The Danish government’s decision to back digital and Internet radio will see conditions eased for commercial stations and extra funds allocated to public service TV channels. The new agreement means that public service broadcaster DR, together with TV2’s regional stations can look forward to an extra influx of cash. An extra 28 million kroner (€3.76 million) will be allocated to DR, 16.5 million kroner (€2.215 million) to TV2 regional stations and a further 20 million kroner (€2,686 million) to the Public Service Funding Pool.
The money will come from excess funds from last year’s licence fees, together with money that had been set aside for the planned overhaul of the FM bandwidth, which was designed to provide more channels for commercial radio stations.
Commercial stations Sky Radio and TV2 Radio failed after launching national FM channels and both Nova FM and Radio 100 are teetering on a financial precipice. But as a result of the new political agreement, commercial stations can look forward to better financial terms when broadcasting on FM, while also getting cheaper access to the DAB digital signal.
Nova FM and Radio 100, which were the fifth and sixth channels with national coverage, both pay 23 million kroner (€3,088 million) annually to broadcast via FM. When their frequencies are put to tender again in 2011 and 2014, the process is more likely to represent a beauty contest than an auction, which will lead to noticeably smaller annual charges, reports Business.dk.
The latter station has repeatedly threatened to close after losses amounted to more than 350 million kroner (€47 million) since the radio auction in 2003 when it won its licence. Chief executive Jim Receveur looks forward to the possibility of no longer facing a fee of millions if the station regains the same frequency licence when it is put to tender in a few years.
‘It would be very acceptable if my concession change was abolished. I would save 23 million kroner per year which would definitely help,’ said Receveur. ‘It’s difficult to compete with DR when we’re already 23 million kroner behind to start with.’
(Source: Copenhagen Post)
