From 1933 until 1981, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) was the sole general broadcaster of television and radio in Norway. Owned completely by the state, NRK is financed through fixed licence fees. Today, Norwegians have access to a variety of broadcasters on channels from Norway and abroad.

NRK launched the first national radio transmissions in 1933, and until the 1960s its efforts were largely concentrated on expanding the technical infrastructure to make radio, and after 1960 television, broadcasts available throughout Norway. In the 1980s the emergence of the first local radio stations as well as new cable and satellite channels dissolved NRK’s longstanding monopoly. NRK continues nonetheless to maintain a dominant position in Norwegian broadcasting.

In 1988, local radio stations were granted permission to finance their activities through advertisement revenues, and in 1993 the first nationwide advertising-financed television and radio channels appeared.

Today NRK currently offers three national radio stations - NRK P1, NRK P2 and NRK P3 - plus a range of digital and local services. The most successful commercial radio stations are P4 Radio Hele Norge, Kanal 24 and Radio 1.

Television broadcasting has developed significantly in recent years, not least as a result of the imminent transition from analogue to digital. The construction and maintenance of Norway's digital television network has been entrusted to Norges Televisjon (NTV). The digital TV network in Norway will open region by region from September 2007 through to December 2008. The analogue networks will be closed down successively after a 6-12 months period of parallel operation in each region.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) operates the national channels NRK1, NRK2 and NRK3 along with a growing range of digital channels. NRK's main competitors are the commercially-run TV2, TV3 and TVNorge.

TV and radio channels financed by advertising are more clearly targeted towards popular entertainment than those of NRK, and feature a greater number of programmes produced outside of Norway.

Media policy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. The Norwegian Media Authority is the overall regulatory and supervisory agency for the media sector. The Mass Media Authority’s areas of responsibility include (i) classifying movies; (ii) enforcing rules on content, advertising and sponsorship for broadcast media; (iii) handling license applications for local broadcast media; (iv) handling applications for newspaper production grants, including non-leading newspapers, minority language newspapers and Sami newspapers; and (v) overseeing and intervening against the acquisition of media ownership (either prohibiting the acquisition or merger, or allowing an acquisition on such conditions as the Authority sets, including ordering the divestment of other media ownership interests).

Edited from Aschehoug and Gyldendal's Norwegian Encyclopedia

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