Danish news has no commercials

DR doesn't need to worry about advertising because their news is paid by licensing fees, a fee paid by all those who own a television, cell phone or have an internet connection. Mikkel took me to see a news cast at DR, one of the two big news outlets in Denmark, from the production room. They had a full 30 minutes to fill. There were no teases, no headlines. Stories were over two minutes long, and the whole cast was just one anchor and no reporters had standups or live shots. Sports had a few minutes, and weather was only three minutes at the end of the cast. In my opinion, the whole thing flowed a lot better than an American news cast, which is constant segues and and shifting clips and graphics. Despite the fact that I couldn't understand most of the news cast, the shots were interesting. Lots of rack focus and jump cuts, but a lot of artful shots too. From what Mikkel said, the responsibilities of the reporters seem to be the same as in America, mostly needing to shoot and edit for themselves.

Because DR is such a large organization, they have a fitness center, cafeteria and a cafe in the same building. It was huge and beautiful. The studio is in the middle of the news room, with a tinted glass wall separating the anchor desk from the desks of reporters. The set was much smaller than KOMU, with very few TVs or sets or designs on the wall. There was just one video panel to the side of the anchor where they displayed a picture or short clip of video, but other than that, everything was very minimal.

I'll try to shadow a reporter in Aarhus, but if I have the chance to visit again, I would try to spend more time at DR, or perhaps the other outlet, TV 2.