On Saturday October 1, 1988, DR's monopoly over Denmark's terrestrial TV landscape was broken with the airing of TV2's first programme: The Danish Symphony.
Since then, the publicly owned but commercially oriented TV2 Denmark has become the second largest national TV station, offering a wide range of satellite/cable channels serving every segment of the Danish population: TV2 Zulu for ages 15-40 (launched in 2000), TV2 Charlie for adult programming (2004), TV2 Film (2005), TV2 News (2006), and TV2 Sport (2007). The company also runs since 2005 the online on demand channel TV2 Sputnik.
Following several years of fast expansion and heavy investments, the company announced last April, a savings plan worth DKK 200m and cutbacks on 136 staff members. A credit facility (limited in amount and time) was granted by the Danish Ministry of Culture, authorised last August by the EU Commission. "It's not a secret that the last few months have been really tough for TV2 and its staff. We still haven't found the answers to the current challenges, but I'm convinced that in the future, we will continue to have a strong position within the Danish media landscape and in the Danish people's consciousness," said TV2 Denmark's CEO Merete Eldrup.
While the rapid introduction of the digital channels has contributed to the cash crisis, both TV2 News and TV2 Sports are said to be close to profitability. The company's strategy for the future is to continue to focus on quality TV Drama for the main broadcast channel, its cable/satellite channels and web portal TV2 net, and to expand its non-advertisement based business areas as the switching off of analogue TV in late October 2009 will mean even greater competition between television operators in Denmark.