Ranking of TV channels in Denmark 2020, based on audience share

Based on audience market share, the public television station TV 2 ranked highest among TV stations in Denmark. In 2020, it amounted to 27 percent among TV viewers aged 3 years and older. In second place came DR1 with an audience share of roughly 26 percent that year. Like TV 2, it is a public television station.

How is public TV financed in Denmark?

Although TV 2 is owned by the public television broadcaster TV 2 Danmark A/S, it is financed through advertising and subscription sales. In 2020, the company generated ad revenues of roughly 1.43 billion Danish kroner and subscription revenues of over 1.7 billion Danish kroner. On the other hand, DR1, the flagship of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, is funded by license fees. In 2021, Danes had to pay an annual TV and radio license fee of 619 Danish kroner per household to the public service broadcasters.

Public vs non-public television in Denmark

In total, the Danish public service TV had an audience market share of 60 percent in 2020. In the past three years, this figure remained quite stable. Thus, non-public television, or private or commercial TV, is less popular than public service TV in the Scandinavian country. For example, the most popular commercial channel in the audience share ranking TV 3, owned by the Nordic Entertainment Group, was just the sixth most watched TV station in Denmark in 2019.