As part of a comprehensive transformation of the Danish pubcaster into a fully digital service, the position of Head of Drama has been scrapped, but a new artistic director will be named.

Following the recent departure of Christian Rank as Head of Drama, DR has announced on Monday that Marienlund who was most recently director of DR Media and earlier channel manager at DR1, will now be in charge of the Danish public broadcaster’s drama strategy at DR’s Culture-Children and Youth Department. A yet-to-be appointed artistic director will report to her, while Marianne Bennetzen who has been serving as interim Head of Drama since Rank’s departure in September, will continue to oversee DR Drama’s administration and daily operations.

DR said in a statement that the new set up is meant to make all content - including fiction - work better digitally. The new drama strategy will be completed by early 2022.

The priority for Marienlund will be to clarify DR Drama’s position, in full dialogue with the corporation’s staff and the entire Danish industry. But what will remain is DR’s mandate to “reflect the reality of the Danes, and to put key issues at the forefront through strong storytelling”.

Mentioning upcoming dramas that perfectly fit that strategy, Marienlund cited the comedy The Orchestra (Orkesteret) starring comic duo Frederik Cilius and Rasmus Bruun, which deals notably with sexism at the workplace. and combines both humour and audacity. The series is due to premiere on DR1 and the pubcaster’s streaming service DRTV in January 2022.

Next up is SAM Productions’ new Borgen (coproduced with Netflix) set to launch on DR in February 2022, while the premium show Carmen Curlers created by Mette Heeno (Snow Angels) is due to premiere in the fall 2022, (see our separate story: CLICK HERE). “We have a super solid foundation to stand on, which we must secure and expand in the future,” said Marienlund.

Meanwhile as part of the Danish broadcaster’s full digital transformation, the group has created the new department ‘DR Users, Market and Publishing’, while DR Media will be closed down.

A six-point digital strategy to be implemented in the coming years, was also unveiled on Monday. The goal is for DR:

  • to be a streaming service for all Danes
  • to have a clear and coherent offer for young people
  • to develop and produce content for digital use, across news, documentaries, culture, music, drama
  • to strengthen its production of podcast and radio content
  • to make dr.dk the news site for all Danes
  • to make its content easy to find, notably through a better use of social media to redirect potential audiences onto DR’s own platforms.

“The core of DR’s public service mandate is still the same. We want to support democracy, contribute to Danish culture and strengthen communities,” said DR’s CEO Maria Rørbye Rønn. “But the Danes are not becoming digital users. They already are, and therefore we must develop DR’s offer to users in the digital reality. The digital development is not a goal in itself, but a prerequisite for the Danes to be able to discover and use Danish public service content in the future,” she stated.