Television in Norway

Television in Norway was introduced in 1954, but first program was shown in 1958, and officially begin on August 20, 1960. Like in Denmark, Norway had only one television channel until the 1980s. Some 40% of the population have cable TV, and 30% have satellite TV. Another 30% have terrestrial television only.

In Norway, all advertising containing political messages and advertising aimed at children are prohibited. Channels such as TV3 are allowed to broadcast commercial breaks, as these channels are being broadcast via satellite from the United Kingdom.

Non-Norwegian television programs, except for children's programs, are subtitled, not dubbed.

The first television channel in Norway, NRK was started officially in 1960, but had regular programs since 1954. A second television channel, TV 2 was started in 1992. NRK started a second television channel, NRK2 in 1996. NRK1 goes out to 99,8% of all households, while TV2 has a 92% coverage and NRK2 and NRK3/NRK Super has 80% coverage. There are today 24 local television channels in the country, all terrestrially transmitted. The first local channel, TVBudstikka was started in 1986. Many of them cooperate with TVNorge, so that TVNorge use their transmitters when they are not broadcasting any programs.

The introduction of DVB-T is regulated by the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. Analogue TV broadcasting was completely closed on 1 December 2009. Norway uses the DVB H.264/MPEG-4 AVC coding standards.

In June 2002, a 12-year nationwide licence, including the roll-out of infrastructure, was publicly announced, met only by the application of Norges Televisjon (NTV), a joint venture between the state-owned broadcaster NRK, the leading private broadcaster TV 2, and the largest Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor. In February 2004, the Norwegian parliament passed the final regulations on digital broadcasting to the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs, leaving the Ministry to create a licence agreement for NTV. The Ministry showed their proposal for a licence in December 2004.

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