Political Winds Shift, Media Adjusts Again

Michael Hedges June 10, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

The center-right coalition of Liberal Alliance and Danish People’s Party that had led the country off and on for more than a decade was overrun by a new center-left coalition of the Social Democratic party, Radical Left, Socialist People’s Party and Red-Green Alliance. The new coalition - referred to as the Red Block - wants little to do with the media policies that came before, almost.

“There is a consensus on adjusting and changing the media deal that has been made,” said Social Democratic Party culture and media spokesperson Mogens Jensen, quoted by Politiken (June 6). Mr. Jensen is the odds-on favorite as the next Minister of Culture and Media.

In the general election held June 5th, just ten days after European Parliament elections, left-leaning political parties received a boost at the expense of nationalist, xenophobic parties. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen tendered his government’s resignation to Queen Margrethe II the next day. Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen will be the next prime minister.

The fate of Radio24syv is likely to change. This is the publicly-funded, privately operated national all-news radio channel created 9 years ago to compete with the radio news output of public broadcaster DR. PeopleGroup and Berlingske Media’s seven year contract to operate the channel is due to expire. The current operators made clear it wants to just let it go after politicians demanded relocation from Copenhagen and radically adjusting the staff. The right-wing politicians tried to shuttle the channel to the DAB platform to cut costs, leaving the media regulator to find a new concession holder for the soon to be vacant FM distribution network. Private sector media operators effectively ran from these opportunities.

“People are looking for other work,” said Radio24syv director Jørgen Ramskov, who has already resigned, quoted by journalisten.dk (June 7). “I am not saying it cannot be restored, but the longer it goes, the more complicated it becomes. There are many gears when you have to run a business like ours.”

Less likely to change are on-going reviews of public broadcaster DR but the Red Block is largely uninterested in previously proposed cost cutting. Under the previous media agreement DR was to have cut spending about 20% annually from 2021. The Red Block parties generally support returning full funding to DR but are less interested in getting into a contentious squabble among themselves. One related issue is the household license fee that was replaced by the previous government with a direct tax. No Danish politician wants to reintroduce the license fee.

"If there is a political majority willing to strengthen DR… at a time of massive competition from strong international players, then I think that is incredibly positive,” said DR General Secretary Maria Rørbye Rønn in a statement, quoted by Finans (June 7).

Under the current media agreement FM switch-off in favor of the DAB platform was to be determined once the DAB listening share reached 50%. While it is early days in Denmark’s political shift, interest in changing that plan is slight.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Denmark

• Hot Topics - Elections and Media