The Role of Public Service Media in Sustaining TV Drama in Small Markets

摘要

Via a comparative case study of VRT/Flanders and DR/Denmark, we investigate the role of public service media in sustaining the expensive but important genre of TV drama in small markets in the face of recent cutbacks, shifting revenues, and global competition. Although the study shows some similarities, there are notable differences between the two. VRT has significantly higher production volume and commissions most productions externally, thus supporting the sustainability of the wider Flemish TV production market . DR has lower production volume and produces largely in-house, enabling larger budgets per series and, hence, higher production values, which in turn has contributed to an upward global export spiral for DR, thus supporting the sustainability of DR’s drama content itself.