Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

Infobox_Company
company_name = Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)
company_
company_type = Publicly-funded, public service broadcaster
foundation = 1924
location = Oslo, Norway
key_people = Hans Tore Bjerkaas
num_employees = 3 481 (2004) [ [http://medienorge.uib.no/main.cfm?ID=138&Medium=TV Medienorge/Inst. for informasjon- og medievitenskap, Universitetet i Bergen] ]
industry = Broadcasting
products = TV, radio, online services
homepage = [http://www.nrk.no/ www.nrk.no]

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norwegian: Norsk rikskringkasting AS), which is usually known as the NRK, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the leading media company of Norway. It is a founding member of the European Broadcasting Union.

Financing

It is financed not as a post in the national budget, but primarily through a combination of a mandatory annual license fee for each person who is in possession of a TV, and a number of commercial activities such as programme and DVD sales, spin-off products and certain types of sponsorship.

History

Regular radio broadcasts started in Norway in 1925 by the privately owned company Kringkastningselskapet A/S, the predecessor to NRK which was founded in 1933. Based on a model similar to the BBC, and located in Oslo, it was a replacement for privately operated radio stations in the larger cities. NRK initially set out to get coverage over the entire country, and had a monopoly on broadcasting in Norway until the monopoly was gradually dissolved from 1975 onwards. Under the WW2 German occupation Norwegian transmitters were used for broadcasting German war propaganda to Northern Europe (particularly Scotland and the northern half of Ireland where the sea path ensured a good signal) and Scandinavia.

NRK was also partly financed by commercials on radio up until the German occupation.

NRK was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950.

NRK was the last of the major European public broadcasters to introduce a second radio station, officially started as late as 1984. In 1993 NRK launched a third radio station, the youth-oriented "P3". A 24-hour station for classical music, "Alltid Klassisk", introduced in 1995, was the first of its kind to be broadcast digitally using DAB. The 24-hour news station "Alltid Nyheter" was then introduced in 1997, followed by a radio station for teenagers, "mP3", in 2000, which mostly plays dance music continually.

In 1995 a second television channel, NRK2, was launched. The original television channel is now known as NRK1. September 3 2007 NRK launched its third channel; The youth channel NRK3. Later that year, on December 1 NRK launched its fourth television channel, NRK Super, which is aimed at kids. NRK3 and NRK Super shares the same channel, with NRK Super broadcasting from 0700 - 1900 and NRK3 from 1900 - 0700.

In 2004, a new radio station for traditional music, "NRK Alltid folkemusikk" was launched on DAB and internet radio.
January 24 2007 Hans-Tore Bjerkaas replaced John G. Bernander as Director-General of the NRK. The chairman of the board is Hallvard Bakke (b. 1943). Bakke used to be a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was the former Minister of Trade 1976-1979, and Minister of Culture 1986-1989. The current head (2006) of the news department is Gro Holm. Currently (2006) NRK employs between 3000 and 3500 people.

The international radio transmissions from NRK, "Utenlandssendingen", began transmissions on the shortwave bands in 1948. Initially broadcasting in Norwegian, English language programs were later added. The service was discontinued January 1 2002. All NRK broadcasting activities on shortwave ceased on January 1 2004. NRK's mediumwave transmitter at Kvitsøy on 1314 kHz used to be widely heard internationally and was one of the most commonly-heard trans-Atlantic DX signals in eastern North America. The frequency carried a mixture of NRK's radio channels P1 and P2, and was called "Europakanalen". However, these mediumwave transmissions were discontinued on July 1 2006.

All of the radio stations are now available on the internet. Several of the television programmes are also available on the internet.

NRK still holds the strongest position in number of viewers, though the competition from TV 2 is getting tougher.

NRK claims to have the longest running radio show, "Lørdagsbarnetimen" (lit. The Saturday Children's Hour), running since December 20 1924.

In recent years, the network has shown itself to be the leading producer of original comedy shows in Norway, with such notable successes as "Lillelørdag", "Åpen Post", "Uti Vår Hage" and "Team Antonsen", centered on a core of the comedians Harald Eia and Bård Tufte Johansen.

NRK has 12 regional offices spread around the country. All offices have their own broadcasts in both television and radio as well their own news sites on the internet. They also contribute daily with news coverage for the national news programmes. The two headquarters of NRK are located at Marienlyst in Oslo and Tyholt in Trondheim.

Notable TV-shows

* Dagsrevyen
* Nytt på nytt
* Melodi Grand Prix (The Norwegian national selection for Eurovision Song Contest)
* Idrettsgallaen

Channels

Radio

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Television

* NRK1
* NRK2
* NRK3
* NRK Super

High Definition

NRK has an HD bus, producing high-definition video. [cite web
title =Skandinavias mest avanserte
publisher =Nordic Media Festival
url =http://www.mediedager.no/pub/pub_news.php?aID=294
format =HTML
accessdate = 2007-08-15 ] The first Norwegian series filmed in HD is "En Udødelig Mann" (An Immortal Man) about the young Henrik Ibsen. The action "miniseries" (6 parts) called "Kodenavn Hunter" is also HD. Promo videos are freely downloadable from their site, and the full-length last episode is available [http://www20.nrk.no/programmer/tv/hunter/hunter.aspx?b=hd]

NRK uses H.264 as the compression codec for the digital terrestrial network.Fact|date=February 2007

References

See also

* List of programs broadcast by Norsk rikskringkasting
* List of Norwegian television channels
* List of Norwegian language radio stations

External links

* [http://www.nrk.no/ NRK.no: Official site]
* [http://www.nrk.no/kanal/programoversikt/ Television and radio schedules]
* [http://www.yr.no/ yr.no: Online weather service]