DR TV

DR TV^[1] is the part of DR, the Danish national broadcasting corporation, concerned with television programming.

DR1

Main article: DR1

DR was Denmark's first television channel. It began broadcasting on 2 October 1951. Since the introduction of DR2 on 30 August 1996 it has been known as DR1^{[citation needed]}.

DR2

Main article: DR2

DR2 is the third national subscription-free TV channel in Denmark (it followed the establishment of TV 2 and its sister channel)^{[citation needed]}. It was known in its earliest years as den hemmelige kanal ("the secret channel") because it could not be seen nationwide at its launch — a situation much ridiculed by its competitors^{[citation needed]}. Its early programme content was also fairly narrow^{[citation needed]}. In recent times, however, it has become one of the strongest brands in Danish television and on several occasions gained more viewers than TV 3^{[citation needed]}. DR2's traditional specialisms are cultural programmes, satirical comedy, in-depth news programmes, documentaries, and a weekly temalørdag (Theme Saturday) strand examining diverse aspects of one chosen subject in a series of linked programmes^{[citation needed]}.

DR Update

Main article: DR Update

Will soon be available on the digital broadcasting system, DVB-T^{[citation needed]}.

Future channels of DR

On November 1, 2009, DR will launch three new channels:

• DR Ramasjang – a children's channel that will air programming targeted 3 to 10 year olds from 6am to 8pm.
• DR K – a culture and history channel that will span across several topics, eg. "art, culture, history, music, design, architecture, fashion". It will only air from 4pm to midnight.
• DR HD – Denmark's first free-to-air high-definition channel that will air successful shows from the other DR-channels in true HD only, no upscaling.

All of these channels will be compressed using the MPEG-4-standard.

Web television

In June 2007, DR launched an Internet-based news channel called DR Update^{[citation needed]}. DR also provides live streaming of DR1 and DR2, as well as on-demand streaming of many individual programmes, to internet users in Denmark^{[citation needed]}.

The web television efforts by DR has been criticised for not being friendly to computers not running Microsoft Windows as well as for being very difficult to gain access to even when running Microsoft Windows^{[citation needed]}. There has been some effort to remedy this though and it should be possible to gain access on other platforms, but there are still severe limits to the number of viewers at any given time^{[citation needed]}.

The web platform was used to justify the new type of receivers fee, which many claimed was unjust because they had chosen to live without television or radio^{[citation needed]}. The argument was then that because people could now receive the broadcasts of DR over the internet, they were receivers just like everyone else^{[citation needed]}. Protests against this was overheard and included arguments that DR could have a login system for people who paid the fee so that people who did not want to receive the content did not have to pay^{[citation needed]}. Another argument was that the shows on the website were very few and of very poor quality^{[citation needed]}.

DR is currently conducting experiments with the H.264 video streaming format^[2], but when this format is made the standard format or if already available shows will be converted, is not known.

Reception outside Denmark

DR1 and 2 are available in Sweden and Norway via Canal Digital's cable and satellite, and in Iceland via Síminn's cable and IPTV service.

References

1. ^ "DR in brief". DR. http://www.dr.dk/OmDR/About+DR/20060622150803.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-02. 
2. ^ "H264 Åben beta test" (Press release). DR. January 8, 2008. http://www.dr.dk/hjaelp/drdktv/20080108145038.htm.