopoly, which in their view was biased in favor of the Social Democratic Party. They succeeded in breaking the monopoly but had to compromise on the financial part, and TV 2 was launched in 1988 as a non-profit public service station partly financed by commercials and partly by licence fees.

TV 2 has proved an innovative force in Danish television with a commercially inspired programming strategy and a more forthcoming attitude towards the audience. As a result, the channel has been a popular success. The most significant rating successes have been persistent scheduling of copies of former Danmarks Radio and commercial formats. Furthermore, TV 2 has a great variety of programs and extensive regional programming, so the service has in broad outline fulfilled its public service obligations.

The Danish cable and satellite situation resembles the Swedish one with a few exceptions. In 1995 the penetration was 57%. The transnational satellite stations are the same, but in Denmark the cable systems retransmit programmes from many of the neighboring countries' TV stations. Kinnevik's three stations, TV3, ZTV, and TV 6 all have special feeds to Denmark, but ZTV in Denmark does not have quite as many national programs as the Swedish version.

During the 1980s there have been many experiments with Danish local television. Most of the stations can best be described as public access channels with limited significance, but in Copenhagen Kanal 2 has been a successful commercial local station. Kanal 2 is controlled by Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS), and the station is used as a spearhead in a loosely organised network, Kanal Danmark, of local stations totaling 60% national coverage. Because actual networking is prohibited, the Kanal Danmark construction is problematic in terms of meeting legislative requirements.

In 1994 the average viewing time in Denmark was 154 minutes per day per person. TV 2 had a 41% share of the viewing time, Danmarks Radio had 30%, TV3 had 10%, all local stations including Kanal 2 had 6%, and all the rest had a combined share of 8%.

In 1993 70% of TV3's programming was American (mostly drama series and films) and only 6% was Danish. At that time TV3 only had a 7% share, but since then the station has increased the national productions (entertainment) significantly and the ratings have increased proportionally. Therefore TV3 in the future seemingly will become a real challenge to the two public service stations and financially a threat to TV 2's revenue from commercials.

Norway

Norway is a large mountainous country with only 4 million inhabitants. Contrary to the other Nordic countries Norway has successfully supported the economic development of even remote regions, and culturally, both national and local popular culture has been preserved. In 1993 the Norwegians for the second time voted No in a referendum on joining the European Union.

Norwegian television was not inaugurated until 1960, and then with two hours of daily service, but there had been a limited trial period since 1954. The discussion about television was basically an echo of the discussion in Denmark and Sweden, and Norwegian television followed the Scandinavian model with a licence-fee-financed public service monopoly established within the radio monopoly Norsk Rikskringkasting, NRK. The company was state-owned until 1988, when it was converted into an independent foundation.

Television spread rapidly in Norway during the 1960s, but NRK was in a very difficult financial situation because of the relatively small population and the very high cost of increasing national coverage in the mountainous country. Therefore the question of advertising as a supplementary source of revenue was raised several times during the 1960s. Even within the management of NRK, there were people supporting the idea, but the Broadcasting Council wanted to maintain the fundamental public service principles based on financing with licence fees, thereby avoiding influence from vested interests.

In many ways NRK's programming policy was comparable to the public service tradition in the other Scandinavian countries. The main news program has been a monumental entry to prime time for decades and the enlightenment project has been central to Norwegian television. During the 1960s a new management supported an innovative and controversial programming policy. The general idea was to challenge the viewers with new ideas and to encourage progressive cultural development. The drama department produced modernist and experimental single plays by international authors such as Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Samuel Beckett, and by contemporary national playwrights.

This programming policy caused political and cultural criticism, and particularly some influential religious groups fought for a preservation of the more traditional values. In a paradoxical way NRK has been able to follow a double programming strategy. Apart from the innovative and progressive high-culture programs, the broadcaster has produced popular programs supporting national and regional identity. The popular programming has brought along a very broad popular support despite the parallel paternalistic and elitist programming.

The transition from the NRK monopoly to the new competitive television system began in 1988, when two commercial television stations were launched--the pan-Scandinavian TV 3 (Kinnevik) based in England, and the nationally owned local station TV-Norge (TVN), which quickly expanded to cable. In 1991 the two commercial stations had a national coverage well over 30% and an audience share of approximately 8% each. In 1993 TVN was taken over by Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS). SBS is violating Norwegian media laws by using local television stations in a network to retransmit TVN's programming.

In 1990 the Norwegian Parliament decided to establish a new private terrestrial station starting in September 1992. Both TV3 and TVN applied for the concession for the second channel, but it was given to a consortium consisting of Schibstedt, the largest newspaper owner in Norway, and Egmont, the largest media company in Denmark, as the two largest share holders.

TV2 was already profitable in its second full year of operation, but the station has not been as popular as the new terrestrial stations in Denmark and Finland, even though the station in many ways copied TV 2 in Denmark, yet without being as dedicated to public service programming. TV2 started out in a very competitive situation. On the one hand TVN and TV3 had some success with national entertainment game shows, and therefore the TV2 game shows were less popular. On the other hand NRK had, since the huge success of TV 2 in Denmark, prepared itself for the new competition with a more streamlined scheduling policy, a greater emphasis on popular long-running formats and a further strengthening of the regional programs. NRK has been able to design an innovative programming policy, and especially affect the station's image, by a continuation of the previously mentioned paradoxical programming policy combining traditional paternalistic public service programming with popular programs. NRK has therefore maintained a very high, if decreasing, audience share. As a way of maintaining this leading position in Norwegian television, NRK has obtained the Parliament's permission to launch a new complimentary satellite and cable channel that will enable the company to give the audience an actual choice between different types of programs. Danmarks Radio is launching a similar channel, but because of the limited reach, the two public service stations are breaking one of the fundamental public service principles: namely that the services must be available to all at an equal low price.

The Norwegian cable and satellite situation is, with a few exceptions, similar to those in Denmark and Sweden. In 1995 the penetration was 52%. The transnational stations are the same, but retransmitted Swedish television plays a significant role. Besides Kinnevik's three channels TV3, TV 6 and ZTV, and TVN, Schibstedt has also launched a channel aimed at women. In 1994 the average daily viewing time in Norway was 140 minutes. NRK had an audience share of 48%, TV2 26%, TVN 8%, TV3 6%, and local stations and the cable and satellite stations all together 12%.

Finland

Finland has 5 million inhabitants. The country is bilingual with Swedish an officially recognised second language and a Swedish speaking minority of 6%. Finland is geographically situated very close to Russia, but is culturally closer to the Scandinavian countries. Still, because of significant differences from the other Scandinavian countries in terms of culture and language, Finland has maintained a distinctive position.

From the beginning Finnish television was different from the model employed by the other Scandinavian countries. Finland has had a public service radio monopoly, Oy Ylesradio Ab, (YLE), since 1926, so the point of origin was similar to that of the other Scandinavian countries. When television was in the making, YLE wanted to establish a television monopoly as well, but the company was reluctant to start television at that time for financial reasons. The private sector took advantage of this reluctance, and from 1956 Tesvisio-TV, TES-TV, broadcast commercially financed programs three evenings a week. Thus YLE was forced to develop its own television service, and in January 1958 YLE's station was inaugurated. Because of a very tight economic situation YLE feared that television could not be exclusively financed by licence fees and the company entered into a contract with a newly founded private company, Mainos-TV, MTV. The contract gave MTV the possibility of buying certain time periods for broadcasting commercially financed programs on the YLE television channel. This construction gave YLE revenues from commercial television as well as from licence fees without being directly involved in the "dirty" business of advertising.

From 1957 to 1964 the YLE/MTV channel competed with TES-TV, which was operating in Helsinki and Tampere. The programming policy was characterized by competition. TES-TV broadcasts consisted predominantly of news, entertainment, and foreign series and films, while YLE/MTV had a variety of other types of programs as well as examples of these same programs. In 1964 TES-TV surrendered and was bought by YLE. The next year YLE used the TES-TV network to start a second, partly independent channel operating from Tampere.

The odd cooperation between YLE and MTV was continued in the new two-channel system, and a coordinated competition between the two providers was established. In the late 1960s YLE developed a more traditional public service programming policy with a strong emphasis on news and informational programs, and, as something special, the company wanted to be an active force in the modernisation of Finnish society. MTV had a complementary programming policy which stressed entertainment and dramatic series, and until 1980 was prevented from broadcasting news and political programs.

The two programmers had conflicting aims and policies and disagreed several times on the assigned time slots and the economic conditions for the co-operation, but they have until recently coexisted quite well and to mutual benefit.

Finland was the first Nordic country to take action against the new competition from satellite television. In 1985 the company Kolmostelevisio was established in a joint venture between YLE, MTV, and the electronics company Nokia. The following year a third national YLE channel was launched with commercial programming provided by Kolmostelevisio. In the beginning of the 1990s there has been some organisational reshuffling, which has ended in termination of the co-operation between YLE and MTV. Now YLE has two public service channels, while MTV has an independent competing commercial channel. The former coordinated programming policies have been dropped in favor of real competition. The organisational differences between the two stations are causing different programming policies. YLE still has a majority of so-called serious programming even though the amount of entertainment and dramatic series has increased. MTV now has news, sports and current affairs within a commercially streamlined programming schedule. Both broadcasters have a majority of national programming, while the percentage of American programs in the total share of foreign programs has increased dramatically, and the American daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful is a major hit on the MTV prime time schedule.

In 1994 the average viewing time in Finland was 138 minutes per day per person. MTV had a 43% share of the viewing time, YLE 1 had 24%, YLE 2 had 19%, while YLE's Swedish language programming, a special Swedish channel with programs from SVT, and all local and satellite channels had a combined share of 14%. Cable and satellite penetration was 38% in 1995. The satellite channels are all transnational.

The Finns prefer to watch Finnish language channels, and the most highly favored programs are national productions. It has been argued that there is a rise of nationalism in the mental climate in Finland, and a return of the national past in certain programs. Both YLE and MTV have produced serials about the recent past. The highly successful Metsolat (The Metsolat Family) from 1993 on YLE 2 has described the recent major transitions in Finnish society as it changed from an agricultural to an industrialized society. Metsolat is a realistic soap about a family with both urban and rural members struggling both to survive financially and to maintain the traditional cultural values.

Iceland

Iceland is a miniature welfare state with 267,000 inhabitants. The country is geographically isolated, a large mountainous island in the Atlantic Ocean. The geographical conditions and the small population have marked out limitations for Icelandic broadcasting. In 1925 a private radio monopoly was established, but after two years this station closed down. In 1930 a state-run public service station Ríkisútvarpid (RUV) was launched. RUV was financed partly by licence fees and partly by announcements, either commercials or different kinds of information, read from the station.

RUV's radio monopoly was broken in 1951, when the American NATO forces in Keflavik launched a station that could be received in Reykjavik. The station mainly broadcast popular music and was immediately popular among young people. Other groups saw the station as a threat to the national cultural heritage, and the station was an important issue in the debate on the presence of American NATO forces in Iceland. The debate was fueled when the military base in 1955 launched the very first television service in Iceland. In the beginning the transmission was limited, but better transmitters increased the cultural influence of American television in Iceland without any national counterpart (Broddason, 1996).

In October 1966 RUV established a limited television service three days a week, later increasing to six days a week. RUV maintained a television-free day each week until 1987, and until 1983 RUV did not broadcast in July. The television-free day, which also existed in Sweden in the early days of television, was meant to protect the traditional social and cultural life of society.

RUV is financed by both licence fees and commercials, but the small population is a limited financial foundation, and the national programs make up only 30-35%. RUV is trying within the limited budget to offer a small-scale public service programming policy. The station is even producing national drama and is thus maintaining an Icelandic literary tradition.

Despite the insufficient financial foundation for television the Parliament allowed for new television stations in an extensive deregulation of the broadcasting policy in 1986. The same year Stöd 2 was launched as a private pay-channel with commercials. After a rocky start the station is now consolidated with almost 50% of the households as subscribers. Stöd 2 is offering a traditional commercial programming with only a very limited national production of news, current affairs, and entertainment. The main part of the programming consists of American and British series, films, entertainment, and current affairs.

In 1993 the broadcasting policy was further deregulated, so that it is now legal to retransmit programming from foreign television stations by microwaves without changing anything in the programs, and to establish cable-fed local stations. Stöd 2 is distributing several foreign channels, and in Reykjavik there is a small religious television station. So far these channels play an insignificant role in the Icelandic television consumption. RUV and Stöd 2 have a sort of duopoly, and it is difficult to see how new television services would be profitable in Iceland.

-Poul Erik Nielsen

Nordic television is currently experiencing a revolutionary transition from a system of predominantly public service broadcasting monopolies to a multichannel system with satellite delivery, national private stations, public service stations, and local stations. This transition causes fundamental changes, because the public service tradition historically has been rooted in the public sphere where parliamentary and direct politics, citizens interests groups, and artists took an active role in determining the structure and content of television. In the new television systems these concerns are far more market-oriented.

The Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) all had public service television monopolies until the mid-1980s. Finland has had an exceptional co-operation between a commercial and a public service provider, while Iceland with a quarter of a million inhabitants has had a mixed and limited television service.

The television systems in the Scandinavian countries have been strictly regulated because of political and cultural matters. Television has been seen as a powerful medium, and the political parties have wanted to control television as they had controlled radio. Therefore the existing radio monopolies were extended for the provision of television. The main ideology was, and to a certain extent still is, that television should be used as a public service in the interest of the citizens in a democratic society. The Social Democratic parties, the labour movement, and very strong popular movements have all seen radio and television as a great opportunity for enlightenment, as media which could pass on art and culture to all people in an egalitarian society. In the 1960s and 1970s television was an integrated part of the development of the Scandinavian welfare state model. Even though the idea of public service television has changed over time due to cultural, political and management changes, television in the Scandinavian countries has been ruled by some basic public service principles.

Public service television has to be available nation-wide to all at an equal low price (the cost of the licence fee and an antenna). In Sweden, for example, this means that, by law, television must reach 99.8% of all residents. This principle of universal access has proved costly for broadcasters, because they also had to secure transmission in the vast, remote, sparsely populated areas in the northern part of the Nordic countries, where commercial television would never have been profitable.

Public service television is also obliged to provide a many-sided and manifold programming policy. An overall ambition has been to enlighten the audience culturally and to serve the public with sufficient information, so they can participate in the democratic process. Programming must be critical and put all authorities and institutions under scrutiny, and the programming must cater to various interests and needs of small as well as large population groups.

The public service stations are obliged to broadcast a substantial amount of nationally produced programs, to participate actively in the creative arts, and to promote artistic and cultural innovation. These principles are important in the relatively small Nordic countries because national programs are much more expensive than imported fare. Traditionally the public service monopolies have fulfilled this obligation by providing more than 50 percent national programming. Most of the national productions have been produced "in house," by national broadcasters. The broadcasting monopolies, then, have also been production monopolies.

Public service has to be independent of all vested interests as well as of specific political interests. Historically this goal has led to problems. The main issue has been the conflict between the Parliament's legitimate right to create certain general obligations in the public interest and the attempts of the government and the different parties to cultivate specific interests. Organisationally this problem has been solved differently in the Scandinavian countries. Some have formed state-owned companies while others have relied on independent non-profit companies. In either case the broadcasters have been financed by a compulsory license fee paid by all set owners.

The demand of independence from all vested interests resulted in the prohibition against any advertising in Scandinavian television until 1988, when the second Danish terrestrial channel, TV 2, started out as a partly commercial and partly licence-fee-financed station. Finland's mixed system programmed advertisements in the mid-1950s.

Apart from the more classical public service programs, art and high culture, Nordic television from the very beginning broadcast entertainment such as quiz shows, variety shows, sports, and foreign popular drama. In Sweden I Love Lucy was broadcast on the first night of regular transmission in September 1956. The two types of programming have been broadcast side by side, but in the public debate popular entertainment has generally been depreciated.

In the early years of television the Scandinavian television stations only broadcast a few hours every day, and even in the 1970s and 1980s the normal broadcasting time was between 5 P.M. and 11 P.M., a time period extended slightly during the weekends. Today the public service stations have expanded the schedule to a few more hours daily, while some of the private stations broadcast day and night.

The programming in the monopoly era consisted mainly of single programs from among various genres. Only the news was scheduled at the same time every day. A typical schedule resembled this one, from Danmarks Radio Wednesday, 14 November 1984.

9.30-10.00 A.M.   Ude på noget (Are you up for it).                           Children's programming (rerun).
10.00-11.00 A.M. Kvit eller dobbelt. (The 64.000 Kroners                           Question). Quiz program (rerun).
5.00-5.20 P.M.     Eventyrets verden (The World of Fairy                           Tales). Feature from a museum.
5.20-6.00 P.M.     Dig og musikken (You and the Music).                           Youth music program.
6.00-6.50 P.M.     Skole-TV (School Television). Two                            educational programs on sports and on                            psychology and love.
7.20-7.30 P.M.     Programoversigten (Program Schedule)                            Tonight's schedule.
7.30-8.00 P.M.     TV-Avisen. News
8.00-8.55 P.M.     Ungdomsredaktionen (The Youth                            Magazine). Genre-mixed youth                            program.
8.55-9.30 P.M.     Ugens gæst (Guest of the Week).                            Political interview.
9.30-11.10 P.M.    Fodbold. (Soccer) National soccer                            match.
11.10-11.20 P.M.  TV-Avisen. News.

People checked the schedule and turned on the set whenever they found something of interest, and as a natural choice turned off the set afterwards. Concepts such as scheduling, program flow, and formats did not play any significant role. The concept of the program, was the decisive factor in terms of its content, form and duration, and only a small part of the schedule was serialised. The popularity of a program was secondary to the program idea, and even successful series were scheduled for only six or twelve shows--or as long as the producers enjoyed producing them.

To some degree public service television succeeded in Scandinavia in the monopoly era, but it also created some problems. The TV stations developed a paternalistic attitude toward the audience, partly due to their assignment to educate the public. Another contributory cause of this form of paternalism was that the general public was not the primary audience for the TV stations. It was instead the politicians, who decided the size of the licence fee, and the critics and public opinion makers, who gave the only public feedback. The general public was rarely heard, and there were no regular ratings. This attitude and a bureaucratic organisation have made it difficult for the public service monopolies to adjust to the new competitive television situation. The competitors are addressing the audience as consumers in a market instead of as citizens in a democratic society, and the public service stations are struggling to find new roles as players in the marketplace despite their non-commercial objectives.

The transition from a monopoly to a multichannel system began in 1982, when Eutelsat (the regional European satellite) decided to open up transponders for satellite television in Europe. The political reaction in some of the Nordic countries was to ban the reception of the satellite signals. In free democratic societies such a strategy was obviously problematic, and within a few years all countries had legalised the reception. The "threat" from the sky instead caused the Nordic countries to strengthen the national terrestrial output as a protection against the influence from foreign TV stations.

The establishment of new national television stations took place within a changed political climate. A general strengthening of the right wing and a growing dissatisfaction with the bureaucratic and paternalistic monopolies called for real change and competition. Satellite television had introduced commercial television in Scandinavia, but it was not until a fierce political fight had been settled that Denmark was the first country to launch a partly commercially financed terrestrial TV station in 1988. The rules for advertising on TV 2 were very strict, and even though the rules have been modified several times, commercials still may appear only in between programs. TV 2 is a non-profit organisation subject to the same public service obligations as Danmarks Radio. TV2 in Norway, launched in 1992, and TV 4 in Sweden, launched in 1992, are private companies financed by commercials, but they are also subject to public service obligations. An ongoing debate focuses on whether it is possible for commercially financed TV stations to fulfill public service obligations. So far the commercially financed stations in Denmark and Sweden and to a lesser degree in Norway have in general fulfilled their obligations.

The commercially financed public service stations have a great variety of programs, but they rely more on standardised program formats and a more serialised programming policy. TV 2 in Denmark has had a Danish version of the game show Wheel of Fortune airing daily since its launch in 1988. TV 2 has also had extended regional programming, but the station is lacking sufficient national drama and other expensive program types to adequately fulfill its public service requirements. The

Scandinavian television policy has been successful in containing the influence from foreign television stations. The transnational satellite stations have established only a marginal position. The Nordic people want to watch national programs because of the languages and the cultural heritage, but subtitled foreign programs (American and British) are a significant and popular part of the program supply on the national channels.

The main challenge to the public service stations has instead come from private satellite channels aimed at the Scandinavian market. The most successful provider is the Swedish-owned TV3 (Kinnevik). The channel was launched in 1987 from England and has a special feed to each of the Scandinavian countries. TV3 is under English jurisdiction and is therefore allowed to broadcast commercials within the single programs. In the beginning TV3 consisted mainly of American series and some high profile sports events. Gradually the channel has increased the national output of cheaply produced but very popular entertainment shows mostly based on international formats, and the ratings have increased steadily.

The national commercial and public service television institutions are fighting for positions now and will do so in the future within this changing media system. The public service companies are still important players, and they are undertaking political lobbying to secure more financial and operational freedom that will allow them to make strategic alliances in an international media system which is becoming more and more dominated by huge international media conglomerates.