In the Nordic countries, mobile call minutes are generally stagnating, but high-speed broadband and the use of mobile data are increasing. These are some of the main findings from a 2018 telecommunications report.
While local news media outlets are closing down, the ecosystem of new digital media providing local news is growing. But the new hyperlocal media is usually found in areas that already have local papers andother news outlets, and their economic situation is often unpredictable. Therefore, hyperlocal media rarely become substitutes for discontinued local news media. These are some of the conclusions from a new collection of studies on hyperlocal media published by Nordicom.
This year’s Swedish media economics report, Medieutveckling — Medieekonomi 2019, is produced by Nordicom in collaboration with the Swedish Press and Broadcasting Authority. It shows that commercial radio and TV are performing well, while the daily press has been hit hard by new competition in the media market.
In Finland, the total value of the media market remained unchanged from 2017 to 2018. But for the media sectors, there were both ups and downs. While for example newspapers and magazines showed a weakened position, the TV industry grew, boosted by pay-TV and video-on-demand services.
In 2018, more Danes accessed a news site daily than read a printed daily newspaper. During the same year, half the newspaper titles in Denmark lost more than ten per cent of their readers. These are some of the trends shown in the Media Development in Denmark 2019 report.
The Nordics are high performers in digitisation in European and global comparisons. As for media use, there is a continuous shift to digital consumption, but age gaps are increasing. These are some of the themes covered in this newsletter, all with a focus on the Nordic countries.
Over the course of just a decade, all the Nordic countries now have – or are on their way to having – shifted to tax-based funding of public service media. Still, the models chosen are not totally alike. We have mapped the similarities and differences in the different countries.
Finland is the EU’s best-performing country in digitisation, while Sweden ranks second and Denmark fourth. Norway, not included in the ranking, is at the same level as the other Nordic countries.
The Swedish public service media companies should be up to date and in close connection to the audience. They are also a common good that should work in a media system with a free and functioning commercial media market. This is what the Swedish Minister of Culture, Amanda Lind, said in June 2019 when she presented the Government's proposal on the conditions for a new broadcasting remit for Sweden's three public service media companies.
The effects of digitalisation run as a thread throughout this year’s first Nordic newsletter. Media use is undergoing change, as is the media market. The digital transformation is also creating – and bridging – new inequalities in society, according to new research.
