Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation - History

History

Regular radio broadcasts started in Norway in 1925, Kringkastningselskapet, a privately owned company founded in 1933 and a predecessor to NRK. 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. The monopoly was gradually dissolved from 1975 onwards, resulting in the introduction of cable TV in 1982, regional TV channels and satellite TV in 1986 (culminating in the launch of TV3 in 1987 and TVNorge in 1988) and the launch of the second free-to-air channel TV 2 in 1992.

During the German occupation, Norwegian transmitters were used to broadcast 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 until the German occupation.

NRK was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. In 1954 NRK started broadcasting television shows on a trial basis, with regular broadcasts starting in 1960.

NRK was the last of the major European public broadcasters to introduce a second radio station, officially starting 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 (now called "NRK 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 1996, a second television channel, NRK2, was launched. The original television channel is now known as NRK1. On 3 September 2007 NRK launched its third channel: a youth channel called NRK3. Later that year, on 1 December, NRK launched its fourth television channel, NRK Super, which is aimed at children. NRK3 and NRK Super share the same channel, with NRK Super broadcasting from 0700 to 1900 and NRK3 from 1900 to 0700.

A traditional music radio station, NRK Alltid folkemusikk (now known as "NRK Folkemusikk") was launched in 2004 on DAB and internet radio.

NRK's international radio transmissions, known as Utenlandssendingen, began shortwave transmission in 1948. Initially broadcasting in Norwegian, English-language programs were added later. The service was discontinued on 1 January 2002. All NRK broadcasting activities on shortwave ceased on 1 January 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 (literally "The Europe Channel"). However, these mediumwave transmissions were discontinued on 1 July 2006.

All of NRK's radio stations are now available on the internet. Several of NRK's 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 20 December 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 Lille Lørdag, Åpen Post, Uti vår hage and Team Antonsen, centered around the comedians Harald Eia and Bård Tufte Johansen.

NRK has 12 regional offices around Norway. Each offices has its own broadcasts on both television and radio, as well their own news sites on the internet. They also contribute news coverage for the national news programmes. NRK's headquarters are at Marienlyst in Oslo and Tyholt in Trondheim.