Content Commissioning in Danish Online Public Service Television

NordMedia 2025, paper for section 10: Television and Film Studies <br/> <br/><br/>Content Commissioning in Danish Online Public Service Television<br/> <br/> <br/>Keywords: <br/>Streaming services; content strategies; risk; public service values; qualitative interviews <br/> <br/> <br/>Abstract <br/> <br/>Recent contributions to research on how public service media (PSM) in Europe are transforming to online PSM investigate the impact of this process on the core public service values (e.g. Iordache et al. 2024; Bruun et al. 2025; Donders 2021). The findings show that the competition for audiences with global video-on-demand services (VoD) challenge especially the values of universality and diversity in many ways. This paper contributes to this body of research by investigating how the commissioning of content for the in-house VoDs is changing. In the more advanced digital media markets in Europe such as Denmark, the VoDs are increasingly used as the ‘front doors’ to the entire portfolio of content – linear as well as nonlinear. In Denmark both DR and TV 2 have a strategic focus on using their VoDs in this manner. The focus changed the publishing practices of both organisations as documented by Lassen (2025/forthcoming) and Bruun (2023). According to Bruun (2021) the strategic focus on the VoDs as ‘front doors’ has also increased the editorial importance and power of the schedulers in the PSM organisations. Furthermore, Bruun suggests that this organisational shift has an impact on the needs for content and consequently the creative processes in PSM. <br/>Following this suggestion, our paper will take a deep dive into in the production cultures of DR and TV 2 to understand how publishing for the VoD competition influences the creative work of commissioning content. The paper is based on 15 interviews with key professionals at DR and TV 2 as well as analysis of organisational strategies, content strategies and industry briefs for the external production companies. We have identified five concerns about risk in content production embedded in the current focus on publishing for the Danish PSM VoDs. Even if risk is a fundamental feature of the television industry as pointed out by Havens &amp; Lotz (2017), the five concerns about risk are associated with the core PS value of quality. In the production cultures quality works as an umbrella term that includes expectations of distinctiveness of the content, innovation in form and content and high professional standards. The work by Meijer (2005), Leggatt (1996) and Albers (1996) supports these expectations among television professionals. However, the five concerns about risk are interpreted up against universality and diversity and the general PSM remit to secure the continued survivability and legitimacy of PSM. <br/>Based on these findings, and regardless of the many differences between DR and TV 2, the paper finally argues that these concerns about risk influence content commissioning in a way that might limit as well as strengthen the role of PSM in domestic content production. In smaller but digitally advanced media markets such as in the Nordic countries, these changes to content commissioning probably have ramifications for the entire national television production sector given the strong position of the PSM organisations in this region. This calls for further studies of the interplay between PSM and the television production companies and invites comparative studies between markets. <br/><br/>References<br/><br/>Albers, R. (1996) Quality in television from the perspective of the professional programme maker. In Ishikawa, S. (ed.) Quality Assessment of Television. Luton: John Libbey Media<br/>Bruun, H., Johnson, C., Lassen, J.M., Nucci, A., Raats, T. and Switkowski, F. (2025) Publishing Public Service Media on Demand: a comparative study of Public Service Media companies’ editorial practices on their VoD-services I the age of platformisation. Journal of Digital Media and Policy, online first, 1-20.<br/>Bruun, H. (2023) The changing role of a video-on-demand service in the strategies of public service media. A production study of Danish TV 2 Play and its impact on the production culture if the schedulers, 2016-2022. Nordicom Review, 44(2), pp. 235-252.<br/>Bruun, H. (2021) From Scheduling to trans-programming. Media, Culture and Society, 43(4), pp. 613-628.<br/>Donders, K. (2021) Public Service Media in Europe. Law, theory, and practice. London: Routledge.<br/>Havens, T. &amp; Lotz, A. (2017) Understanding Media Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.<br/>Iordache, C. 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