Radio and TV Collection

In the radio and TV collection, you will find broadcasts from DR, TV 2 and a number of other Danish TV channels from the mid-80s onward.

Employee between shelves in the Radio Tv Collection

Photo: Thomas Søndergaard

Up to and including 2005, radio and tv broadcasts have been recorded on, for example, reel-to-reel tapes and VHS (Video Home System). Since December 2005, we have been collecting all radio and TV broadcasts digitally, and you can access this part of the collection via Mediestream.

We regularly digitise TV broadcasts from before 2006 and make these available via Mediestream. A substantial part of the collection has not yet been digitised, however. To find a specific broadcast in the non-digitised part of the collection, you need to know the date and time of the broadcast. We have a range of tools to help find the date and time of a given broadcast - read more in our guide: Get help finding Danish radio and TV broadcasts.

The collection's content and history

The collection began in 1987 on the basis of an agreement with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (referred to as DR). The agreement meant that DR had to turn in their complete range of broadcasts from both national and regional channels to the library in the form of so-called control tapes. The tapes came in several different formats but TV broadcasts were generally returned on VHS.

Following the end of DR's monopoly on TV in 1988, we began collecting broadcasts from TV 2, which means that we have the entire range of TV 2 broadcasts in our collection. Broadcasts from other Danish channels were later added to the collection. Since 1988 we have been collecting broadcasts annually from local radio and TV stations in week 46 - this week has been designated the most common week of the year by a number of Danish media analysts.

The collection does not cover the complete range of broadcasts from all Danish channels. Particularly in relation to the commercial channels, we have made a choice of focusing on collecting radio and TV made in Denmark. The radio and TV listings (in Danish) show in detail which channels are included in the collection, as well as the period of time we collected the broadcasts.

You can view or listen to all of the broadcasts if you visit us at Victor Albecks Vej, Aarhus or at The Black Diamond, Copenhagen. You can also see the broadcasts if you visit The Danish Film Institute. Certain broadcasts are registered as covenanted material, such as programmes that contain sensitive personal data, and these are not accessible.

In addition to radio and TV broadcasts, we also have radio news bulletin manuscripts from DR and TV 2.

  • Radio news bulletin manuscripts from DR cover the period April, 1937 - 30 September, 2006. The manuscripts are from the news bulletins broadcasted at 12 a.m. and 6 p.m. The material is unique since not all recordings of radio news bulletins have been preserved over time.
  • DR press releases for the period 1965-2005 (TV and radio)
  • TV 2 press releases for the period 1988-2005 (TV)

The manuscripts from 1937-2006 are available in printed form.

Radio news bulletin manuscripts and press material can only be read in the reading room on Victor Albecks Vej, Aarhus, after prior arrangement. Write to us and include the following information:

  • News bulletin manuscripts (Yes/No)
  • DR Press material (Yes/No)
  • TV 2 Press material (Yes/No)
  • Your name
  • Desired date and time for use in the reading room (if any)
  • Email
  • Telephone number