The effect of DR’s (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) streaming in Danish TV-production

Original title: Effekten af DRs streaming på dansk TV-produktion

Client context
The Danish Producers Association is an association of Danish film and TV producers and game developers who develop and produce programs, which they sell to broadcasters in Denmark and other countries.

In Spring 2014, the Danish Government were going to make a political settlement on media regulation in Denmark. This settlement would have an impact on the framework conditions for TV producers.

Client challenges
The TV producers believed that they had a very weak negotiation position vis-à-vis broadcasters, leading to insufficient compensation for development and production of TV content.

They were concerned that Danish public broadcaster DR’s new TV streaming could take market shares from commercial broadcasters and, thereby harming production of Danish TV content from independent producers.

Copenhagen Economics’ findings and approach
We found that TV producers in Denmark had a weak negotiation position and did not obtain sufficient compensation, especially for new digital rights. These findings were primarily based on theory on negotiation power and input from industry.

We found that DR’s TV streaming would expectedly distort competition from commercial  broadcasters, resulting in commercial broadcasters buying less Danish content. This is particularly the case if DR could make attractive international films and series available for streaming for a longer period. These findings were primarily based on competition literature and customer survey.

Benefits achieved for client
The Producers Association used our report actively in communication with Danish politicians and obtained the following concrete improvements in media legislation:

Copenhagen Economics swiftly grasped the complex issues of the case and solved the assignment with high professionalism and precision
Klaus Hansen, Director - Danish Producers Association
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