TV Format Adaptation - Nordicom

TELEVISION FORMAT ADAPTATION IN A 

TRANS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE – AN 

AUSTRALIAN AND DANISH CASE STUDY 

by 

Pia Majbritt Jensen 

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of 

the requirements for the degree of 

PhD 

Aarhus University, Denmark 

2007

TELEVISION FORMAT ADAPTATION IN A TRANS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter 1............................................................................................................................... 5 

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 

Chapter 2............................................................................................................................. 12 

The Television Format, the Trans-national Format Trade & the Internationalisation 

of Television.................................................................................................................... 12 

What is a television format?....................................................................................... 14 

Global and local extent of the television format trade............................................... 16 

The structure of the international television format market ...................................... 19 

The increasing importance of formats in international television............................. 21 

The advantages of format adaptation......................................................................... 22 

Formats minimise cultural discount........................................................................... 25 

Formats are both transparent and opaque .................................................................. 26 

Formats amalgamate global and local........................................................................ 27 

Regional nuances to the internationalisation of television........................................ 30 

Americanisation and cross-cultural media influences............................................... 34 

Central academic positions and perspectives on television formats ......................... 38 

Main problems and research questions...................................................................... 45 

Chapter 3............................................................................................................................. 49 

Theoretical Perspectives on Media System & Genre ................................................... 49 

MEDIA SYSTEM THEORIES........................................................................................... 50 

Three media system models.................................................................................. 52 

The media system, media systemic agents and macro structures ........................ 55 

The television format as trans-national production ecology ................................ 61 

TELEVISION GENRE THEORIES..................................................................................... 65 

Why is the concept of genre useful?..................................................................... 66 

Genres as cultural categories................................................................................. 67 

Television’s texts................................................................................................... 69 

Genre divisions...................................................................................................... 71 

Media systemic context of lifestyle and reality television ................................... 73 

Lifestyle television ................................................................................................ 75 

Reality television................................................................................................... 78 

Lifestyle and reality compared: Small-talk television versus peak realism......... 82 

Media system – organisation and genre – schedules and programs..................... 85 

Chapter 4............................................................................................................................. 86 

Methodological Choices & Research Design ............................................................... 86 

MEDIA SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF DENMARK AND AUSTRALIA........................................ 88 

INTERVIEWS WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS........................................................... 92 

ANALYSES OF PRIMETIME TELEVISION SCHEDULES.................................................. 101 

Inspiration for schedule analyses ........................................................................ 101 

Main broadcasters, primetime, 1995-2000-2005................................................ 104 

Genre divisions.................................................................................................... 108 

Sample size and categorisation of programs....................................................... 109 

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PIA MAJBRITT JENSEN 

PROGRAM ANALYSES OF FOUR ADAPTATIONS.......................................................... 111 

TWO GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS......................................................... 115 

Chapter 5........................................................................................................................... 117 

The Media Systems of Australia and Denmark.......................................................... 117 

AUSTRALIA AND DENMARK COMPARED – POSITIONS AND RELATIONS ................... 121 

Penetration........................................................................................................... 122 

Diversity .............................................................................................................. 123 

Concentration ...................................................................................................... 124 

Funding................................................................................................................ 125 

Ownership............................................................................................................ 126 

Responsibility and accountability ....................................................................... 126 

THE AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION SYSTEM.................................................................... 130 

Television market structure................................................................................. 133 

History of Australian television .......................................................................... 136 

Legislation ........................................................................................................... 140 

Content regulation and standards........................................................................ 143 

Conclusion: Continuity over change................................................................... 145 

THE DANISH TELEVISION SYSTEM ............................................................................ 147 

Television market structure................................................................................. 148 

History of Danish television................................................................................ 152 

Legislation ........................................................................................................... 157 

Content regulation and standards........................................................................ 159 

Conclusion: transition into a ‘bastard’, mixed multi-channel system................ 162 

AUSTRALIA AND DENMARK’S TELEVISION SYSTEMS: SOCIAL LIBERAL & SOCIAL 

DEMOCRATIC............................................................................................................. 165 

Chapter 6........................................................................................................................... 169 

Impacts of Format Adaptation on Danish and Australian Primetime ..................... 169 

DENMARK ................................................................................................................. 170 

DR1...................................................................................................................... 170 

TV 2..................................................................................................................... 172 

TV3...................................................................................................................... 175 

TvDanmark.......................................................................................................... 179 

Summary and perspectives on Denmark in general ........................................... 182 

AUSTRALIA ............................................................................................................... 186 

Channel Seven..................................................................................................... 186 

Channel Nine....................................................................................................... 190 

Channel Ten......................................................................................................... 194 

ABC ..................................................................................................................... 197 

SBS ...................................................................................................................... 199 

Summary and perspectives on Australia in general............................................ 201 

DENMARK AND AUSTRALIA COMPARED................................................................... 205 

MEDIA SYSTEMIC EXPLANATIONS ............................................................................ 210 

Chapter 7........................................................................................................................... 215 

“Ground Force” and “Hokus Krokus” ...................................................................... 215 

Narrative structure: Australian melodrama versus Danish coolness....................... 217 

Audiovisual aesthetics: Direct emotional appeal versus limited emotional appeal 219 

The presenters: Australian playfulness versus Danish working partnership .......... 221 

Summary: Danish public service and Australian commercial television?.............. 227 

Broadcaster and production perspectives................................................................. 229 

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Chapter 8........................................................................................................................... 236 

“The Block” and “Huset”............................................................................................ 236 

Reality meets lifestyle .............................................................................................. 237 

Casting – Australian extraordinariness versus Danish ordinariness ....................... 239 

Location – Manly and Mejlborg .............................................................................. 240 

The first day on The Block and Huset – conflict versus team building................... 241 

Summary: Armani versus Kansas............................................................................ 248 


Chapter 9........................................................................................................................... 255 

“FC Zulu” AND “Nerds FC”...................................................................................... 255 

Positive and humorous reality.................................................................................. 257 

Similarities between FC Zulu and Nerds FC........................................................... 258 

Subtle but important differences.............................................................................. 263 

Summary: elitist ironic comedy versus egalitarian serious fun............................... 267 


Chapter 10......................................................................................................................... 273 

“Idols” and “Australian Idol”..................................................................................... 273 

Classic reality ........................................................................................................... 275 

Similarities................................................................................................................ 277 

Differences................................................................................................................ 281 

Summary: irreverent reality versus large-scale family entertainment .................... 289 


Chapter 11......................................................................................................................... 296 

Conclusions................................................................................................................... 296 

A brief summary.................................................................................................. 297 

Media system holds significant explanatory power ........................................... 299 

Genre perspective gives important nuances........................................................ 301 

Cultural and social mores.................................................................................... 301 

Pervasive industry ideologies?............................................................................ 303 

Room for methodological improvement............................................................. 304 

English Summary......................................................................................................... 306 

Dansk resume ............................................................................................................... 313 

Bibliography.................................................................................................................. 319 

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C h a p t e r 1 

INTRODUCTION 

Television format adaptation is an increasingly influential practice in television 

markets all over the world and the primary analytical object of this thesis. 

Format adaptation takes place when a local television market buys a foreign 

program concept – the format – and adapts it into a local version. In spite of 

the fact that this trans-national format exchange has experienced an 

exponential increase in recent years, and in spite of the phenomenon’s close 

links to the complex processes of globalisation, which currently are the 

subject of a great deal of academic interest, television format adaptation has 

until recently remained fairly unnoticed in international media research. In 

many cases the internationalisation of television has been perceived as the 

increasing trans-national import and export of original programs, and the 

adaptations have been either ignored or forgotten. 

Nevertheless, format adaptations are particularly interesting in a globalisation 

perspective, theoretically as well as methodologically. Theoretically, format 

adaptations are interesting because they are a product of globalisation on one 

hand but at the same time they often remain very localised on the other. As 

such, they are embodiments of the global-versus-local paradox. 

Methodologically, they are interesting because the actual format from which 

local adaptations are produced is the same no matter what national 

broadcaster adapts it. This gives an outstanding methodological opportunity 

to investigate television’s globalisation and localisation processes on analytical 

objects, whose basic idea is identical in the start-up phase of any national 

adaptation but often ends up being executed in very diverse ways during 

production. 

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Hypothesis, key problems and methodology 

The governing hypothesis of the thesis is that specific national media systemic 

conditions have vital explanatory power when it comes to these differences – 

and similarities – in format adaptation processes between countries. That is, 

specific format adaptation processes are more dependent on the competitive 

conditions, funding, content regulation, media policies, audience 

demographics, history and ownership of the players on a national television 

market than on vaguer concepts such as for example national mentalities and 

cultural tastes. In this sense, the thesis looks for explanations in the specific 

part of a nation’s culture that constitutes the media system. As a consequence, 

the thesis pursues the hypothesis by investigating and comparing format 

adaptation processes in two different countries, namely Australia and 

Denmark, and hence is a comparative and trans-national study. 

Another important aspect of format adaptation is related to genre. The 

majority of formats sold for local adaptation can be placed within either the 

traditional entertainment genre of quiz & game or within the new factual 

entertainment genres of reality and lifestyle. Within for example drama and 

documentaries it is still primarily the original programs that are being traded 

on the international television markets. The genres of reality and lifestyle are 

particularly interesting in relation to format adaptation, as their introduction 

more or less coincides with the mid-1990s start of the ongoing international 

boom in television format adaptation. Moreover, the two genres are currently 

experiencing an exponential growth as opposed to quiz & game, whose 

growth seems to have stalled. Finally, the two genres are interesting in relation 

to the media system hypothesis because they – contrary to quiz & game– are 

less constricted and, hence, more manoeuvrable for local producers and more 

open for local interpretation according to media systemic as well as other 

socio-cultural conditions. 

The thesis thus explores the following two key problems and relating research 

questions: 

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1. FORMATS AND MEDIA SYSTEM. What role does a national media 

system play in the extent of and concrete production of local 

adaptations of international formats in the two countries? 

2. FORMATS AND GENRE. What role does genre – in particular the 

factual entertainment genres of reality and lifestyle – play in a 

television format context, both when it comes to the extent of 

format adaptation in the two countries and when it comes to the 

actual Danish and Australian adaptations of reality and lifestyle 

formats? 

Thus, the thesis is not an attempt to theoretically conceptualise the 

phenomenon of format adaptation, nor is it to analyse general and 

overarching structures of the format trade. Other media scholars, of whom 

Moran is the most prominent (see for example Moran & Malbon 2006; 

Moran & Keane 2006; Moran & Keane 2004a; Moran 1998), have already 

done this well and in much detail. 

Instead the thesis explores the specific consequences and effects that format 

adaptation has in two different television systems. By combining a media 

system perspective with a genre perspective the thesis takes a middle-of-the-range 

theoretical as well as methodological approach to the object of analysis, which 

will hopefully achieve insights into format adaptation processes on a fairly 

tangible and concrete level. This is done through a combination of four 

analytical methods: media system analysis, schedule analysis, interviews with 

television professionals and textual analyses of specific local adaptations. 

• Firstly, the thesis analyses and compares the media systems of 

Australia and Denmark, after which it investigates how the results 

of this analysis relate to 

• The extent of format adaptations and format genres in the two 

countries as determined through historical schedule analyses, and 

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• Actual local reality and lifestyle format adaptation productions in 

the two countries, which are investigated through textual analyses 

as well as interviews with involved producers and broadcasters. 

The thesis this way presents an in-depth case study where media systemic 

influences are explored all the way through the format adaptation processes – 

from generic and organisational aspects down to the specific local 

adaptations. 

Consequently, the middle-of-the-range approach also removes the thesis from 

the generalised level, on which many globalisation theories operate. Many 

globalisation theories tend to view the media in a rigid and undiscriminating 

fashion, which ignores the diversity of the different media types, genres, 

organisational structures, financial and legislative conditions and historical 

backgrounds. Contrary to this, the thesis takes its point of departure in 

precisely this diverse media culture and will hopefully cover one of the blind 

spots of current media and globalisation research by way of its specific 

theoretical, methodological and analytical positioning. 

Thesis structure 

The main emphasis of the thesis is empirical. That is, the actual empirical 

analyses and subsequent results take up the majority of chapters. In fact, 

Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 all present the different empirical analyses that 

have been undertaken in order to answer the research questions, whereas 

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 provide vital contextual, theoretical and methodological 

framings for the analyses. Chapter 11 contains a brief summary and general 

conclusions. 

Chapter 2, THE TELEVISION FORMAT, THE TRANS-NATIONAL FORMAT 

TRADE & THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF TELEVISION, explores important 

aspects of international format adaptation processes, the format industry and 

8


format adaptation’s close links to the increasing internationalisation of 

television. Chapter 2 explains what a format is, introduces the mechanisms of 

the international format trade and accounts for the size, genres and 

dominating national net-exporters of the international as well as the 

Australian and Danish format markets. Chapter 2 also discusses television 

formats in a globalisation perspective, including homogenisation as well 

heterogenisation of world television and the specific glocal nature of television 

formats. Finally, Chapter 2 determines central media scholarly positions 

relevant to format adaptation, after which the main problems of the thesis are 

formulated and discussed in detail. 

Chapter 3, THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA SYSTEM & GENRE, 

presents, as indicated by the title, relevant theoretical perspectives on media 

system and genre. These perspectives dig deeper into the two main problems 

of the thesis identifying analytical parameters relevant to the investigation of 

the two problems. It also defines the thesis’ specific theoretical positions on 

both media system and genre and the consequences these positions have on 

the methodological design. Finally, the specific genre categorisations of the 

thesis are described, after which the two factual entertainment genres of 

reality and lifestyle are explained in detail. 

This way, Chapter 3 qualifies the specific methodological choices and 

research design of the thesis, all of which is explained comprehensively in 

Chapter 4, METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES & RESEARCH DESIGN. Chapter 4 

constructs the specific research designs of the four methodological 

approaches – media system analysis, interviews with industry professionals, 

schedule analyses and program analyses – and discusses possible 

methodological problems of the designs and the precautions taken to ensure 

the largest possible validity and reliability of the results. 

Chapter 5, THE TELEVISION SYSTEMS OF AUSTRALIA AND DENMARK, is the 

comparative analysis of Australia and Denmark’s television systems. The 

9


chapter presents the most important players on the two national television 

markets, media policies, content regulation and the history of the two 

systems, identifying a number of important differences and similarities 

between the two systems. The analytical results of Chapter 5 thus represent 

the empirical backbone of the next chapters’ more specific and format 

adaptation-oriented analyses of primetime schedules and four local 

adaptations, whose results are all related to the findings of Chapter 5. 

Chapter 6, IMPACTS OF FORMAT ADAPTATION ON DANISH & AUSTRALIAN 

PRIMETIME, presents a comparative and historical analysis of the main 

channels’ primetime schedules in the two countries over a 10-year period 

from 1995 to 2005. The analysis focuses on the historical trends concerning 

the distribution of genres, the use of format adaptation and how the genre 

distribution and use of format adaptation interrelate. The chapter again 

identifies various differences and similarities between the two countries as 

well as within each country, all of which are explained using the results of the 

comparative media system analysis of Chapter 5. 

Chapter 7, GROUND FORCE AND HOKUS KROKUS, compares the Australian 

and Danish adaptations of the British format Ground Force (with the Danish 

title Hokus Krokus). The Ground Force format has predominantly been adapted 

in Anglo-Saxon and Northern European countries and thus constitutes a 

regional rather than an international or global format. 

Chapter 8, THE BLOCK AND HUSET, compares the original Australian format 

The Block with its Danish adaptation Huset, whereas Chapter 9, FC ZULU AND 

NERDS FC, compares the original Danish format FC Zulu with its Australian 

adaptation Nerds FC. This way the thesis explores what is at play in the 

format exchange between the two countries in question and between an 

original format and its adapted version. 

10


Chapter 10, AUSTRALIAN IDOL AND IDOLS, looks at another British format, 

Idol, and its Australian and Danish adaptations, which are called Australian Idol 

and Idols respectively. The Idol format is, as opposed to Ground Force, a truly 

global format, as it has been adapted in over 30 countries located in most of 

the world’s continents. 

Lastly, Chapter 11, CONCLUSIONS, sums up and draws conclusions on both 

the analytical results and methodology of the thesis. Moreover, the chapter 

tentatively maps out possible future research areas, which could add to and 

further substantiate or reject the results of this thesis and consequently shed 

further light on television format adaptation in a trans-national perspective. 

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THE TELEVISION FORMAT, THE TRANS- 

NATIONAL FORMAT TRADE & THE 

INTERNATIONALISATION OF TELEVISION 

Local adaptation of international formats plays an increasingly important part 

in international television. Television formats such as Big Brother, Survivor, Idol, 

Dancing with the Stars and Who Wants to be a Millionaire can be found on 

television screens in large parts of the world. A report recently established 

that in 13 Western television markets, including Denmark and Australia, the 

format trade had risen by 33 per cent over a three-year period making it 

worth more than €2.4 billion in 2004 (Schmitt et al. 2005). This chapter 

investigates a number of important aspects of the international television 

formats and the adjacent television format trade and its close connections 

with the increasing internationalisation of television. This is done in order to 

qualify and formulate the main problems and research questions investigated 

in this thesis. Thus, the chapter has five purposes: 

• Firstly, the international television format and the adjacent format 

trade are introduced, including theoretical concepts such as 

cultural discount and textual transparency, which shed further 

light on the complex of problems surrounding format adaptation. 

What is a television format and why has it come to play an 

increasingly important part in international television? What are 

the advantages of format adaptation as opposed to the 

alternatives – fully localised development of programming content 

or the purchase of original (but foreign) programs? 

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• Secondly, the chapter introduces the global format market as well 

as that of Australia and Denmark specifically. How big is the 

format business globally and in the two countries? And what are 

the general tendencies when it comes to national origin and 

genres of the formats sold for adaptation on a worldwide and 

national Australian and Danish scale? 

• Thirdly, the chapter discusses the ties that exist between format 

adaptation and the increasing internationalisation of television. 

This includes a discussion of both the homogenisation and 

heterogenisation of world television, in which format adaptation 

is put into a localisation-versus-globalisation perspective and local 

experiences with the internationalisation of television are 

scrutinised. It is argued that formats are neither global nor local 

and as such form part of a trans-national media culture. On one 

hand, formats are the result of financial, technological and cultural 

globalisation while; on the other hand, they are also very local, as 

they are produced locally in local languages and with local 

participants. 

• Fourthly, the chapter introduces relevant and central positions 

within the research undertaken in the field of format adaptation. 

Despite the fact that only few media researchers have undertaken 

direct research on the subject, a number of relevant academic 

contributions do exist, all of which directly or indirectly relate to 

problems concerning format adaptation. 

• Finally, all of the above provides the background for a 

formulation of the main problems and adjacent research 

questions, which will be investigated throughout this thesis. 

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What is a television format? 

The international television industry defines a format as a programming 

concept that has been sold for adaptation in at least one country outside its 

country of origin (Schmitt et al. 2005). By this definition, 28 formats were 

broadcast in Denmark and 21 formats were broadcast in Australia in 2004 

(Ibid.). It is important to note that this definition includes formats developed 

in the local countries themselves but which have later been sold for 

adaptation elsewhere. 1 

However, if we go beyond this pragmatic and operative definition and look at 

the television format in a theoretical perspective it could be said that a 

television format is the set of program invariables from which the variables of 

a concrete program episode are produced. On the surface, formats are 

comparable to any other commodity. However, a television format is actually 

a relatively abstract phenomenon that is made concrete in a number of 

separate – but at the same time, overlapping – entities (Moran 2004a, Moran 

2004c). On the program level, the format appears as a number of different 

episodes of the same program. On the production level, the format can be the 

paper format (a short description of the format elements), the program bible 

(a comprehensive description of the format ranging from the set design of the 

studio and program graphics to various other guidelines), and descriptions of 

target groups, ratings and scheduling in other territories (Moran 2004a). Thus, 

the formats in a way systematise television’s intrinsic difference-withinrepetition. 

As the quote below illustrates, formats regulate the content of a 

program by organising the variation that every episode represents and at the 

same time, figuratively speaking, binds together the television medium as a 

whole. 

1 In Chapter 6’s comparative analyses of Australian and Danish primetime schedules, I choose a slightly 

different definition, which actually excludes locally developed formats and therefore only includes 

formats developed in a foreign market. This choice will be argued in more detail in Chapter 4’s 

discussion of the methodological choices and research design of the thesis. 

14


Fundamentally, formats constitute processes of systematization of 

difference within repetition, tying together the television as a whole, 

national television industries, program ideas, particular adaptations, and 

individual episodes of specific adaptations (Moran & Keane 

2004b:200). 

In these processes of systematisation, “a rule-bound element and an element 

of transgression are equally important” and formats in some ways resemble 

genres and how genres operate (Moran & Keane 2004b:201). Having said 

that, formats are also very different to genres insofar as they are commodities 

in line with other types of media content being traded internationally and thus 

form part of an economic system. Genres on the other hand are not 

commodities but abstract schemata existing in the minds of both television 

producers and audiences, all of which will be explained in more detail in 

Chapter 3. 

Nevertheless, Moran & Keane (2004b) describe the relationship between the 

multiple levels contained in the format as “incomplete equivalence”, a term 

invented by Lotman (1990) in his description of genres: 

Indeed, in stressing the multiple levels contained in an element such as 

genre (or, for that matter, format), Lotman […] has coined the useful 

term ‘incomplete equivalence’ as a means of designating the necessary 

relationship between particular instances of the phenomenon or that 

obtaining between the level of the instance and the general level of the 

phenomenon. No adaptation can ever constitute the only possible or 

correct rendering of a particular format and neither can any single 

adaptation ever constitute the range of possible renderings of any format 

(Moran & Keane 2004:201). 

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In other words, formats can be placed within a continuum between the 

radically similar and the radically different, in which another important axis is 

difference-within-repetition. As such, every single adaptation retrospectively 

constitutes and confirms “the imaginary object that is the format” (Ibid.). A 

concrete example of these abstract trains of thought is the first Australian 

version of Big Brother, which found its inspiration primarily in the British 

adaptation – and not in the original Dutch version – and also added a few 

completely new elements, which could later be circulated for use in 

subsequent adaptations in other countries and territories. This is discussed in 

more detail later in this chapter. 

Global and local extent of the television format trade 

As hinted at above, the global trade of television formats has experienced an 

almost exponential increase in recent years. Schmitt et al. (2005) has 

undertaken the most comprehensive study so far of what they call the 

“global” trade in television formats, but which in effect only studies the 

format developments in 13 Western countries in the period 2002 to 2004. 

Besides the two countries studied in this thesis, Denmark and Australia, the 

countries include the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the 

Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and Poland. 

The “global” format market 

Schmitt et al. (2005) finds that, in 2004, 259 formats were broadcast in the 13 

countries, of which the UK had the highest number of different formats, 

followed by France and Germany. During the three-year period surveyed 

from 2002 to 2004, there was a 25 per cent increase in the number of 

different formats and a 22 per cent increase in the number of format hours 

broadcast. Also, the production value of formats in the 13 countries has 

climbed by 33 per cent from €1.8 billion to €2.4 billion. The USA has the 

highest total spend on format production, whereas the UK is the single most 

important format originator. A staggering 28 per cent of all formats broadcast 

in the 13 markets have British origin. The Netherlands is the second most 

16


important originator with 19 per cent of the format hours – mainly because 

of format giant Endemol – and the USA comes in a close third with 18 per 

cent of the format hours (Schmitt et al. 2005:23). As far as both the UK and 

the USA are concerned, there is evidence that their roles are on a slight 

decrease, whereas the number of Dutch format hours have grown more 

strongly than the overall market. 

When it comes to genres, the quiz & game show format is by far the most 

important genre when it comes to number of hours broadcast, accounting for 

50 per cent of all format hours in the 13 countries. Nevertheless, quiz & game 

show formats have only grown by 5 per cent, which is a smaller growth than 

most other genres. Reality is the second most important genre, which 

accounts for 24 per cent of all format hours. Its growth rate has been 22 per 

cent, which is very much like the overall market. The relatively new genres of 

makeover and home improvement (or ‘lifestyle’, as is the shared genre label of 

the two genres used throughout this thesis and explained in more detail in 

Chapter 3) have experienced the highest growth rates: 1425 per cent and 213 

per cent respectively. Traditional entertainment is the only genre to 

experience a negative growth. 2 

Denmark’s format market 

The production value of the Danish format market was €60 million in 2004, 

up from €50 million in 2002 (Schmitt et al. 2005:209-216). The UK was the 

most important format exporter into Denmark, followed by the Netherlands. 

The USA, Sweden and Norway were also important format exporters in 

Denmark. Most of the formats broadcast on Danish television fell within the 

reality genre. Quiz & game show formats constituted the second most 

important genre although the genre has been on a decrease in the three-year 

2 It is important to note that Schmitt et al. (2005) does not give a definition of the different genres. We 

do therefore not know precisely what constitutes the different genres. Chapter 3 contains a discussion 

and description of the genre definitions used throughout this thesis. 

17


period. In 2004, makeover and home improvement – together with traditional 

entertainment – were also important format genres. 

Australia’s format market 

The production value of the Australian format market was €94 million in 

2004, up from €52m in 2002 (Schmitt et al. 2005:249-256). The UK, the USA 

and the Netherlands were the three most important exporters of formats into 

Australia both in terms of number of formats and format hours. 

Nevertheless, it seems American formats have experienced an increase in the 

period, whereas British formats have decreased over the three years. The 

Australian format market seems completely dominated by the ‘big three’ 

format exporters, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA. In 2004, only three 

other countries, New Zealand, Denmark and Belgium, each exported one 

format into the Australian market. Quiz & game show is by far the most 

important Australian format genre. Contrary to Denmark, the reality genre 

trails far behind in second place, and home improvement and makeover is an 

even more distant third. 

Summing up, Australia’s format market is bigger than Denmark’s and 

primarily dominated by the three big format exporting countries, the UK, the 

USA and the Netherlands, whereas Denmark also imports formats from 

other countries, primarily the two other Scandinavian countries, Sweden and 

Norway. In other words, Australia’s Anglo-Saxon and Denmark’s 

Scandinavian heritage is evident in the broadcasters’ format choices. This fits 

well with the theory of geo-linguistic regions, which is investigated later in the 

chapter. When it comes to format genres, Denmark’s by far most important 

genre is reality, whereas Australia’s is the quiz & game show genre, which is 

also the most important genre on an international scale. In Denmark, quiz & 

game show only came in second and has even experienced a decrease over 

the three-year period. Chapter 6 offers a much more detailed and 

comprehensive study, which more or less confirms the above, of Australian 

and Danish television schedules in terms of the historical and contemporary 

18


use of format adaptations in the two countries, including the number of 

formats, format genres and format hours over a 10-year period. 

The structure of the international television format market 

This paragraph will briefly describe the structure of the television format 

market and the most important mechanisms and players involved in the trade 

of a television format. Firstly, figure 2.1 illustrates the structure of the various 

players on the television format market. The figure is sourced from Wedell- 

Wedellsborg (2005). 

Figure 2.1 > The structure of the television format market 

The figure shows how a format originates as an idea in the head of a format 

originator in one country, where it is sold as a paper format – that is, the idea 

written down on paper – to a local broadcaster and/or local production unit, 

which produces the original version. If this version is successful with local 

viewers, the format may enter the international market for format packages – 

that is, the format concepts sold for local adaptation – in which the format 

originator sells the format rights via an international distributor to one or 

more foreign broadcasters and production units. A format package typically 

contains the program bible, previous local adaptations including the original 

version, ratings history, production assistance, etc. In this respect it is 

important to note that the national broadcaster, which decides to produce and 

19


fund the paper format in the first place, constitutes an important gateway. 

The broadcaster decides exclusively which programs to fund and hence which 

formats get through to the international market. 3 Also, it is important that the 

use of the word ‘format’ throughout this thesis refers to what is termed 

‘format package’ in the above structure. 

Another point worth mentioning is that the large trans-national media 

conglomerates such as Endemol and Fremantle Media often benefit from 

both vertical and horizontal integration in the format exploitation chain due 

to international mergers and joint ventures. Vertically, and on a national level, 

they often control the origination, distribution and production of the format. 

Horizontally, and on a trans-national level, they own or cooperate with 

various local originators, various local distributors, and various local 

production outfits. Danish Blu Productions and Australian Grundy, for 

example, form part of Fremantle, and Danish Metronome and Australian 

Southern Star are part of Endemol. 

Format packages are mainly sold at a number of annual trade meetings such 

as MIPCOM and MIP-TV in Cannes, Natpe in New Orleans, the Monte 

Carlo Television Festival and the London Program Market. Moran & Keane 

(2006) has undertaken an interesting case study of the cultural power at play 

in these markets, in which they trace the cultural power in terms of “the 

operation of a lingua franca – in this case the English language – that helps 

both to serve and drive the international format business” (Ibid:84). 4 

3 For a detailed account of the various players in and the structure of the format market, see Wedell- 

Wedellsborg (2005). 

4 There are also a number of interesting legal problems related to the television format market. However, 

these will not be accounted for here, as this is not directly related to the problems of this thesis. 

Instead, I will refer to Wedell-Wedellsborg (2005), Doyle (2002), and Deichmann (2002) for further 

and more detailed information on the subject. 

20


The increasing importance of formats in international television 

A large part of the explanations behind the increasing use of adaptations can 

be found in the multi-channel television landscape, a term that covers the big 

and partly global-scale changes that the institution of television has 

experienced within the last two decades. These changes include new 

distribution technologies and media convergence, resulting in an explosion in 

the number of content suppliers and television channels. In this period 

television has gone from being an oligarchy of traditional broadcasters to 

being a fragmented and differentiated multi-channel landscape consisting of 

the traditional broadcasters as well as new and primarily commercial players. 

Various forms of satellite, cable and subscription television have been created 

and expanded, and so have a lot of new content suppliers from for example 

the IT industry and the telephone companies. This has lead to more 

specialised channels tailored to smaller audience groups. At the same time a 

program is no longer strictly confined to the television screen. Other 

distribution channels such as SMS, websites, DVD and pod-casts are also 

often used (Moran 2004c). 

An inevitable result of these changes is lower audience ratings for almost all 

types of programs – no matter how popular a program may be with the 

audience (ibid.). This is clearly the case on Danish television. Just a decade 

ago, ratings over a million viewers – or even 1.5 million – in a country of only 

just over five million inhabitants were not unusual. Today only the expensive 

drama productions of the public service broadcaster DR and important 

national sports events reach these numbers. This leads to stagnation or even a 

fall in the demand for expensive primetime genres such as drama. In the UK 

there has been a fall in both primetime drama and current affairs (Brunsdon 

et al. 2001), and the same has been the case in Australia (Moran 2004c). 

Instead cheaper genres – such as the factual entertainment genres of lifestyle 

and reality – are gaining access to primetime, at the same time as broadcasters 

21


are trying to keep the research and development (R&D) costs to a minimum. 

And this is exactly where adaptations can be useful. Format adaptation has a 

number of potential legal, political and ultimately financial advantages for the 

local producer and broadcaster as well as for the format developer. 

The advantages of format adaptation 

The format is a vital element in the industry’s attempts to regulate the 

increasingly trans-national recycling and exchange of content. As such, it 

constitutes an attempt by the industry to materialise and commercialise an 

idea, which by nature is immaterial. There are three reasons for this: 

• As a result of the multi-channel landscape, recycling and 

plagiarism have risen dramatically in recent years, as the demand 

for content is bigger than ever before (Moran 2004c). 

• This has created a much greater need in the television industry to 

control who will benefit from a specific content. This way the 

format gains as much “financial mileage” for the developer as 

possible (Ibid.). 5 

• Before the multi-channel landscape the format developer knew 

little – or nothing at all – of any foreign plagiarists, and he rarely 

had the international scope to take legal action against them. This 

is however not the case today because format developers often 

form part of a trans-national media enterprise of some kind such 

as Australian Southern Star and Danish Metronome, which are 

both joint-ventures with Endemol. In addition, in 2000, the 

international television industry formed the Format Recognition 

and Protection Association, FRAPA, whose purpose it is to 

combat international plagiarism and, hence, protect and ensure 

larger revenues for format developers. 

5 The payment method of these ‘loans’ of formats or format elements used to be undertaken as merely a 

few praising words of respect to the original format developer. However, quite often nobody even 

mentioned the source of inspiration (Moran 2004c). 

22


The local buyer of a format also gains a number of advantages. If one 

compares adapting a format with the alternatives – developing your own 

program or broadcasting the original foreign program – format adaptation 

represents the following advantages: 

• Compared to a locally developed program, adapting a foreign 

format means that the local broadcaster or production company 

save the costs for the research and development of the program. 

• Formats that are traded internationally also come with a track 

record and therefore with a built-in guarantee of success seeing as 

they have already survived at least two rounds of research and 

development (Moran 2004c). In the first place they have been 

approved by television executives and put into production, in the 

second place they have been approved by viewers in one or more 

countries. 6 

• An adaptation also has the advantage that it is produced in the 

local language, as opposed to an acquired original program, which 

in most places will be in a language incomprehensible to local 

viewers. 7 

• Also, the adaptation takes place in the local context. That is, 

program participants come from places that the local viewers 

know, they have similar jobs, and their houses, gardens and 

6 Of course, the fact that a program has been successful with one national audience does not necessarily 

guarantee success in another national market. For example, Australian developed format The Block, 

which has been a huge success in Australia as well as Denmark, flopped on British ITV, which may be 

related to the fact that ITV viewers are mainly used to drama and sports programming and not so 

much lifestyle and reality shows. 

7 Important exceptions to this are programs from the USA and the UK as well as from Spain and South 

and Central America. These programs would be understandable in large parts of the world where 

English and Spanish are main languages. These linguistic advantages will be discussed in more detail 

later in the chapter. Also, dubbing represents a way of avoiding linguistic alienation of viewers. 

However, dubbing is still not 100 per cent natural, especially because the lips of program participants 

are out of sync and the sound is often fairly unnatural as opposed to the original sound. 

23


problems probably look a lot like the houses, gardens and 

problems of the local viewers. This means that format adaptation 

potentially holds a much larger identification with local viewers, 

which again generates larger ratings and, thus, larger advertising 

revenues. In Denmark and Australia this is evident, as the large 

majority of adaptations are found in primetime, which is where 

the largest audiences and hence largest advertising revenues are. 

• Finally, there is often a good deal of political goodwill in adapting 

instead of broadcasting original foreign programming. Many 

countries, including Denmark and Australia, have politically 

approved content regulations demanding a certain amount of 

local content and in this respect adaptations count as locally 

produced content. 

As briefly mentioned, many of the formats being adapted belong to factual 

entertainment genres such as lifestyle (Ground Force, Queer Eye for the Straight 

Guy), reality shows (Idol, Big Brother, Wife Swap, Faking It) and various hybrid 

forms of these genres such as Under Construction, The Block and Extreme 

Makeover. However, it is also important to note that the large majority of 

format adaptations are still done within the more traditional genre of game 

shows. According to Schmitt et al. (2005) up to 50 per cent of all format 

hours in 2004 were quiz & game shows. As a matter of fact, quiz & game 

shows have been adapted – and plagiarised – since the beginning of television 

(Moran 1998) and can therefore be characterised as a sort of ‘primeval’ 

format genre. Nevertheless, it is within the lifestyle and reality oriented factual 

entertainment genres that the format exchange has been booming recently 

(Schmitt et al. 2005). 

24


Within the fictional genres, programs are often either 100 per cent locally 

produced or the original foreign drama or sitcom. 8 This is most likely another 

result of the recent changes of primetime. The production of lifestyle, reality 

and quiz & game shows is fairly low cost and the programs are relatively 

popular with audiences (Brunsdon et al. 2001). An example of the costeffective 

nature of these productions is that the expenditure on professional 

actors and screenwriters is low compared to drama productions. In addition, 

the fiction subgenres such as drama series, soaps and sitcoms may also travel 

more easily in their original versions than various other traditional and factual 

entertainment programs. Drama is often more transparent and therefore 

more accessible to different local audiences, which will be discussed in more 

detail below and in Chapter 3. 

Formats minimise cultural discount 

With the above in mind, formats minimise what is known as cultural 

discount. Trading foreign television programming in local markets always 

involves a certain degree of cultural discount, which means that a foreign 

program loses some of its economic value due to the fact that it does not 

necessarily translate as well into the local culture in the new market, as it did 

in the local culture of its home market. The importing audience does not 

know or understand completely the settings, the institutions, the values, and, 

most importantly of all, the language portrayed in the foreign program – be it 

a series, documentary, or reality show. Consequently, the local audience does 

not identify with the foreign program to the same degree as if they were 

watching a locally produced program, and the foreign program at least in 

theory achieves smaller ratings than a nationally produced program (see for 

example McFadyen et al. 2000 and Hoskins et al. 1994). In this sense, formats 

represent a way of minimising cultural discount, as they are linguistically 

8 There are of course exceptions. These include Danish sitcom Pas på mor, which was based on the 

Australian format Mother and Son (which was partly based on the British Steptoe and Son), and the 

British sitcom Men Behaving Badly, which in the USA was adapted with the title It’s a Man’s World. Also, 

within industry circles, there has recently been much talk about an impending boom in the so-called 

scripted fiction formats. 

25


neutral and can be filled with local settings and agents, local institutions, and 

local social and cultural values. 

Formats are both transparent and opaque 

Olson (1999) introduces the concept of textual transparency to explain the 

global popularity of American pop culture, especially within film and 

television. According to him American media texts display polysemy, which 

makes American films and television programs translate easily into other 

markets and cultures. Simplistically, the polysemy is based on the use of 

universal mythologies that are easily recognisable and easily absorbed into 

local cultures around the world, and therefore makes American pop culture 

transparent. In relation to the concept of cultural discount, transparent texts 

would represent a way of minimising this discount. 

The opposite of transparent is opaque, and to Olson, examples of opaque 

television programs could be a local talk show starring a local celebrity or the 

transmission of a cricket match; that is, programs that only make sense to the 

local audience, to whom they are produced, making these programs have 

fairly closed narratives without the possibility for other local audiences to 

understand them. 9 

Textual transparency and opaqueness thus provide an interesting perspective 

on television formats, as on the one hand they have to contain a certain 

amount of textual transparency (at least to the local television professionals 

wanting to purchase the format rights). However, on the other hand, 

television formats – at least in theory – can also be filled with a lot of textual 

opaqueness in their local adaptations. To use a proverb, in this way formats 

represent a way for local television industries to have their cake and eat it, too. 

9 There are of course other important explanations for the success of American film and television – 

such as the diffusion of the American business model to large parts of the world and the economic 

hegemony of the USA – but Olson’s theory still provides an interesting and often overlooked 

perspective to the internationalisation and so-called Americanisation of television. 

26


As will be discussed in Chapter 3, Olson is very oriented towards drama and 

fiction and therefore tends to be genre blind by not taking into account that 

other genres such as entertainment and factual genres may demonstrate a lot 

less transparency, even in their American versions, and therefore travel a lot 

less easily across cultural borders. This important aspect of genre will be 

discussed more comprehensively in Chapter 3. 

Formats amalgamate global and local 

Adaptations are extremely ambiguous when looked upon from a globalisation 

perspective. On one hand, they are the result of economical, technological 

and cultural globalisation. On the other, they are produced locally in local 

languages and with a local cast, and can therefore also be seen as evidence of 

localisation. They are globally local television. This amalgamation of the global 

and the local not only takes place on an abstract level, it is a characteristic of 

all levels of the format exchange, from the local reception and production of 

the adaptation, to the trans-national media enterprises that distribute and/or 

develop the format. Even the original format idea can be viewed as both local 

and global. This amalgamation of the global and the local makes it hard to 

point out the exact national origin of a format. The formats are neither global, 

nor local. They are somewhere in between in what can be called a trans-national 

media culture. Below is a description of how global and local amalgamate on the 

four levels of the format exchange: 

Audience reception level 

As far as the local reception of a format is concerned, the amalgamation 

becomes evident in the fact that local viewers often know about the original 

version or other adaptations of the format. In Denmark this was the case with 

formats such as Survivor and Big Brother, whose dubious reputation had created 

news headlines long before the Danish adaptations were broadcast. It was 

also the case with the pan-Scandinavian adaptation of Extreme Makeover – 

broadcast on TvDanmark – whose original American program series was 

27


broadcast the year previous to the pan-Scandinavian adaptation. 10 In this way, 

local viewers already have a set of expectations built on previous experiences 

acquired in a more international or global context. These experiences 

influence how local audiences respond to the local adaptations. 11 

Production level 

On the next level, the local production of the format, the amalgamation can 

be traced in two respects. First of all, the local production company often 

buys consultancy from the original developers, that is, non-local professionals 

aid the local production. Secondly, the local production company often looks 

to other local adaptations of the format for inspiration, which then entails 

program elements inspired by various local contexts. As already briefly 

mentioned above, the first Australian Big Brother in 2001 is an example of this 

(Moran 2004b). At the time, the format had been adapted in 11 countries, and 

the Australian producers were obviously more inspired by the British 

adaptation than the original Dutch program series, for example through the 

use of similar program graphics and consultancy from the British Big Brother 

producers. In addition to this, the Australian adaptation introduced a couple 

of new program elements, for instance the so-called beyond-the-grave 

recordings of the evictees, that had not been a part of the 11 previous 

adaptations and, thus, were circulated as sources of inspiration for future 

adaptations elsewhere in the world. This demonstrates the difference-withinrepetition 

referred to previously: How on one side the local Australian 

adaptation in many ways was a repetition of the British version – and not so 

much of the original Dutch version – while simultaneously contributing with 

a considerable degree of variation. That is, the adapting producers do not 

10 It must be added, however, that viewers do not always realise that a program is an adaptation of a 

foreign format. This is most often the case with non-controversial formats, whose original versions 

have not been broadcast in the respective country, such as Ground Force, Changing Rooms and Wife Swap. 

11 See Bruun (2004:95ff) who demonstrates how genre expectations obtained from watching American 

daytime talk shows such as Ricki Lake in various ways (negatively) influence Danish viewers’ reception 

of the locally produced talk show Det Ny Synnøve. 

28


necessarily look to the original version only but may also look at other local 

adaptations for inspiration. 12 

Distribution level 

The third level, the distribution level, is also very much an amalgamation of 

global and local. The trans-national distributors like Endemol, Fremantle or 

Nordic Zodiak Television World are cooperating or taking over local 

production companies and format developers, which gives them the rights to 

the international distribution of their formats. However, this not only benefits 

Endemol or Zodiak, it also increases the chances of the local developer, 

seeing as his formats are more likely to gain ground in other countries. A 

classic example of this is Pop Stars, which many believe to be Australian, 

although it was originally developed and produced for New Zealand TV2. 

The international distribution rights were however acquired by the Australian 

based production company Screentime, after which the format conquered 

television markets all around the world, resulting in great profits for 

Screentime and the equally successful British spin-off (Pop) Idol, which will 

later be the subject of further analysis in Chapter 10 (Lealand 2004). The 

belief (which is commonly used by cultural imperialist opponents of the 

perceived Western dominance within world media) of a number of large 

international media conglomerates completely wiping out local competition 

by acquiring local production companies is, in other words, a lot less black 

and white and much more nuanced than many globalisation theoreticians 

claim. 

Original idea 

On the fourth and last level, the development of the original idea behind the 

format sees the global and the local amalgamate in two areas. First of all, in 

the vast majority of cases the people behind the original idea get considerable 

12 The example also points to a possible Anglo-Saxon bias of Australian industry professionals, as the 

concept of Big Brother may have been easier for them to understand in its British adaptation than in 

its Dutch original version. 

29


inspiration from other formats. An example of this was the Danish plastic 

surgery format Mit nye jeg (The New Me) broadcast on TV3 in 2005. This was 

unquestionably inspired by both TvDanmark’s Extreme Makeover adaptation 

and TV3’s own American program series The Swan. 13 In addition to this there 

are spin-offs that build on existing formats such as Idol, inspired by Pop Stars, 

and The X Factor, inspired by Idol and developed by Simon Cowell, who has 

been the infamous and extremely malicious judge on both Britain’s Pop Idol 

and American Idol. 14 Secondly, broadcasters and production companies are 

increasingly developing programs not only for national television markets, but 

for the international format market as well. Evidence that this is also the case 

in Denmark is the fact that TV 2, one of two Danish public service 

broadcasters, recently established its own format development unit, TV 

2/World. One of the goals of the unit is to ensure that TV 2 gets its share of 

the international format trade. In other words, the formats may be developed 

locally, but at the same time conceived as potential international formats. 

Regional nuances to the internationalisation of television 

Sinclair et al. (1996) and Cunningham et al. (1998) introduce the idea of “geolinguistic 

regions”, showing alternative regional media flows and even contraflows 

of media content going from the periphery like Australia and Denmark 

to the centre, in this case the USA or the UK. This means that the exchange 

of television programs, including formats, rarely takes place on an entirely 

global level. Instead the formats are often being traded within a number of 

geo-linguistic regions, each of which is characterised by a linguistic and, in 

most cases, geographic proximity. Examples of such areas are the Anglo- 

Saxon/European area, including of course countries such as the UK, USA 

and Australia, but also large parts of Europe where English is an important 

second language; the Hispanic area, including Central and South America, 

13 TvDanmark consequently boycotted the production company Strix, which developed The New Me for 

TV3 while producing the pan-Scandinavian adaptation of Extreme Makeover for TvDanmark. 

14 In this case, the creator of Idol tried to sue Simon Cowell and The X Factor, which in itself is ironic 

because the Idol format in itself was a spin-off on the Pop Stars format. 

30


Spain and Portugal; the Arab countries; and South East Asia with countries 

like Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong (also see Sinclair 

et al. 1996: 11ff, Keane 2004). A sub-region of the Anglo-Saxon/European 

region is Scandinavia – that is, Denmark, Sweden and Norway – due to 

similar languages, shared history and equivalent social standards. Within these 

regions, media products and content are exchanged to a much larger degree 

than between different geo-linguistic regions. It is important to note that the 

different geo-linguistic areas all have a centre-periphery structure meaning 

that one country within the region is usually supplying more media imports to 

the other countries than vice versa, although, of course, contra-flows from 

the peripheral countries to the centre exist as well. In South East Asia, Japan 

is the net-exporter; in the Arab area it is Egypt; whereas in the Anglo- 

Saxon/European region, the USA and partly the UK are the net-exporters. 15 

If focus is put exclusively on the exchange of formats, the centre-periphery 

structure becomes even more blurred than if we look at the import and 

export of original programs. First of all, the linguistic advantage of countries 

such as the USA and the UK disappears because formats are adapted to local 

languages making them linguistically neutral. English is not necessarily “the 

language of advantage” (Collins 1989) any more. 16 The periphery gets a 

chance, and the most perfect example of this is probably the Dutch global 

format smash hit Big Brother, which has been adapted in large parts of the 

world and paved the way for the originator, Endemol, to become one of the 

world’s largest format distributors and originators. But there are also many 

less spectacular examples such as Australian The Block and Danish Nerds FC, 

15 The USA and the UK are also net-exporters on a worldwide basis and not only within the Anglo- 

Saxon/European region. Part of the reason for this is probably that the UK is a former empire with 

colonies all around the world, which have been ‘anglicised’ in the process and therefore are prone to 

anglicised media content as well. This also explains the fact that English has become a true world 

“language of advantage” (Collins 1989). 

16 Danish broadcasters for instance rarely purchase original programs from Germany, Spain or other 

European countries with a language other than English or Scandinavian despite the existence of many 

high quality programs in these countries. The linguistic alienation of the Danish viewers is simply too 

big and the programs never become successful with the audience. Even Australian and working-class 

English accents often alienate the Danes. 

31


both of which are among the four formats analysed in this thesis. It could be 

seen that in this way a geo-linguistic area compares to traffic infrastructure 

with motorways, main roads, and secondary roads, a couple of 

intercontinental freeways, and lots of one-way streets. However, when it 

comes to formats, the main and secondary roads are busier, and the one-way 

streets fewer! 

Moreover, it is probable that this is only the beginning of a trend. The twoway 

traffic on the secondary roads is likely to increase even more, as the 

development of formats for international sale is further professionalised and 

internationalised in the peripheral countries. Two examples of the increasing 

professionalisation and internationalisation of peripheral television industries 

are Denmark’s TV 2/World, which was mentioned above, and the Nordic 

Zodiak Television Group, whose international distribution unit Zodiak 

Television World is based in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen where it is 

quickly becoming one of the most important independent distributors of 

formats and other programming content in Europe (Schmitt et al. 

2005:209ff). 

In addition to the concept of geo-linguistic regions and a possible increased 

exchange of formats from the periphery to the centre of these regions, there 

is also evidence that there are significant variations across different world 

regions in programming content and audience reception of otherwise highly 

internationalised and globally formatted genres such as news and quiz & game 

shows. In a study of how television viewers around the world respond to 

news programs, Bruhn Jensen (1998) demonstrates how different national 

audiences have distinct “models of the world in the head” but also how 

viewers across nations respond to news in similar ways (Bruhn Jensen 

1998:164ff). The study identifies two types of what he terms “correlated 

cultures” – “cultures of stability” and “cultures of crisis” – within which 

viewers share similar responses to news (Ibid.). Bruhn Jensen (1998:180) 

32


explains the similarities with the fact that the countries within these two 

cultures share similar “cultural and national-political contexts”. 

When it comes to another highly internationalised genre, quiz & game shows, 

Cooper-Chen (2005, 1994) has identified four so-called “cultural continents” 

by examining game shows in 50 countries: the Western, the East Asian, the 

Latin and the Equatorial cultural continents. Within these four regions local 

television tastes seem to converge and only very few game show formats have 

crossed into another cultural continent or region. 17 Western game shows 

usually have a certain interactive element, one male host, emphasis on 

expensive prizes, five-days-a-week scheduling and low budgets. East Asian 

game shows have celebrity players, male and female co-hosts, de-emphasis on 

expensive prizes, once-a-week scheduling and high production values. Latin 

game shows tend to feature players who perform physical feats and usually 

have male and female co-hosts, emphasis on expensive prizes, once-a-week 

scheduling, long time frames and high production values. Finally, Equatorial 

game shows showcase talented players with an intelligence above average, 

which means that the average viewer cannot play along because of the 

difficult questions (Cooper-Chen 2005:243). 

Keeping the arguments of Sinclair et al. (1996), Cunningham et al. (1998), 

Bruhn Jensen (1998) and Cooper-Chen (2005, 1994) in mind, it becomes 

evident that Australia and Denmark are most likely to be found within the 

same “geo-linguistic region”, “correlated culture” or “cultural continent” 

depending on which theoretical proposition is used. Australia and Denmark 

are both cultures of stability within the Anglo-Saxon/European geo-linguistic 

region or cultural continent. Nevertheless, Denmark belongs to an important 

sub-region, Scandinavia, within this bigger region. 

17 Cooper-Chen points out that one of the only game shows to cross cultural continents is Who Wants to 

be a Millionaire, which in 2005 had been adapted in more than 100 countries across the world (Cooper- 

Chen 2005:243) 

33


Americanisation and cross-cultural media influences 

The concept of geo-linguistic regions with a centre-periphery structure, within 

which media products are exchanged to a much higher extent than between 

geo-linguistic regions (combined with Bruhn Jensen’s (1998) and Cooper- 

Chen’s (2005, 1994) identification of various cultural regions, within which 

national audience reception and programming content share similar traits) 

point to a certain heterogeneity of world television, despite its apparent 

internationalisation and globalisation. Thus, Sinclair et al. (1996), Cunningham 

et al. (1998), Bruhn Jensen (1998) and Cooper-Chen (2005, 1994) each in 

their own way point towards media diversity and heterogeneity, or various 

patterns of preferred media content, within different world regions. 

Nevertheless, as has already been highlighted several times in this chapter, 

various theories on homogenisation of worldwide media and television also exist. 

This paragraph presents some of the most important trains of thought within 

these homogenisation theories by looking at the cross-cultural influences of 

Western and American media as seen through the prism of a media or 

cultural imperialistic approach and the dominant metaphor of 

Americanisation. 

The social sciences and the humanities have a long tradition of research on 

cross-cultural influences of American and Western media on local audiences. 

The key words of this research have been national identity, cultural identity, 

Americanisation and media or cultural imperialism (Biltereyst 2003). When it 

comes to television, these key words indicate a fear that the culture and 

identity of local audiences will somehow succumb to the American and 

Western cultural impacts. Within this media imperialistic tradition, 

Americanisation of world-wide media is thought to have fatal consequences 

for local cultures such as a higher degree of trivialisation, standardisation and 

vulgarity; a “mass-mediated and commercialised mono-culture”; or too strong 

influences of “corporate capitalism and consumer modernity” (Ibid.). 

34


As such, Americanisation has been the centre of a highly normative and 

politicised scholarly debate in which the political left has seen Americanisation 

as a road leading straight to capitalism and the commodification of culture, 

and the political right has feared “industrial barbarism” and perceived it as a 

threat to authentic cultural forms (Biltereyst 2003). Although especially postmodern 

and globalisation theories – with their focus on the decentred-ness of 

subjects, texts, and spaces – have made the metaphor lose strength, the basic 

fears behind the metaphor are not gone (Ibid.). 

When it comes to Americanisation of the media, Americanisation is often 

used in terms of a centre and periphery discussion. In this tradition, global 

cultural exchanges have been studied in terms of who controls the global 

media flows and how American/Western cultural exports affect local 

audiences in the rest of the world. However, the media imperialism paradigm 

has been challenged within the past few decades, especially due to emerging 

globalisation debates and theories of cultural interconnectivity and 

interdependency that all go against ideas of subordination and purposeful 

power in the global media flows (Biltereyst 2003, also see Tomlinson 1999). 

As already discussed in detail above, Cunningham et al. (1998) and Sinclair et 

al. (1996), for instance, introduce the idea of geo-linguistic regions and media 

flows, showing alternative regional flows and contra-flows of media content. 

Nevertheless, the ambiguities of globalisation do still include the persistence 

of especially American power within international media, primarily because 

the American style business model seems to prevail, as the media are being 

liberalised, commercialised and privatised in large parts of the world 

(Cunningham et al. 1998; Sinclair et al. 1996). In other words, the USA has a 

dominant, but not uncontested, position in world media, which on one hand 

implies the continued hegemony of American trans-national media 

companies. However, on the other, it also means that previous notions of 

Americanisation has not proved sensitive enough in seeing more subtle 

tendencies of this so-called creolisation or glocalisation of the world’s media 

35


(Biltereyst 2003), as has been exemplified by the above account of the 

international exchange of format. One concrete illustration of this glocal or 

trans-national nature of the format trade in particular is the fact that the two 

most important international distributors have their origin outside the USA: 

Endemol is a publicly listed company on the Amsterdam stock exchange and 

Fremantle Media has its roots primarily in the UK but is owned by the 

European RTL Group and ultimately controlled by German media company 

Bertelsman. 18 

Local experiences with Americanisation in Denmark and India 

Søndergaard (2003) discusses the indirect impacts of globalisation on the 

Danish television system and reaches the following conclusion: 

[…] Distinctions between what is Danish and what is foreign are being 

dissolved from within rather than through the intrusion of foreign media 

organizations and programs onto the Danish market (Søndergaard 

2003). 

According to him, there are no indications that national identity and culture 

are on the decrease on Danish television. On the contrary, Danish language 

television programming has experienced a strengthening in recent years; in 

large parts due to structural changes that have led to the two public service 

broadcasters TV 2 and DR competing for Danish viewers with Danish 

language programming. In this respect, Denmark has won a symbolic “victory 

over Hollywood” (Ibid.). However, this victory is built on the fact that 

Danish producers and broadcasters have looked to “Hollywood” – that is, the 

American-style business model – for inspiration. Increased competition and 

18 As for actual audience studies on cross-cultural influences of American and Western media, no clear 

conclusions can be drawn. Some audience research points towards negative effects on audiences 

watching American programming, whereas other audience studies suggest minor effects, no effects, or 

even positive effects, thus leaving the question unresolved. What seemingly does exist, however, are 

linkages between methodological choices, research design, and resulting effect size of the studies, 

indicating ideological bias according to the beliefs of the researchers carrying out the studies 

(Biltereyst 2003). 

36


commercialisation have forced Danish television institutions to acquire 

production practices, policies, and aesthetics that are characteristic of the 

global media industry. He calls this “globalisation from within” and points to 

examples such as the use of foreign consultancy in the production of sitcoms; 

stripping and serialisation scheduling; and the introduction of a 

producer’s choice internal market in DR to illustrate the blurring of what is 

Danish and what is foreign. 

Thussu (1998) takes a different, less optimistic and certainly more media 

imperialistic view on the impacts of globalisation on Indian television. He 

discusses the particular influences of infotainment on Indian television. 

Infotainment is news that focuses on the entertaining and the popular 

featuring celebrities and grotesque events in a superficial journalistic form he 

calls “sound bite journalism” with no room for any complicated news stories. 

To Thussu, infotainment news may have fatal consequences such as the 

undermining of the burgeoning public sphere in a country like India due to a 

lot of what he terms “white” news – that is, Western and Americanised – and 

the lack of relevant issues to Indian people, and in the process may even act 

as ideological messengers of trans-national corporations and corporate 

capitalism. The critique may seem radical but it does raise relevant questions 

and put forward important problems concerning the introduction of highly 

internationalised genres and a Western or American business model into 

another cultural context. 19 

Are formats undermining national identities or enhancing shared trans-national values? 

When it comes to television formats, the cultural imperialism theories raise 

important questions, which can basically be summed up in the two questions 

contained in the heading of this paragraph. Are formats undermining national 

19 It is important to note that Thussu (1998) has his point of departure in an entirely different media 

systemic and cultural background than Søndergaard (2003), that is, a post-colonial India. This may be 

part of the explanation for his rather pessimistic view upon Western dominance of India’s news 

programming. Denmark on the other hand has always enjoyed a very large degree of national 

sovereignty. 

37


identities? Or are they the symptom of and maybe even enhancing values that 

transcend national cultural borders? Agger (2005) touches upon these 

questions in her discussion of how Danish television drama is influenced by 

international genre conventions, both in terms of proper format adaptations 

and what she terms “cross-cultural encounters”. As for fiction format 

adaptations, she concludes that formats in one way constitute a threat to 

national cultural identities: 

[T]rans-national formats tend to involve highly conventional modes of 

representation in highly conventional genres. […] Format trade causes a 

threat to traditional ways in which TV drama has performed the 

function of exhibiting, debating, and negotiating changes in daily life and 

the perception of history, national culture and global contexts (Agger 

2005). 

Nonetheless, and although she sees format trade as a threat to how television 

drama usually exhibits and debates daily life and national culture, her 

observation also pins down precisely the textual transparency of the formats, 

which was discussed above. Therefore, she consequently states that “the fact 

that so many programs can be equally popular in so many countries could 

contribute to a feeling of mutual understanding and the sharing of the same 

trans-national culture and values”, which again calls attention to the fact that 

audiences in different parts of the world may share some universal beliefs or 

myths represented in the transparent media texts and that formats may be a 

materialisation of this. 

Central academic positions and perspectives on television formats 

This chapter has so far described how more or less informal format 

adaptation has always existed but also how the phenomenon has come to be 

increasingly important in international television over the past two decades. 

For the television industry, format adaptation represents a way of controlling 

38


the progressively larger extent of recycling and direct plagiarism of 

programming content. The formats constitute a system, which regulates 

television’s inherent tendency of difference-within-repetition, and which 

ultimately provides format developers and adapters with financial gains. 

But what are the ramifications and adjacent media scholarly research 

problems arising from the latest explosive rise in the use of format 

adaptations? What are the consequences for local senders – that is, local 

broadcasters and television industries – adapting the formats? How do local 

viewers relate and respond to the formats? And how do we as media scholars 

view the actual texts, that is, the format adaptations, themselves? As already 

mentioned, the subject of format trade and format adaptation has not been 

the subject of a great deal of academic interest. Nevertheless, there are a few 

insightful and interesting media scholarly contributions, which each in their 

own way – directly or indirectly – points out a number of the problems 

related to the phenomenon of television formats. This paragraph sets out 

these problems and thus expounds the central positions existing within the 

research in format trade, format adaptation and related issues, which may 

shed further light on the subject. Some of the problems and positions have 

already been touched on above but are here divided according to which of the 

three main constituents of the communication model they pertain to: the 

sender, the receiver, or the text. 

The sender 

Are formats a liberation or a threat? 

Because formats in many respects pertain to increasing internationalisation, as 

has also been discussed above, the majority of the contributions do not 

surprisingly take their point of departure in problems related to globalisation. 

This often leads to a discussion of where on the global-local axis the formats 

are to be found and whether formats constitute a threat to local media 

systems, cultures and television industries. Thussu (1998) does not research 

‘pure’ format adaptation, as it has been described above. Instead he discusses 

39


the ramifications of the global formatting of the news genre, which 

increasingly moulds news casts all over the world – and in his case in India 

and other developing countries particularly – according to the American 

“infotainment” model. The infotainment model focuses largely on the 

entertainment values of the news – by for instance putting emphasis on the 

grotesque and on celebrities as opposed to more hard-hitting and ‘proper’ 

news relating to the public sphere of a nation – and by doing this, 

infotainment ultimately, according to Thussu (1998), forces Western capitalist 

values and ideals on the viewers. At the end of the day, infotainment can 

therefore become a propaganda tool for “free-market capitalism (Thussu 

1998:75). Although Thussu’s argumentation may seem radical – especially 

when related to entertainment formats such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire 

and Idol – he does nevertheless present a number of problems, which are 

important to keep in mind. This may especially be the case when dealing with 

non-Western countries, which, as opposed to Western television and media 

systems, have only recently been subjected to capitalist-oriented market 

forces, and which may also have been used to other narrative structures in 

their programming content so far. 

Nonetheless, the reality – also in less developed television markets – may very 

well contain more nuances. Firstly, it is by now fairly well documented that 

the formats are adapted in sometimes quite different ways around the world. 

This thesis contains various examples of this in Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10 where 

comparative analyses are made of the Danish and Australian adaptations of 

four different formats, Ground Force, The Block, Nerds FC and Idol. However, 

other analytical contributions also corroborate national differences in the 

adaptations of the same formats (see for example Skovmand 1992, Moran 

1998, Moran & Keane 2004, Waisbord 2004). It may well be that the format 

industry in itself is highly internationalised or even global but many of the 

adaptations are exceedingly localised. 

40


Secondly, format adaptation raises some interesting perspectives when it 

comes to production processes. On one hand, one may assume that the 

formats eventually could undermine the local research and development 

capacity in television industries, which, like Denmark and Australia, are netimporters 

of formats for local adaptation. Before the rise in formats local 

producers and broadcasters themselves developed most of the programming 

content, whereas now, with the ‘invasion’ of format adaptations on local 

schedules, programming content is increasingly developed for foreign markets 

and by foreign television industries. Hence, formats represent an imminent 

danger of stagnation and an undermining of creativity in the innovative 

environment of local television industries (Moran & Keane 2004:203). 

On the other hand, there is also evidence that an increasing use of format 

adaptation can actually support and even develop and mature local 

production environments both in a quantitative and qualitative manner. For 

example, format adaptation has in some Asian countries resulted in a 

renaissance of local programming content in the television schedules. Local 

and format-driven content has simply marginalised American and other 

Western content in especially primetime schedules (Moran & Keane 

2004:197ff). In China and Indonesia, this has had two advantageous effects. 

On one hand, it creates more work places and generally breathes new life into 

local television industries and, on the other, local producers and broadcasters 

benefit from the foreign know-how, which often comes with the formats, and 

thus learn how to be innovative and eventually create their own local 

programming content (Keane 2004b; Kitley 2004; Moran & Keane 2004:198). 

The receiver 

Local reception, genre expectations and national identity 

It has only proved possible to find two publications that deal directly with 

comparative audience studies of format adaptations. Moran (1998) briefly 

analyses German and Dutch viewers’ reception of local adaptations of 

Australian drama formats, including Prisoner Cell Block H, Sons & Daughters and 

41


The Restless Years, with particular reference to how the German and Dutch 

viewers identify with the adaptations as specifically German or Dutch and not 

as something foreign. Bruun (2004) investigates how young Danish women 

respond to the Danish talk show Det Ny Synnøve and its American equivalent 

Ricki Lake. 

Moran (1998) concludes that local viewers to a large degree receive format 

adaptations just as they would local programming. At the same time there are 

many ways of culturally identifying with the adaptations making the audience 

reception ambiguous and multi-faceted (Moran 1998:145ff). Bruun 

(2004:95ff) demonstrates how Danish women’s genre expectations, obtained 

from watching the American Ricki Lake, influence their reception of the 

Danish talk show to a degree where they become disappointed because Det 

Ny Synnøve does not come up to the level of Ricki Lake and thus does not 

meet their expectations of the talk show genre. In this way, local reception is 

greatly impacted by the original and more professional American version. 

As has been discussed in more detail above, although Agger (2005) does not 

undertake concrete audience studies, she indirectly discusses the more general 

problems concerning national and cultural identity, which may result from the 

adaptation of scripted fiction formats. She points to the impact that format 

adaptations may have on the national feelings of identity of local audiences 

and thus in her own way repeats parts of Thussu’s (1998) critique. Agger 

(2005) doubts that a national television (fiction) culture in this way can be 

internationalised without losing its original national identity and audience. On 

the other hand, she also draws attention to a possible and rather interesting 

side effect of the increase in format adaptations: audiences across nations and 

cultures may already share or come to share a common understanding and 

certain trans-national values. 

42


The text 

Are the adaptations marked by local mentality or media system? 

If we cast a closer look at the actual texts – the format adaptations – the same 

format often portrays substantial differences among the various local 

adaptations. But how can we explain the local differences (or similarities, for 

that matter)? The most common solution has been to look for explanations in 

so-called cultural differences, be it national differences in areas such as social 

standards and national mentalities. Keane (2004a) alludes to this in the 

following quote: 

We discover a consanguinity of production inputs that are linked to social 

mores and cultural values [which] does suggest that format adaptations 

[…] are influenced by specific structures of feeling (Keane 2004a:14). 

Skovmand (1992:98-99) views the differences between the local Danish, 

American, German and pan-Scandinavian versions of Wheel of Fortune as 

representative of the four local cultures and Moran (1998:74ff) does the same 

in his comparative analyses of Dutch, German and Australian versions of the 

same scripted fiction formats. On a more general level, cultural differences 

can also be traced in the specific format preferences that a given national 

television system has. In Japan for instance the local broadcasters do not see 

the immediate appeal of ordinary people on television (Iwabuchi 2004), 

whereas Chinese producers and broadcasters seem to really cultivate 

commoners as television stars (Keane 2004b). 

Language is also an important factor in cultural explanations. Language is 

what binds nations together on a daily basis and a considerable part of the 

explanation for the international popularity of television formats must be 

found in “the resilience of language as a constitutive element of national 

identities” (Waisbord 2004:374), as has been discussed previously in this 

chapter. 

43


Finding explanations in concepts such as national mentalities and values and 

specific cultural structures of feeling is of course fairly obvious. Nonetheless, 

I believe – together with other media scholars like Moran & Keane (2004) – 

that a number of equally important explanatory parameters exist. If we look 

to technology transfer theory and regard television formats as any other 

‘technology’, which is transferred from one country to another, formats also 

become greatly influenced by the (media) systemic circumstances and 

conditions existing in a particular country or territory (see Todd 1995). These 

conditions include legislation, politics, economy, geography, etc. 

Because a technological system is shaped by a particular national 

environment, consisting of various social, political and economic factors, 

the process of technological transfer to a new national setting […] will 

involve adaptation to new political, legal, educational, cultural, social and 

economic institutions, as well as geography, and resource conditions 

(Moran & Keane 2004:202). 

This means that the adaptations’ similarities or differences, success or failure, 

maybe more often than not dependent on what specific channels broadcast 

the adaptations, the competitive situation in the television system, production 

values of the adaptations, funding, demographic target groups, content 

regulation and media policies than on cultural values and national mentalities. 

44


Main problems and research questions 

These media systemic explanatory parameters are precisely the point of 

departure for this thesis. One of its main problems and relating research 

questions explore precisely what role media systemic factors such as television 

history, media legislation and regulation, competitive conditions and market 

structure have on 1) the extent of television formats in the Australian and 

Danish schedules, and 2) how the actual format adaptations are produced in 

the two countries. This means that the thesis looks for explanations in the 

specific part of a nation’s culture that is made up by the media system and not 

in comparatively vague concepts such as specific cultural tastes or national 

mentalities. 

In addition, the concept of genre seems important in a format context, as the 

majority of formats sold for local adaptation are found within various 

traditional and factual entertainment genres, including quiz & game shows, 

reality and lifestyle. For instance, within the drama and documentaries genres 

it is still primarily the original, canned programs that are being traded 

internationally. Bruun (2004) has also stressed the importance of genre in 

media research into cultural globalisation. She emphasises the fact that 

television is made up of a great variety of genres, each with their own 

particular modes of expression and representation, dramaturgic elements and 

modes of addressing its audience. Thus, a closer attention to genre can add a 

“more precise and differentiated understanding of what cultural globalisation 

actually could imply” (ibid, my translation from Danish). Additionally, the two 

newer genres of lifestyle and reality are interesting because they – contrary to 

the most prevalent format genre, quiz & game shows – are less constricted 

and thus culturally more manoeuvrable for the local producers. In contrast to 

traditional quiz & game shows such as Wheel of Fortune and recently Who Wants 

to be a Millionaire, lifestyle and reality formats are usually not confined to 

studios and do not have a strict set of rules, which contestants have to play 

by. Hence, they are likely to display media systemic and other cultural 

differences better than game shows. 

45


I have therefore chosen to look more closely at the two factual entertainment 

genres of reality and lifestyle via 1) concrete, comparative textual analyses of 

the Australian and Danish adaptations of four formats, Ground Force, The 

Block, Nerds FC and Idol, and 2) a survey of the prevalent format genres on 

Australian and Danish primetime schedules. Summing up, the thesis explores 

the following two key problems and relating research questions: 



adaptations of international formats? 




format adaptations and format genres and the actual production 

of concrete adaptations within the reality and lifestyle genres? 

Methodologically this is done through firstly analytically comparing Australia’s 

and Denmark’s media systems and subsequently investigating how the results 

of this comparative media system analysis relate to: 

• The extent of format adaptations in the two countries, 

• The format genres in the two countries and 

• Actual local format adaptations in the two countries within the 

genres of lifestyle and reality. 

The extent and genres of local format adaptations are explored through 

quantitative analyses of Australian and Danish primetime schedules during a 

10-year period. The specific local adaptations are scrutinised through 

comparative textual analyses of the Australian and Danish adaptations of the 

four formats Ground Force, The Block, Nerds FC and Idol. The next chapter, 

46


Chapter 3, will further explore the concepts of media system, genre and text 

in order to find a methodologically appropriate way of investigating the two 

key problems outlined above. Subsequently, Chapter 4 will account for the 

specific methodological choices and for the actual research design of the 

various studies and analyses undertaken in the thesis. 

My approach is thus meant to differ from the media scholarly research, which 

thus far has been undertaken directly in the area of format adaptation. On the 

whole, format trade and format adaptation research has dealt with either 

general structural and theoretical aspects of television format adaptation, such 

as theoretically understanding the process of format adaptation, legal issues 

related to format trade and chartering the international format industry (see 

European Broadcasting Union 2007, Moran & Malbon 2006, Wedell- 

Wedellsborg 2005, Moran & Keane (eds.) 2004, Waisbord 2004, Deichman 

2002, Moran 1998, Van Manen 1994). Or it has dealt with general textual 

aspects of the phenomenon, such as why adaptations look different in 

different countries and how and why some formats succeed or fail in certain 

countries. In this case, explanations have most often been sought for in more 

or less diffuse national and cultural differences and similarities like for 

instance language and local mentality, taste or structures of feeling (see 

Waisbord 2004, Moran & Keane (eds.) 2004, Moran 1998, Skovmand 1992). 

By combining a media systemic perspective with a genre perspective this 

thesis takes what can be called a middle-of-the-range approach, which will 

endeavour to achieve insights into format adaptation and give explanations 

into local differences and similarities on a more tangible and concrete level. It 

does not deal with theoretically conceptualising the phenomenon of format 

adaptation, nor does it analyse general structures of the format trade. Instead 

it investigates the specific consequences and effects format adaptation has had 

in two different national television markets within the same region. These 

effects are explored, not by looking into general textual differences and 

similarities, but by investigating particular and systematic generic and textual 

47


differences and similarities. Consequently, the thesis is an attempt to cover 

one of the blind spots of current media research. 

Additionally, the aspects of both genre and media system are meant to 

remove my research project from the somewhat generalised level, on which 

many media sociologists concerned with globalisation theory operate. As we 

have seen throughout this chapter, many of these theoreticians tend to view 

the media in a relatively rigid and undiscriminating fashion. They primarily 

think within the dichotomy of system-versus-individual or structure-versusagent, 

thus conceptualising the media as no more than part of the system or 

structure. To these researchers the concept of the media is lumped together, 

and they consequently ignore the diversity of the media, such as the different 

types of media, the different genres of these media, and the various media’s 

different organisational structures, economic and legislative conditions, 

historical backgrounds etc. 

As a contrast to this, the backbone of my project will be just this diverse 

media culture, which should help my project stay clear of the usually 

undiscriminating fear of a media based American or Western cultural invasion 

that concerns some globalisation theoreticians and, in most cases, is rooted in 

a lack of understanding of the diversity of media culture (also see Bilteryest 

2003 and Tomlinson 1999:81-88). Hereby, my project will be able to achieve 

insights into the interplay between globalisation and the media on a more 

tangible and in-depth level. 

48



THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA 

SYSTEM & GENRE 

This chapter presents relevant theoretical perspectives on national, and transnational, 

media systems and on television genre and text. These perspectives 

are a logical continuation of the two main problems of this thesis, namely the 

problems of format adaptation and media system, on one hand, and of 

format adaptation and genre, on the other. The theoretical aspects presented 

here will be used to identify specific analytical parameters concerning the 

investigation of the two problems and will subsequently be put to 

methodological use in Chapter 4’s description of methodological choices and 

actual set-up of a research design to cover the two problems. 

49


MEDIA SYSTEM THEORIES 

The following questions will be answered in this section of the chapter: What 

is a media system? And how do we analyse it structurally as well as 

normatively? 20 Also, how do we deal with media forms such as the television 

format, which transcends traditional national media systemic boundaries? The 

section presents two media scholarly attempts (Hallin & Mancini 2004 and 

Vestergaard 2007) at establishing a formal system of analytical parameters to 

classify a specific media system in relation to normative media paradigms. 

Normative media system theories often have as their objective to condense 

the actions of the media within a media system into a set of basic values 

characteristic of the media system in question. One of the most well-known 

and quoted examples of a normative media theory is Siebert et al. (1956), who 

set out to define four universalistic media systemic models to cover all the 

world’s media systems. Nevertheless, both Hallin & Mancini (2004) and 

Vestergaard (2007) criticise Siebert et al. (1956) precisely for not establishing a 

formal system of analytical parameters, which can be used to qualify any given 

media system. 

In this respect, Hallin & Mancini (2004) represent a macro approach to 

normative media systemic theory with a primary emphasis on the press and 

on journalism (and hence factual media genres) and the political system above 

the media system. This journalistic and political focus means that they – 

perhaps not surprisingly – identify substantial connections between media 

system (in this case primarily the aspects to do with journalism) and political 

system. Vestergaard (2007), on the other hand, takes his point of departure in 

the actual media system, as opposed to the political system, and thus 

20 “Normatively” in this respect means the values displayed by the general system structure. In this sense 

of the word, the values of one system are equal to the values of another system. It does not refer to 

normative research, which usually has the intention of identifying the structure with the best and most 

correct values, be it a media systemic or a societal structure. 

50


represents a more concrete and mid-range approach to media system analysis, 

in which the media system itself and the agents directly related to this system 

are the primary analytical objects in a closer understanding of any media 

system. Vestergaard’s (2007) approach thus points to the weakness of Hallin 

& Mancini (2004); namely the fact that they give little autonomy to the media 

system, which in their theory is essentially overridden by the more important 

political system. 

Hallin & Mancini (2004) clearly have a structuralist approach to media 

systems, which according to them are created by the overriding and more 

important political system. In turn, the media system creates the system of the 

press, which then creates the behaviour of the journalists and so forth. A 

structuralist approach like this of course has some explanatory power but it 

has difficulties in explaining change, and this is where Vestergaard’s (2007) 

hermeneutically oriented structuration approach is useful. This approach 

points to the relationship between structure and agent as one of interpretation 

and mutual influence and thus is able to explain change as something, which 

happens from within the human agents of the structure or system in a 

combination with, for example, macro structures such as in a political system. 

Finally, the paragraph introduces another interesting theoretical perspective 

on trans-national media forms and systems. Cottle (2004) analyses the transnational 

nature of the highly internationalised genre of natural history 

television, which represents a field of programming that, like television 

formats, extends beyond both national media systems and particular types of 

television organisations. Cottle (2004) this way identifies the important fact 

that some media genres or forms are trans-national rather than national and, 

at the same time, indicates that there is a lot more to a media system than the 

traditional journalistic genres of news, current affairs and documentaries. 

51


Three media system models 

Hallin and Mancini (2004) set out to identify various analytical parameters 

relevant to a normative media system analysis, and on the basis of a study of 

17 Western European and North American media systems identify three 

different media system models or paradigms. As mentioned, their main focus 

is journalism, which is a smaller but vital part of any media system, and they 

also have equal focus on both political system and media system (meaning 

journalism to a certain extent). As for the media system, they point to “four 

major dimensions according to which media systems in Western Europe and 

North America can usefully be compared” (Hallin & Mancini 2004: 21ff): 

• The development of media markets, with particular emphasis on 

the strong or weak development of the mass circulation press 

• Political parallelism; the degree and nature of the links between 

the media and political parties, or the extent to which the media 

system reflects the major political divisions in society 

• The development of journalistic professionalism 

• The degree and nature of state intervention in the media system 

According to these dimensions and on the basis of the analysis of the 17 

countries, they discover three media systemic models – or paradigms – each 

of which contains countries with similar media systemic characteristics. The 

models are explained in table 3.1 below. 

52


Table 3.1 > Characteristics of Hallin & Mancini’s three media system models 

MODEL / 

PARADIGM 

POLARISED 

PLURALIST 

DEMOCRATIC 

CORPORATIST 

LIBERAL 

Countries 

Newspaper industry 

Political parallelism 

Professionalisation 

Role of State in media 

system 

France, Greece, Italy, 

Portugal, Spain 

Low newspaper 

circulation; elite 

politically-oriented 

press 

High political 

parallelism; external 

pluralism, 

commentary-oriented 

journalism; 

parliamentary or 

government model of 

broadcast governance 

– politics-overbroadcasting 

system 

Weaker 

professionalisation; 

instrumentalisation 

Strong State 

intervention; press 

subsidies in France and 

Italy; periods of 

censorship; “savage 

deregulation” (except 

France) 

Austria, Belgium, 

Denmark, Finland, 

Germany, Netherlands, 

Norway, Sweden, 

Switzerland 

High newspaper 

circulation; early 

development of mass 

circulation press 

External pluralism 

especially in national 

press; historically 

strong party press; shift 

toward neutral 

commercial press; 

politics-in-broadcasting 

system with substantial 

autonomy 

Strong 


institutionalised selfregulation 

Strong State 

intervention but with 

protection for press 

freedom; press 

subsidies, particularly 

strong in Scandinavia; 

strong public service 

broadcasting 

Britain, Canada, 

Ireland, United States 

Medium newspaper 

circulation; early 

development of masscirculation 

commercial 

press 

Neutral commercial 

press; informationoriented 

journalism; 

internal pluralism (but 

external in Britain); 

professional model of 

broadcast governance 

– formally autonomous 

system 

Strong 


non-institutionalised 

self-regulation 

Market dominated 

(except strong public 

broadcasting in Britain 

and Ireland) 

As for the political system, Hallin & Mancini identify five relevant political 

system variables that play a vital role in how the three media paradigms are 

different to each other (Hallin & Mancini 2004: 63-65): 

• The relation of State and society; particularly the distinction 

between liberal and welfare-state democracy 

• The distinction between consensus and majoritarian patterns of 

government 

• The distinction between organised pluralism or corporatism, and 

liberal pluralism 

53


• The development of rational-legal authority 

• The distinction between moderate and polarised pluralism 

The different political system characteristics offer a strong explanation as to 

how certain media systems evolve. Table 3.2 below shows this connection 

between the three media paradigms and political system characteristics. 

Table 3.2 > Political characteristics of Hallin & Mancini’s three media system models 

MODEL / 

PARADIGM 

POLARISED 

PLURALIST 

DEMOCRATIC 

CORPORATIST 

LIBERAL 

Countries 

Political history; 

patterns of conflict 

and consensus 

Consensus or 

majoritarian 

government 

Individual versus 

organised pluralism 

Role of the State 

Rational legal 

authority 

France, Greece, Italy, 

Portugal, Spain 

Late democratisation; 

polarised pluralism 

Both 

Organised pluralism; 

strong role of political 

parties 

Dirigisme, strong 

involvement of State 

and parties in economy; 

periods of 

authoritarianism, strong 

welfare state in France, 

Italy 

Weaker development 

of rational legal 

authority (except 

France); clientelism 

Austria, Belgium, 

Denmark, Finland, 

Germany, Netherlands, 

Norway, Sweden, 

Switzerland 

Early democratisation; 

moderate pluralism 

Predominantly 

consensus 

Organised pluralism; 

history of segmented 

pluralism; democratic 

corporatism 

Strong welfare state; 

significant involvement 

of State in economy 

Strong development of 

rational legal authority 

Britain, Canada, 

Ireland, United States 

Early democratisation; 

moderate pluralism 

Predominantly 

majoritarian 

Individualised 

representation rather 

than organised 

pluralism (especially 

US) 

Liberalism; weaker 

welfare state 

particularly in US 

Strong development of 

rational legal authority 

It is important to note that the analysis only operates within a Western 

European and North American context (although the authors do claim that 

the three models most likely could also apply to Australia and New Zealand 

54


as well as to many of the new emerging Asian economies). This however 

means that the models would probably not fit into a non-democratic, and 

more authoritarian, context. On the other hand, what Hallin & Mancini 

(2004) do offer is a detailed analysis of Western media systems, two of which 

are under closer scrutiny in this thesis: the Danish and the Australian. Also, 

they make the connections between political system and media system clear, 

plausible, and systematic, emphasising history and national politics as 

important explanatory factors to how media systems are structured. 

As already mentioned, the weakness of Hallin & Mancini (2004) is the fact 

that they give no autonomy to the media system. According to them, the 

political system variables influence strongly on the media system, but perhaps 

not so much the other way round: ‘Look at your political system, and then 

you have your media system!’ is what they seem to be saying. This argument is 

sustainable to a certain degree, especially when it comes to traditional 

journalism and its adjacent genres, which traditionally pertain to the public 

sphere of politics. Nonetheless, a view like this sets aside the human agents 

acting within a media system and hence sets aside the need to look at actual 

production practices, interview agents within the media system, and analyse 

media texts, etc. As such, Hallin & Mancini (2004) are in opposition to 

Vestergaard (2007), whose point of departure is the media system itself and its 

symbiotic relationship with the media systemic agents, among which are political 

legislators, on one side, and macro structures, among which is political culture, 

on the other. This is in my opinion a more nuanced understanding of what 

makes a media system. 

The media system, media systemic agents and macro structures 

Inspired by Sepstrup (2004) and McQuail (2000), Vestergaard (2007) develops 

a model for the analysis of media systems. The model not only offers a 

number of analytical parameters for a systematic description of media 

systemic structures, but also represents a system to normatively classify a 

given media system; that is, to reveal what ‘values’ a specific structure reflects. 

55


As mentioned, a media system forms part of a symbiotic relationship with, on 

the one hand, social macro structures, and on the other, media systemic agents. All 

three levels influence each other mutually, which is illustrated in figure 3.1 by 

the double arrows: 

Figure 3.1 > The media system, media systemic agents and macro structures 

Influenced by Giddens’ structuration theory, Vestergaard defines the media 

system as a system of media (institutions), which act as social agents, and 

which can be described through their positions and relations to each other and 

the surrounding society. These positions and relations constitute a specific set 

of analytical parameters, from which to analyse and define a specific media 

system. Outside of the media system, four groups of media systemic agents 

exist – namely legislators, organisations, businesses, and citizens. They interact 

closely with the media system but do not form part of it. The media system is 

thus a dynamic system, in and outside which human agents work and act. 

This means that media systemic agents are actual people in various group 

formations and not abstract ‘forces’ with the power to somehow influence the 

system. However, media systemic agents often consist of heterogeneous 

groups of people with diverging attitudes and actions. The media form 

56


various relationships with the agents, and the agents influence the positions 

and the relations of the various media within the system (Vestergaard 

2007:67ff). 

• Legislators are formally organised groups with political power to 

formally or informally create the legislative conditions for the 

various relations and positions within the media system. They do 

not necessarily have to be democratically elected. 

• Organisations are formally organised groups whose objectives are 

based on certain value beliefs, as opposed to commercial interests. 

They would typically be non-governmental organisations 

(NGOs), foundations or trans-national organisations that 

somehow fund or own the media. 

• Businesses are formally organised groups whose objectives are 

commercial. They would typically be advertisers and media 

owners. They do not necessarily have to be privately owned, but 

can also be (semi) public institutions. 

• Citizens are informal and fluctuating groups of people that for 

instance act as users of certain media in certain periods of time. 

Thus, they influence the various positions and relations by using 

(or not using) the media 

Social macro structures act as background variables for the media system and its 

agents. To give an example, legislators may not only adapt certain media 

policies as a result of their interaction with the media or the other agents, but 

their policies may also very well be the result of prevailing cultural, religious, 

technological and macro economic structures (Ibid.). 21 

21 For a thorough discussion of and argumentation for the choice of these specific four macro 

structures, see Vestergaard (2007). Here he, to give one example, argues why religion has to 

be separated from culture. 

57


• Technology can influence citizens’ demand for certain media or the 

penetration of the media. 

• Culture can influence legislators’ willingness to regulate the media. 

• Religion, including the societal importance of religion, can 

influence the agents’ expectations to the media and, thus, affects 

the media’s ‘feeling’ of responsibility and accountability. 

• Macro economy can influence the purchasing power of the various 

agents and, hence, the funding of the media. 

Analytical parameters of the media system: positions and relations 

As mentioned above, the positions and relations of the media constitute the 

analytical parameters, from which to define and analyse a specific media 

system (Vestergaard 2007). Figure 3.2 is sourced from Vestergaard and 

introduces the parameters, after which they are discussed in more detail 

below. 

Figure 3.2 > analytical parameters of the media system 

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The positions of the media system include: 

• Media penetration covers the size of the media and their power of 

penetration on the one hand, and audience ratings and shares on 

the other hand. 

• Media diversity measures the external as well as internal diversity of 

the media system. 

• Media concentration measures the degree of ‘centralisation’ that 

exists in a specific media system, be it vertically (the control over 

various links in the production chain, or various geographical 

locations), or horizontally (the control over a limited media sector 

or geographic location). 

The relations of the media system include: 

• Funding covers the formal or informal flows of economic 

resources between the media and the media systemic agents. 

• Ownership mainly includes public, private or State-controlled media 

ownership. 

• Responsibility and accountability are used to describe both the political 

influence and the public regulation and control of the media in a 

specific media system. In other words, what are the media 

responsible for and who are they accountable to? 

Because of the complexity of any empirical media system, a specific choice of 

analytical levels, analytical perspectives, and analytical objects has to be made 

according to the specific research topic (Ibid.). As far as the number of 

analytical objects is concerned, the analysis can take place at macro (the entire 

59


media system or all relevant media), meso (a specific media sector), and micro 

level (a single medium). In addition, the media system, the media systemic 

agents, and the macro structures vary according to time (historically versus 

simultaneously) and space (local, national, regional, versus global). As for the 

project at hand in this thesis, I have chosen a meso level approach to the 

comparative media system analysis of Denmark and Australia. Thus, the 

analysis covers one media sector, national television broadcasting, and it does 

so both historically and in the present. However, this is explained in more 

detail in Chapter 4. 

As mentioned above, the objective of Vestergaard’s model of the media 

system is to create a system to normatively classify a specific media system. 

With reference to Giddens’ structuration theory, Vestergaard (2007) is of the 

opinion that the structures of the media system express values because 

structures are produced and used by human agents. Consequently, a media 

system is a specific combination or pattern of positions and relations that 

describes the normative paradigm dominating the media system, and a 

normative media paradigm is a specific pattern that prescribes how the media 

systemic structure ‘ought’ to look like. At the same time, and in terms of the 

project at hand, Vestergaard directs attention to the organisational level of a 

media system. Insofar as human agents form the media system, it is 

insufficient to make a general description of characteristics of media systems 

such as the Australian or Danish. It is necessary to go a level down, so to 

speak, to the organisational level and the people acting here. How does the 

system look from within, from the people who actually construct and develop 

the system? In the case of television formats, it is therefore essential that, for 

example, the format originators, producers and broadcasters be interviewed 

about their part in the format adaptation process. What were the ideas behind 

the original version? Why does a local Australian or Danish broadcaster 

choose to adapt a specific format? And why do local producers choose a 

specific ‘look’ for the adaptation? 

60


The organisational level thus becomes as important on the general structural 

level of the media system, on the one hand, and on the level of the actual 

texts (adaptations) on the other. As a matter of fact, the organisational level 

makes an extremely important connection between media system and media 

texts. Genre makes another vital connection, which is the subject of the next 

section of this chapter. But first, let us turn to Cottle (2004) and the 

theoretical insight he offers on trans-national media forms such as television 

formats. 

The television format as trans-national production ecology 

Cottle (2004) analyses the trans-national nature of natural history television. 

Being a highly globalised genre, natural history programming represents a 

field of media production that extends beyond both national media systems 

and particular types of organisations. In this respect, natural history television 

shares some important traits with the international television format industry, 

and Cottle’s work consequently proves useful to the objectives of this thesis, 

as well. 

The two media production fields are similar in two ways: First of all, both are 

characterised by a differentiated organisational field made up of both the 

world’s leading media conglomerates, national public service, commercial and 

private broadcasters, and lots of medium- and small-sized production 

companies that all coexist and compete (Cottle 2004:90). Secondly, some 

content is considered too local or even too “contentious” and “audiencesplitting”, 

as both have to be somewhat transparent in order to be traded as a 

commodity internationally (Ibid:97). 22 Cottle introduces the concept of 

production ecology as the term to describe the complex structure of any media 

form, and of natural history television, in particular. 

22 There are of course also differences between formats and natural history programs; the most 

important being that natural history programming is traded as original, canned programming, whereas 

formats, as we know, are traded in their more immaterial form and as such differ from country to 

country. 

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[The term] helps to signal the theoretical importance of attending to 

organizational relationships and dynamics that exist within a particular 

field of media production, as well as attending to individual media 

organizations or general marketplace dynamics. […] ‘Production 

ecologies’ encompass and extend beyond the immediate sphere of 

production of any one organization within a particular cultural field 

(Cottle 2004:82). 

Only by attending to this production ecology within a specific media form, 

“we can begin to better understand how the different organisations within it 

reproduce, adapt and differentiate their associated cultural forms through 

time” (Ibid: 82). To him, the concept of production ecology thus helps 

elucidate especially two of three important analytical dimensions when 

exploring particular fields of cultural production, namely the organisational 

structuration and the professional negotiation within it. The third analytical 

dimension is the general market dynamics. The three dimensions are 

underlined in the following quote: 

Critical economic theory is essential for understanding the general market 

dynamics of media organization and production, and it also needs to be 

deployed in respect of particular fields of cultural production. We also 

need to attend however, to the organizational structuration of a particular 

field as well as the professional negotiation within it of wider forces if we 

want to understand the production and evolution of cultural forms. The 

concept of ‘production ecology’ helps here and brings into view the dynamic 

relationships between different media organizations that coexist and 

compete within particular arenas of cultural production and how they 

respond – both organizationally and professionally – to wider forces of 

change, and adapt and differentiate their particular cultural form (Cottle 

2004:82-83). 

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In this respect, Cottle makes clear alternative, and trans-national, systems – 

production ecologies – that transcend and go beyond traditional, national 

media systems like the ones under scrutiny by Vestergaard (2007) and Hallin 

& Mancini (2004). These production ecologies are likely to have logic of their 

own, or at least have logic whose explanation is not necessarily found 

exclusively in the context of national media systems. Consequently, Cottle 

adds an important perspective to traditional, normative media system 

theories, which is particularly useful when dealing with trans-national media 

industries like the format industry. 

Secondly, by emphasising precisely professional negotiation and organisational 

structuration as important analytical dimensions to complement the analysis of 

general market dynamics, he also points to the organisational level touched upon 

by Vestergaard (2007). Again, it is not sufficient to investigate general media 

systemic structures or market dynamics; we must also scrutinise the media 

system’s organisational structuration and how the human agents within it 

negotiate with each other and with the content produced. Thus, Cottle (2004) 

argues against making too strong of a connection between the general market 

dynamics and the specific texts without the intervention of the organisational 

level. 

Thirdly, Cottle (2004) points to the vital importance of genre – or “media 

form”, as he calls it – in the professional negotiation, which is taking place on 

the organisational level. To him, “questions of media form are intimately 

bound up with questions of mediation, of how media representations are 

constructed, conditioned and conveyed” (Ibid:81). By understanding the 

television program format as a media form within a specific production 

ecology, Cottle offers argumentation that steers clear of what would be the 

cultural imperialist way of thinking: that is, conceptualising the local 

adaptations as a powered play of discourses, in which the non-local and the 

foreign are somehow ‘combating’ the local. Instead, the objective is to 

63


investigate precisely the “organizational relationships and dynamics” within 

the television format industry to reach a better understanding of how the local 

adaptations are “constructed, conditioned and conveyed”. In this way, Cottle 

offers a coupling between genre, media system, and the internationalisation of 

television, which is helpful in reaching a further understanding of television 

formats. 

Concrete analytical parameters 

A set of analytical parameters useful in comparative and normative media 

system analyses has been put forward above. Hallin & Mancini (2004) pointed 

to history and political system as important analytical parameters, Vestergaard 

(2007) indicated the relations and positions of the media and the media 

systemic agents as important factors to analyse, and finally, Cottle (2004) 

directed attention at the organisational levels of a media system and at the fact 

that some media forms enter into systems, which to a certain degree contain 

an own logic transcending national media systems. All of these parameters 

will be put to methodological use in Chapter 4. 

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TELEVISION GENRE THEORIES 

Genre being the locus par excellence of repetition and difference, it is 

necessary to disengage both the constant and the variable elements. This 

operation requires a prior diachronic investigation, as variation manifests 

itself in the course of a historical development. By the same token, it is 

impossible to give a definition of a genre. All one can do is remain on 

level of observation and note some facts (Neale 1980, quoted in 

Nielsen 1992:57). 

The quote points to the paradoxical nature of genres. They defy 

categorisation and definition because they are constantly changing but, still, as 

a researcher one has to at least try to give a definition to be able to investigate 

and understand the impact of, for example, television genres in the format 

adaptation process. 

This section contains a discussion of relevant aspects to do with the 

paradoxical genre concept and it also contains an attempt at categorisation. 

Firstly, it is discussed why genre is a useful concept to work with in the first 

place when dealing with television formats. Secondly, the concept of genre is 

defined and an argument for looking at television genres as cultural 

categories, created by both the television industry and the viewers, is 

proposed. Thirdly, the role of television’s texts in relation to genre and media 

system is discussed and a definition of the various levels of television texts is 

given. Finally, the section defines the genre divisions used throughout the 

thesis, after which the two popular format genres of reality and lifestyle are 

described and discussed in a comprehensive manner. This is done in 

preparation for the qualitative comparative analyses of the Australian and 

Danish adaptations of four specific lifestyle and reality formats, which will be 

undertaken later in the thesis. 

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Why is the concept of genre useful? 

As has been hinted at several times in the first chapters, the concept of genre 

is interesting in relation to television formats for a variety of reasons. Firstly, 

the formats being sold for adaptation seem to exist primarily within especially 

traditional and factual entertainment genres such as traditional quiz & game 

shows and the newer factual genres of reality and lifestyle, as we saw in 

Chapter 2. Within other factual and fictional genres such as documentaries, 

drama and soap, it is still mainly the original programs that are traded 

internationally. Later in this section, I will define the genre divisions used 

throughout the thesis, after which the genres of reality and lifestyle will be 

described more thoroughly, as the four specific format cases chosen for indepth 

analyses are all to be found within the reality and lifestyle genres. 

Secondly, investigating the role of genre in the international exchange of 

television programming content will help the thesis steer clear of the generic 

blindness of scholars such as Olson (1999). As has already been explained in 

more detail in Chapter 2, in his account of the textual transparency of 

American media texts – particularly within film and television – Olson 

indirectly talks of fictional genres, which in my opinion leads to a specific 

perspective guiding the development of his theories. Textual transparency – 

even within American media texts – is considerably harder to achieve in 

genres precisely such as entertainment, be it traditional or factual, which may 

in part explain why format adaptation takes place predominantly within these 

genres. Many factual genres such as current affairs and documentaries (except 

of course for natural history programming) would also be hard to make 

transparent because they deal with political and social issues specific to the 

national context in which they are produced, and consequently often contain 

journalistic angles relevant and understandable only by this nation’s audience. 

Hence, factual and entertainment genres are often rather opaque and, 

therefore, do not travel easily in their original versions. Fictional genres on the 

other hand travel more easily. They are fairly easily accessible to all kinds of 

national audiences precisely for the reason pointed out by Olson (1999). They 

66


have a higher degree of polysemy and different national audiences may 

therefore read the same text in different ways because of the use of universal 

mythologies that are easily recognisable and easily absorbed into local 

cultures. 23 

Finally, genre is useful in the project at hand because genres form an 

important link between the television system and television texts, which will 

be further elaborated below. 

Genres as cultural categories 

A television genre has three levels. Firstly, a television genre is a number of 

features shared by a group of television texts, most often television programs 

in the traditional sense of the word, but, for instance, it could also be 

advertisements of products or upcoming programs. However, secondly and 

just as importantly, a television genre constitutes a set of expectations and 

guidelines for the audience as well as for the industry. Thirdly, television 

genres are the marketing and sales categories used by the television industry. 

Since Aristotle, genres have been put under theoretical and analytical scrutiny 

as a means to categorise and order texts (see Nielsen 1992, Bruun Andersen 

1994, Mittell 2004). However, outside of academia another and more general 

genre discourse exists between the industry and the audience, in which genres 

are more than theoretical and static textual categories. This discourse shows 

us that genre is not intrinsic to the texts themselves but just as much the 

result of audience and industry discourses, expectations, and practices. 

This thesis approaches the concept of genre from what can be called a cultural 

studies perspective (Frandsen 2007:41), which combines social practices (in 

this case the production of television formats), significance/meaning and 

texts (the actual format adaptations). According to this perspective, and with 

23 A perfect example of these different national readings of the same program is Liebes & Katz’ (1993) 

renowned audience study of different national audiences’ reception of the American drama series 

Dallas. 

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Mittell’s terminology, genres are cultural categories, meaning that they are 

culturally operative within different spheres of media practices undertaken by, 

for example, industry professionals and audiences (Mittel 2004:10). Thus, 

genres are not intrinsic to texts, and the process of genre categorisation to a 

very large extent happens outside the media texts themselves: 

Genres are not intrinsic to texts. They are constituted by the processes 

that some scholars have labelled “external” elements, such as industrial 

and audience practices. We need to look beyond the text as the locus for 

genre, locating genres within the complex interrelations between texts, 

industries, audiences, and historical contexts. Genres transect the 

boundaries between text and context, with production, distribution, 

promotion, exhibition, criticism, and reception practices all working 

together to categorize media texts into genres (Mittell 2004:9). 

The cultural studies approach – which Mittell actually calls discursive with 

reference to and inspiration in Foucault’s historical model of genealogy – on 

one hand makes it necessary to “de-center the text as the primary site of 

genre” (Mittel 2004:14). However, the approach does not at all ignore the 

texts. On the contrary, media texts still “function as important locales of 

generic discourses and must be examined on par with other sites, such as 

audience and industrial practices” (Ibid.). Television genres do not form out 

of macro-structures but out of specific cultural practices of industries and 

audiences (Ibid.). In this respect, Mittell and the cultural studies approach to 

media genres echoes Cottle’s (2004) and especially Vestergaard’s (2007) 

approach to media systems. Abstract macro forces do not form media systems. 

Media systems are formed by the people acting within the different media and 

by the media’s interaction with the media systemic agents, namely legislators, 

businesses, citizens and organisations. The same is the case with genres. They 

are not static and God-given categories. They are dynamic, ever changing and 

68


formed on a daily basis by media industries and media users, who therefore 

act as interpreters rather than merely reproducers of genres. 

Television’s texts 

Television’s texts are therefore the result of a specific social interaction 

among a group of individuals in culturally specific organisational and generic 

contexts (also see Frandsen 2007:42). As such, texts – in this case the format 

adaptations – are vital analytical objects in order to understand the role of 

both media system and media genre. Television has four levels of texts – 

segments, programs, series and schedules: 

• Segments are time and content unities within an actual television 

program characterised by a continuity of characters and place 

(Ellis 1982, referred to in Bruun Andersen 1994). 

• Programs are what most people would refer to as television’s 

traditional texts. Programs consist of a number of segments. 

Programs always form part of a schedule and often constitute an 

episode in a series. 

• Series are one of television’s most important structuring principles, 

which, precisely like genres, establish common expectations 

between sender, text/series and receiver (Nielsen 1992:66). When 

it comes to formats, they are practically always adapted in a series 

of program episodes, which is also the case with all four format 

cases chosen for further analysis later in the thesis: Ground Force, 

The Block, Nerds FC and Idol. 

• Schedules are television’s super texts consisting of a program of 

programs, so to speak. Television schedules are structured 

according to the daily life and general preferences of an audience 

(Bruun Andersen 1994:18). 

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When it comes to format adaptation and the main research questions of this 

thesis, the program, the series and the schedule levels are important because 

as mentioned, formats are individual programs usually forming part of a 

program series. Additionally, the schedule is important because it can reveal 

the influences of the increase in format use in a historical perspective. 

Methodologically, programs and series as well as schedules are therefore 

chosen as analytical points of reference, which means that the comparative 

textual analyses undertaken later in the thesis consist of quantitative schedule 

analyses, on one hand, and qualitative program and series analyses, on the other: 

• The quantitative schedule analyses comprise an historical 

investigation of Australian and Danish primetime schedules over 

a 10-year period between 1995 and 2005 with a specific reference 

to the development of the use of format adaptations and genres. 

• The qualitative program and series analyses contain comparative 

analyses of the Australian and Danish adaptations of four specific 

format series, Ground Force, The Block, Nerds FC and Idol. Specific 

program episodes in the series are chosen for in-depth analysis 

while the other programs and the series generally are referred to 

when necessary. 

According to Todorov (1978, as referred to in Bruun Andersen 1994:5), genre 

becomes apparent within a text in four specific discursive areas, within which 

there are certain traits or analytical parameters to look for: 

• The semantic area linked to the themes or statements of for 

example a television text. 

• The syntactic area linked to the narrative composition and 

structure of the text. 

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• The pragmatic area connected to the actual use of the text. Here, 

‘use’ is understood as the social use of television texts such as for 

example morning television or even reality and lifestyle television, 

which both enter into specific uses by the audience. 

• The verbal area connected to the enunciation or mode of address 

of the text. In this thesis, enunciation is understood as how the 

text talks to its viewers, which again has a lot to do with how it 

regards its viewers. How does the format adaptation 

communicate its themes to the viewers? Who is the implied 

viewer of the text? 

Genre divisions 

Table 3.3 shows the genre divisions and definitions employed throughout the 

thesis. There are eight genres altogether divided into four main modes of 

representation, factual, fiction, traditional entertainment and factual 

entertainment. The factual mode of representation includes the genres of 

documentaries, news & current affairs, sports and children’s & youth 

programming. The fictional mode of representation is its own genre and 

consists of subgenres such as cartoons, drama series, soaps, sit-coms, movies 

etc. The traditional entertainment mode is also its own genre, which is made 

up of subgenres such as satire, talk shows, variety, quiz & game, and clip 

shows. Finally, the factual entertainment mode of representation consists of 

two genres, namely reality and lifestyle, which are the two genres being 

investigated more thoroughly later in this thesis’ comparative analyses of 

Australian and Danish adaptations of the same four formats. 

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Table 3.3 > Genre divisions 

MAIN MODE OF 

REPRESENTATION 

Factual 

Fictional 

Traditional 

entertainment 

Factual entertainment 

GENRES 

Documentaries (including culture) (programs treating factual and 

cultural events with relevance to the public sphere of society; concrete 

examples are historic documentaries, investigative documentaries, nature 

documentaries, and literature programs) 

News & current affairs (programs about current events in the public 

sphere of society; the news & current affairs programs are often magazine 

style and studio-based programs, which treat issues relevant for current 

events only) 

Sports (programs about sports or telecasts of sports events) 

Children/young people (programs made especially for children or young 

people; cartoons and fiction for children are not included in this category) 

Fiction/drama (programs telling fictive stories such as cartoons, movies, 

drama series, sitcoms and soaps; children’s cartoons and fiction are included 

in this category) 

Entertainment (satire, talk, variety, clip shows, game & quiz, gossip, movie 

shows, concerts, etc.) 

Reality (programs taking on intimate issues of the private sphere and about 

ordinary people experiencing something out of the ordinary often in a 

somewhat staged reality; concrete programs are Big Brother, Survivor, Idol, 

World’s Wildest Police Videos, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, etc.; also see below) 

Lifestyle (programs on issues traditionally pertaining to the private sphere 

such as interior design, DIY, gardening, personal makeover, child-rearing, 

cleaning, cooking; also see below) 

Defining and dividing genres is always a dangerous, academic endeavour, as 

genre divisions such as the above can always be scrutinised, critiqued and 

argued against. In addition and as already indicated, categorising genre is 

paradoxical because it is pragmatically necessary on one hand but theoretically 

impossible in the other. In the divisions above, it is for example obvious that 

the fiction/drama and traditional entertainment genres are fairly rough and 

broad divisions, as they both contain a large variety of subgenres, whereas the 

factual entertainment genres of reality and lifestyle on the other hand are very 

detailed divisions. Nevertheless, the above divisions are undertaken with the 

specific problems of this thesis in mind and are therefore rather pragmatic. 

Emphasising reality and lifestyle reflects the fact that these are the genres 

under closer scrutiny in the thesis, whereas de-emphasising fiction/drama 

reflects that only a few format adaptations are undertaken within this genre. 

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When it comes to traditional entertainment, this is not the case. Yet I have 

still chosen a broad division because the primary generic focus of the thesis is 

on the newer genres of reality and lifestyle, to which we now turn. 

Media systemic context of lifestyle and reality television 

First of all it is important to point out the greater media systemic context of 

the rise of the reality and lifestyle genres. The relative success of the two 

genres is of course related to the fact that they have been quite popular with 

international viewers. Nevertheless, it is also important to view the 

introduction of the two genres and their subsequent success in terms of the 

multi-channel system, which has evolved over the past decades, and which 

has caused a much higher demand for television content due to an 

exponential increase in television channels and content platforms. As 

discussed in Chapter 2, the multi-channel system has led to fewer viewers to 

all types of programming. As a consequence, the industry has seen stagnation 

in the demand for expensive genres such as drama, documentaries and fullscale 

entertainment and in turn increased demand for more cost-effective 

genres such as, for example, lifestyle and reality (see for example Brunsdon et 

al. 2001 and Carlsen & Frandsen 2005). In this respect, reality and lifestyle 

programs are relatively cheap to produce, especially compared to fictional 

genres such as primetime drama but also compared to for example 

investigative documentaries and some of the large-scale, traditional 

entertainment shows. In reality and lifestyle there are no costs for actors, 

directors and scriptwriters, or for the time-consuming and expensive process 

of investigative journalistic research. Moreover, the participants are ordinary 

people taking part voluntarily and therefore are not paid. 24 

With reference to lifestyle programs on Danish public service television, 

Carlsen & Frandsen (2005) call the shift towards the factual oriented 

entertainment genres “a marked historical shift in public service television, 

24 Here, it is important that reality in most cases most likely would be more expensive to produce than 

lifestyle, and probably also more expensive than traditional quiz & game shows. 

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which reflects a ‘post-documentary’ television culture”. In my opinion, this 

‘post-documentary television culture’ not only describes the effect of lifestyle 

programming on public service television but also just as easily describes the 

general international tendency of more factual entertainment, including reality 

as well as lifestyle programs. 

Democratisation of television’s primetime 

Various dichotomies are at play in this tendency and especially in the criticism 

of factual entertainment compared to the traditional factual genres of news, 

current affairs and documentaries. Below are some of the most important 

dichotomies, from which it becomes evident that factual entertainment is 

considered to be worth less than the factual genres. 

• The everyday life versus politics 

• The emotional versus investigative journalism 

• Entertainment versus proper information 

• The popular versus the serious 

• Soft versus hard 

• Dumbing-down of the audience versus quality 

• Private versus public 

• The audience as consumers versus the audience as citizens 

Many critics view the tendency negatively as a downfall of the important 

public sphere. However, Bondebjerg (1996) has another and more complex 

view on this transformation and softening-up of television. He does not see 

the development as a shift from public to private sphere television or as a shift 

from viewers as citizens to viewers as consumer. He sees it as a blurring of 

the boundaries between public and private and between citizen and consumer 

and he terms the development: 

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A democratization of an old public service discourse, dominated by 

experts and a very official kind of talk, and the creation of a new mixed 

public sphere where common knowledge and everyday experience play a 

much larger role (Bondebjerg 1996). 

Lifestyle television 

Lifestyle television deals with the surfaces of everyday life. The genre includes 

programs on interior design and home improvement (Changing Rooms), 

gardening (Ground Force), personal makeover (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), 

food (The Naked Chef with Jamie Oliver) and, more recently, personal 

coaching on more psychologically related issues such as child-rearing and 

(lack of) cleaning (Nanny 911, How Clean is Your House). All of these programs 

in some way or another revolve around everyday life and the surfaces, 

routines and behaviour of our private sphere, in particular the physical 

organisation of the private sphere. The programs give us, the viewers, 

practical advice and inspiration on food, fashion, body, garden, house and 

children, all of which are surfaces through which we express and develop our 

identities. 

In addition, lifestyle television combines a didactical and partially public 

service-oriented broadcasting tradition with entertainment. The genre has its 

roots in traditional educational, didactical programming and, as such, has 

always existed at least on public service television, where it fits in perfectly 

with the tradition of educational and ‘enlightening’ consumer programming 

and has also historically been perceived as part of a public service remit (see 

Frandsen & Carlsen 2005 for an historical account of Danish educational, 

didactical programming). Nevertheless, a newer kind of more entertaining 

lifestyle television surfaced in Britain in the late 1990s (Brunsdon et al. 2001), 

from where it spread to other parts of the Northern European and Englishspeaking 

world. This wave included programs such as Changing Rooms and 

Ground Force, and the new ingredients comprised an increased emphasis on 

75


competition and an almost fairytale-like transformation. Recently, lifestyle 

programs such as The Block and Under Construction have added a relatively large 

reality touch to the genre, which basically involves turning up the competitive 

elements and inter-personal conflicts. 

According to Brunsdon et al. (2001), lifestyle television represents a 

feminisation or softening-up of primetime television. With its focus on 

interior design, fashion, and food, the genre is rooted in areas, which have 

traditionally been female domains such as daytime television and women’s 

magazines. The private, personal and everyday are discourses usually 

associated with female values, and as the genre has made its mark in 

primetime, these discourses have been opened to men. At the same time, 

lifestyle television primarily deals with ordinary people’s houses, gardens, 

bodies and children – and not with experts’, journalists’ or politicians’ houses, 

gardens, bodies and children. Consequently, lifestyle television is less elitist 

than, for example, factual programming such as current affairs and 

documentaries on political and social issues related to the public sphere, in 

which ordinary people have not traditionally been at the centre. 

Audience appeal of lifestyle television 

For the viewers, the appeal and attractions of lifestyle television are several. 

As such, the viewer has many potential ‘entrances’ to the programs: 

• Consumer information: How do I do it? How much does it cost? 

Where do I buy it? 

• Competitive elements: Will they make the makeover on time? Do 

they stay within budget? 

• Classical narrative build-up of suspense: In the transformation 

type shows the reveal is often the narrative climax. How do the 

participants react? 

• ‘Fairytale’ and transformation: Most lifestyle programming has a 

fairytale-like narrative structure centred on transformation such as 

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the transformation from overgrown backyard to lush rose garden, 

in the case of Ground Force, and from outdated and uninspired 

bedroom to exotic Arabian Nights bedroom, in the case of 

Changing Rooms. 

• Melodrama and sentimentality: As the climax of the reveal is built 

up, focus is on the emotional reactions of the participants. Will 

they be touched by the transformations and maybe shed a tear? 

Will they like the transformation? 

• Voyeurism: Viewers get a look into other people’s private spheres. 

Like no other medium television creates a kind of documentary presence, and 

lifestyle programs are most often imitated live television, which adds a certain 

degree of uncertainty and unpredictability. Also, it gives the viewers the 

illusion that they are ‘participating’ in the transformation processes as they 

happen. The viewers see how the participants are having fun and enjoying 

each other’s company and real emotions cannot be withheld in the climax 

centred on the reveal and the verbal and physical reactions of the participants. 

The everyday-ness of lifestyle programs also has great potential. Lifestyle 

topics on television are closer to the real life of the viewers, both when it 

comes to the makeover solutions and budget, and the participants. Ordinary 

people can do it themselves and they may even be able to afford to do 

something similar themselves. 

Lifestyle programming seems to be very much a Northern European and 

Anglo-Saxon phenomenon. The genre seemingly does not exist in, for 

instance, Southern Europe or Asia. Unlike lifestyle, reality has a wider 

international appeal. Reality programs such as Big Brother, Survivor and Idol 

have also been adapted for broadcast in Asia, Africa, South America and 

Southern Europe, and it is to this genre we now turn. 

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Reality television 

Compared to lifestyle, reality television moves substantially closer to the 

intimate and to the private sphere. As such, “the intimate constitutes both the 

starting point, the content, and the terminal point – as well as the theme, the 

mode of audience approach, and the emotional ‘glue’ keeping the program 

together” (Jerslev 2004:11ff, my translation from Danish). This also means 

that the level of melodrama is often turned up a notch from lifestyle 

television. According to Jerslev (2004:42ff), reality has three subgenres: 

• REALITY DOCUMENTARIES (Stripperkongens Piger, Bridezillas, Bladet, 

Livet er fedt, Airport), in which the viewers follow a group of 

people, often in the same location, for example Heathrow Airport 

in Airport, or the same theme, weddings in Bridezillas, in the course 

of the series. Reality documentaries portray stories from various 

interesting settings and events of ordinary people's real lives. 

Nevertheless, places and events often exhibit an unusual nature 

such as an airport, the neo-natal care unit in a hospital, a tabloid 

magazine, a group of strippers or a police station. Consequently, 

reality documentaries portray ordinary people, who are 

experiencing something extraordinary; that is, weddings, obesity, 

pregnancy, divorce, etc. 

• MAGAZINE/STUDIO-BASED REALITY (Crime Watch UK, America’s 

Most Wanted, Rescue 911, Station 2), which typically includes crimecentred 

magazine-style programs on unsolved crime cases or 

dramatic rescue operations. As such, studio-based reality 

programs often make use of investigative journalism and the 

different items are controlled and commented upon by presenters 

in line with traditional current affairs and news programs. Studiobased 

reality uses different strategies to enhance ‘documentaristic’ 

effect, for example reconstructions, interviews with people 

involved, surveillance tapes and live broadcasts of journalists in 

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the field. The programs are centred on the catastrophic moment, 

the miracle survival or the heroic deeds of ordinary people. 

• REALITY GAME SHOWS (Big Brother, Temptation Island, Survivor, Idol, 

Top Model, Pop Stars) are by far the most important genre when it 

comes to format adaptation. The large majority of reality formats 

traded for local adaptation are reality game shows like the abovementioned 

and the subgenre is further elaborated below. 

The reality game show 

Fetveit (2002) calls reality game shows “experimental television” (my 

translation from Norwegian) because contestants are placed in a ‘closed’ and 

staged environment like the Big Brother house or a deserted tropical island and 

are watched. The other two subgenres take place in a ‘real’ – or at least not 

overtly staged – reality. The shows happen in a staged reality. Television 

executives and producers set up the limits, conditions and framework within 

which ‘reality’ must unfold. There are ‘limits’ or boundaries within which a 

chosen few (ordinary people) have to act. Reality game shows mix 

entertainment, factual and fictional genres. As the name implies, they contain 

elements from the traditional game show but also comprise many elements 

from documentaries, to which is then added a substantial amount of the soap 

genre’s conflicts, melodrama and inter-personal complications (Fetveit 2002, 

Turner 2005). 

The contestants go through countless competitive and personal ordeals, 

which have large consequences for “the internal social relations […] and [the 

contestants’] continued participation in the program” (Hjarvard 2002, my 

translation from Danish). Still, contrary to the traditional game show genre, a 

large emphasis is placed on the contestants’ mutual relationships, their 

individual reactions and these ordinary contestants. Consequently, the 

contestants’ staged reality inside the Big Brother house, for example, becomes 

the pivotal point. 

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There are two main types of reality game shows (Jerslev 2004:36-37). The first 

type contains shows such as Survivor, Big Brother and Temptation Island, in which 

a group of people must live together in a constructed space and, in most 

cases, compete with each other to win a monetary prize. The other type is 

made up of shows such as Pop Stars, Top Model and Idol, where mutual 

relationships, conflicting and socialising are a little less important and where 

contestants compete within respective realms of talent, be it singing or being 

beautiful. Experts and viewers are the judges – not the other contestants – 

and fame is the main prize to be won. 

Controversial television 

In the public discourse, reality television is often discredited and seen as either 

symptomatic of a society where everybody is being watched, symptomatic of 

an individualistic society where everybody’s idea of happiness is “15 minutes 

of fame” or as social ‘pornography’ and voyeurism – or all of the above. Of 

course, the ‘reality’ is a little more complex and in actual fact, reality audiences 

are most likely a little more sophisticated than this. 

Audience appeal of reality television 

First of all, reality game shows, especially those such as Big Brother and Idol, are 

often highly viewer-interactive and represent a kind of multi-media television, 

as the programs actually take place on a variety of platforms and hence 

demand that viewers be highly media-literate (see Roscoe 2001, 2004). Reality 

audiences are participating in a number of ways across different platforms 

such as the Internet, SMS, pod-cast etc. In this respect, a show’s website is a 

central component that helps audiences construct different relationships with 

both the programs and other viewers via live streams, updates, archives, chat 

rooms, open forums, background information, shopping, online voting etc. 

Consequently, traditional notions of authorship are challenged, as viewers 

both construct and consume the text. Being interactive multi-media events, 

the reality game shows also often give rise to a substantial amount of “water 

cooler talk” among the viewers. 

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Secondly, Turner (2005) talks about the relationship between soap operas, 

reality game show formats and cultural identity. Soaps are embedded into a 

national discursive repertoire that draws upon a specific feeling of cultural 

identity and specific local media economy and production culture. Reality 

game show formats draw upon the narrative structures and strategies of the 

soap genre and are therefore also used very much like soaps by the 

broadcasters in countries with a daily television soap tradition, such as 

Australia, for instance. Thus, international reality formats are indigenised and 

made local in both their ‘look’ and their appeal to the audience according to 

local soap traditions. When it comes to the concrete project at hand in this 

thesis, it will be interesting how a media system such as the Danish, which has 

no tradition of soaps, will make use of the genre. 

The performance of contestants in reality television also gives viewers an 

opportunity for “thick judgmental and speculative discourse around 

participants’ motives, actions and likely future behaviour” (Hill 2005:67). 

Viewers speculate on whether the participants display a true or a false 

behaviour and hence question the authenticity of these ordinary people’s 

performances. Consequently, viewers also assess the truth claims of the 

program itself and are able to move back and forth between trust and 

suspicion (Hill 2005:57ff). 

In reality television, audiences are not staged as ‘spectators’ but as people, in 

which the participants on screen confide. By relating to these people, the 

audience will most likely have to relate to their own lives, which points to 

Giddens (1999, 1991) and his theories of post-modern people’s creation of a 

“narrative of the self”, which is further discussed below. Additionally, by 

listening to the confessions of the people on screen, the audience is not only 

taking part in the conversation; they are in a position to judge and console, 

which gives a sense of power (Hill 2005:57ff). Thus, reality television is a kind 

of mediated gossip. For example, the viewers can be compassionate with the 

people that are voted off Big Brother or Idol; they can condemn the infidelity 

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that takes place in Temptation Island; and they can experience both indignation 

and fascination with participants. The functions of reality game shows this 

way equal those of daily soaps such as Neighbours, in which the characters’ 

actions are also under daily viewer scrutiny. 

Lifestyle and reality compared: Small-talk television versus peak 

realism 

Although both genres share a lot of common traits, the most important of 

which is the fact that they have ordinary people as their dramaturgical pivotal 

point, lifestyle and reality also differ substantially in a number of important 

areas. Lifestyle can be classified as fairly harmless small-talk television with a 

focus on the ordinary and everyday experiences such as decorating a home or 

doing gardening, whereas reality focuses on the extraordinary events of 

ordinary people in a kind of peak realism. 

What reality does is certainly not small talk about the everyday. On the 

contrary, the genre deals with ordinary people experiencing an emotional breakup 

of the everyday. Reality is when the everyday breaks out of its routine and 

becomes dangerous, exciting and extraordinary, which is why Jerslev 

(2005:28, my translation from Danish) terms it “peak realism”. Reality as such 

has a built-in guarantee of crisis. In the reality documentaries, you see women 

giving birth and people getting married. In the studio-based reality, you 

experience dramatic rescues and catastrophic crimes committed. In the reality 

game shows, you watch how contestants are put under pressure when they 

have to live off a bowl of rice a day (on Survivor) or when they must use their 

singing talent to their fullest in the competition to win a recording deal (on 

Idol). This peak realism often involves loss of face; for example when 

contestants on Survivor and Big Brother betray other contestants or when an Idol 

contestant performs poorly and subsequently receives harsh criticism from 

the judges. Thus, reality nearly always involves the exposure of less flattering 

aspects of human behaviour and emotions. 

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On the other hand lifestyle very rarely involves participants’ loss of face 

although participants do publicly expose private feelings (especially in the 

‘reveal’). However, we never get too close. Everybody has a good time and 

the façade is always kept intact. 

The differences between the two genres are also present in the elements of 

competition present in both reality and lifestyle. Lifestyle programs such as 

Changing Rooms and Ground Force are games of participation insofar as there are 

rules – most often a set time frame and budget within which the makeover 

must be done – but no sanctions exist and no real prize is to be won. The 

competitive elements are there only to create a narrative drive and there are 

no winners or losers. It is merely a question of participating. Contrary to this, 

the reality game shows are most often games of distinction where contestants 

compete for a prize. These programs have obvious winners and obvious 

losers and are not just about participating but about leaving the show 

victorious. As such, the lifestyle genre emphasises the collective interaction of 

participants, whereas the reality game show genre emphasises an excluding 

individuality of its contestants. 

Bruun (2006) argues that at least in the Danish television system, these 

differences between lifestyle and reality equal those of the public service 

sector and the private, commercial sector. As a matter of fact, in her account 

of the historical development of Danish television entertainment, Bruun sees 

lifestyle as a symptom of the egalitarian and inclusive type of entertainment 

characteristic of Danish public service broadcasters and reality as a symptom 

of the exclusive and elitist type of entertainment characteristic of the commercial 

broadcasters. It will be interesting to see whether similar differences are at 

play in other mixed television systems such as the Australian. 

A globalisation perspective on reality and lifestyle 

Both lifestyle and reality programs display concrete culture. As has already 

been touched upon, the lifestyle genre displays the external surfaces of a 

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specific culture. How do we design our gardens and houses? How do we 

cook our food and raise our children? Reality programs on the other hand 

display the social codes, ethics and norms of culture – that is, internalised 

expressions of culture – to do with the behaviour of people. By showing us 

less flattering aspects of human behaviour, the genre makes the viewers ask 

questions such as: What is the ethically correct way of behaving? How would 

I have acted in that situation? This may be part of the explanation why a 

significant number of the formats being traded internationally belong to these 

two genres. The producers cannot help but fill them with concrete aspects of 

the specific culture, in which they are adapted. 

Nevertheless, the above is also interesting in a globalisation perspective 

because of the apparent and interesting connections between the two genres’ 

super themes and globalisation’s influence on our daily lives. According to 

Giddens (1999) globalisation influences (post-modern) people’s lives in two 

important areas. The first of which is the changing of traditional family 

structures – such as larger influence to women and more equality between the 

sexes – and the second of which is less dependency on tradition in general. A 

consequence of this is that we have to more actively create and work on our 

self-identity because it is no longer given to us by tradition. In fact, Giddens 

sees the increased focus on psychological awareness as a symptom of this. In 

our post-modern society, we question everything: “What to do? How to act? 

Who to be? These are focal questions for everyone living in late modernity” 

(Giddens 1991:70). We are constantly re-inventing and constructing our selfidentities 

and thus creating a “narrative of the self” that changes according to 

our surroundings. In relation to reality and lifestyle television, it is therefore 

obvious to ask whether the two genres have a specific global character. Do 

the reality and lifestyle programs bring forward the problems of globalisation 

facing us in our daily lives? Do they help us create a “narrative of the self”? 

Do they help us gather information and ideas in the construction of our selfidentities? 

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Media system – organisation and genre – schedules and programs 

This chapter has identified a number of important aspects of media system 

and media genre theory relevant to the project at hand and more specifically 

to the methodological design of the project’s various analytical levels, which is 

the subject of the next chapter. Nevertheless, with the above theories and 

discussions in mind, the methodological design consists of the following three 

layers and five analytical objects: 

Figure 3.3 > Layers and analytical objects of thesis 

The first level comprises the television systems of Denmark and Australia, 

which are also the objects of a comparative analysis according to the analytical 

parameters laid out in the first section of the chapter. The second level 

encompasses two analytical objects – genres and industry – and as we have 

seen in the course of the chapter, presents a very important, connecting level 

between system and text. The third level is made up of the television texts 

themselves, which in this case are divided into two types of texts, namely the 

primetime schedules of Australian and Danish primetime and four actual 

program formats in their Australian and Danish adaptations. All of this will 

be further elaborated in next chapter’s discussion of the methodological 

choices behind the research design set up to cover the five analytical objects 

of the project. 

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METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES & RESEARCH 

DESIGN 

Based on the contextual, theoretical and methodological insights of Chapter 2 

and Chapter 3, this chapter describes and argues for the specific 

methodological choices and research design of this thesis. As indicated in 

Chapter 3, the thesis has three analytical layers, the overarching media 

systemic level and specific textual level, the two of which are connected 

through the essential mid-range level of genre and industry. The three levels 

contain a total of five analytical objects, which together should address the 

main problems of the thesis in an appropriate manner: television systems (the 

Australian and Danish), genres (in particular lifestyle and reality), industry (the 

broadcasters and producers of formats), schedules and the actual programs 

(that is, the Australian and Danish adaptations of four specific formats). Thus, 

the thesis makes a thorough and comprehensive exploration of the role of 

media system and genre in the format adaptation process and, in the course, 

pursuing its two main problems all the way through the process. 

To investigate the analytical objects, I have constructed four analytical 

designs, which involve a methodological combination of normative and 

structural media system analysis, qualitative interviews, quantitative schedule 

analyses and qualitative program analyses: 

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1. COMPARATIVE MEDIA SYSTEM ANALYSIS of the Danish and the 

Australian media systems. 

2. QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS with relevant Danish and Australian 

television professionals involved in the development or 

production of the four formats being analysed in the comparative 

program analyses. 

3. COMPARATIVE SCHEDULE ANALYSES of the primetime schedules 

of the most important Danish and Australian national television 

channels over a 10-year period with special regards to the 

development of format adaptation and genre use. 

4. COMPARATIVE PROGRAM ANALYSES of the Danish and Australian 

adaptations of four specific reality and lifestyle formats, Ground 

Force, The Block, Nerds FC and Idol. 

Each of these designs is explained in methodological detail below, including a 

discussion of methodological problems pertaining to them. After this, two 

overarching methodological problems relating to the general process of data 

collection are reflected on, namely the order of data collection and my own 

possible cultural bias as a researcher. 

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MEDIA SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF DENMARK AND AUSTRALIA 

The initial choice of Denmark and Australia was not accidental and was made 

due to a number of reasons. First of all, Denmark and Australia each 

represent a fairly distinct sub-region within what has been termed the 

European geo-linguistic region, be it the Scandinavian and the Anglo-Saxon 

region respectively. Of course, as both countries are Western, they are also 

similar in many ways. Hence, one could argue that two radically different 

countries should have been chosen, such as Denmark and China for example. 

However, analysing a country like China would have posed too many practical 

and even methodological problems, as I do not speak Chinese or have any 

knowledge of Chinese media and Chinese culture whatsoever. Denmark and 

Australia on the other hand are countries whose languages, media and culture 

I am very familiar with. 

Secondly, Australia and Denmark are both situated on the periphery of the 

Western region and are therefore net-importers of television content, 

including formats. Hence, methodologically they would be comparable as 

they are more or less on par in the international exchange of television 

content. One country does not have more financial or cultural power than the 

other, which would have been the case, had I compared Denmark to, for 

example, the UK. In the case of both Denmark and Australia there is no 

major financial or cultural bias that may affect the analytical results. 

Thirdly, the language of Danish is a minority language on a global scale, 

whereas Australia’s official language English is a – if not, the – globalised 

lingua franca. This could add interesting perspectives in terms of the 

importance of language in the format adaptation process. As many of the 

adapted formats originate in the UK and the USA, one may presume that the 

motivation or need for adapting formats into local versions would be less 

urgent in English-speaking Australia than in Danish-speaking Denmark. One 

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may assume that Australian broadcasters would tend to broadcast more of the 

original British or American versions of the formats, as these versions would 

be immediately understood by an Australian audience without dubbing or 

adding subtitles. 

Two different media systems 

However, finally and most importantly for the choice of Denmark and 

Australia were the apparent differences between the Danish and the 

Australian television and media systems. Danish television is characterised by 

an exceptionally strong public service tradition and, consequently, a dominant 

public service sector. Despite the presence of commercial broadcasters owned 

by international media companies Modern Times Group and SBS 

Broadcasting, the two public service broadcasters DR and TV 2 have a 

viewing share of just below 70 per cent. Australian television, on the contrary, 

is and has always been a highly commercialised dual system with three strong 

commercial networks – Seven, Nine and Ten – and two relatively weak public 

service broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, with fairly narrow remits compared 

to their Danish counterparts. The two combined only have about a 20 per 

cent share, whereas the three commercial networks have a share of about 65 

per cent, which is more or less the opposite distribution of audiences 

compared to Denmark. 

Historically, Danish television was comparatively nationalised in terms of 

locally produced content, whereas Australian television initially was 

Americanised with a large share of American imported content, which slowly 

was displaced by an increasing amount of locally produced content. Through 

the years Australia also developed a rather successful export of television 

programs in genres such as soaps, miniseries and television movies, whereas 

Danish broadcasters and producers still primarily produce for the domestic 

market. As for broadcasting policies in the two countries, Danish and 

Australian governments have chosen rather different regulating methods. The 

Australian broadcasting regulations rely heavily on market forces and are 

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increasingly becoming the subject of political and economic liberalisation. The 

Danish broadcasting legislation has traditionally been much more centralised 

with a large emphasis on television as a public ‘servant’ enabling its viewers to 

take part in the democratic process. There are of course more nuances to 

these differences but this was what initially made me choose the two 

countries. These nuances are investigated comprehensively in Chapter 5’s 

comparative analysis. 

By analysing and comparing two apparently different media systems, I should 

be able to investigate how and to what extent the media system influences 

media content that has the same point of reference in both countries, namely 

the television format materialised as the format bible. The aim of the analysis 

therefore is to pinpoint aspects of the two systems that may be visible on the 

production level and/or the level of the texts themselves. 

Level of analysis 

The media system analysis is undertaken on a meso level as opposed to a 

macro or micro level (see Chapter 3). That is, the analysis does not cover the 

entire macro level of the Danish and Australian media systems; nor does it 

cover the micro level of, for instance, one particular medium. Instead the 

analysis focuses on a particular media sector: national television, defined as the 

five national free-to-air television channels of Australia (ABC, SBS, Channel 

Ten, Channel Nine, and Channel Seven), and the four most important Danish 

language television channels of Denmark including three free-to-air 

broadcasters (DR1, TV 2, TvDanmark) and one satellite- and cable-based 

broadcaster (TV3). For the purpose of this study, the meso level is seen as 

adequate because television formats are exclusive to television and do not 

exist in other media, but at the same time television formats are a 

phenomenon prevalent in the entire national television sector of Denmark 

and Australia, not restricting it to just one or two broadcasters. 25 As for the 

25 While television formats, for obvious reasons, do not exist outside of television; other types of media 

content are also formatted according to a franchise model similar to the one behind television 

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space and time dimensions of the level of analysis, the analysis is done on a 

trans-national level, comparing Denmark and Australia; and is mainly focused 

on how the systems work presently and have worked in the recent history of 

the past two decades, as the object of research exists in what qualifies as an 

historical present. Despite this, historical aspects of the Danish and Australian 

systems are accounted for as a means to understand this recent history and 

not least the present. 

Analytical parameters 

The analysis of Australia and Denmark’s media systems will be done from the 

analytical parameters set forward in Chapter 3. Specifically, these parameters 

include the positions – penetration, diversity and concentration – and the 

relations – responsibility/accountability, ownership and funding – of the 

selected television broadcasters in the two countries. In addition, more 

general historical and national political aspects are drawn into the analysis 

where relevant. 

formats. One example of this franchise idea is the magazine business and fashion magazines such as 

Vogue, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan, all of which are published in different local versions around 

the world. 

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INTERVIEWS WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS 

Qualitative interviews will be conducted with relevant Danish and Australian 

television professionals, acting as representatives of the senders of the 

adapted formats. The interviewees are acting merely as informants and the 

interviews are meant to provide the study with valuable inside information 

and data impossible to achieve otherwise. The information provided by the 

interviewees serves as a vital link between the differences and similarities 

exposed in the textual analyses of especially the four Australian and Danish 

adaptations and the general systemic differences and similarities exposed in 

the comparative media system analysis between the two countries. As such, 

interview statements are used to illustrate, qualify, nuance or contradict 

especially the program analyses. Consequently, the interviews are primarily 

used in Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10, which contain the comparative analyses of the 

Australian and Danish adaptations of the same four formats. 

Broadcasters and production companies 

In the case of format adaptation as with most other forms of television 

production, the senders involve both the broadcasters who decide that they 

want to air the format in the first place and subsequently set out the 

guidelines for how they want the format adaptation to fit into their channel 

image and schedule, and the production company in charge of carrying out 

the guidelines and making the actual programs. Although the two work 

closely together in the process, and sometimes even belong to the same 

organisation (as is the case with both DR1’s adaptation of Ground Force and 

Channel Nine’s production and development of the original The Block), they 

have different roles. Because the broadcaster hires the production company 

to do the adaptation, the relationship between the two becomes a hierarchical 

employer-employee relationship. In my project, the idea therefore is to 

interview representatives of both broadcasters and production companies in 

order to cover as many aspects of the adaptation process as possible. Being in 

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an employer-employee relationship also implies that they may have different 

vested interests that they want portrayed in the interview, which I have to 

keep in mind when analysing their statements. For example it may be likely 

that a producer would blame the broadcaster for scheduling the adaptation in 

a wrong slot in the event of a flopped format; whereas the broadcaster would 

probably blame the producer for not meeting the guidelines set out. 

Managers and middle managers 

Production of a format adaptation involves three levels of individuals within 

the organisational hierarchy (see Ytreberg 1999:24ff for a similar division 

within the production of Norwegian public service television): the 

management level, the middle-management level, and the hands-on 

production level. The hands-on production level consists of the ‘people on 

the floor’ who are given the practical task of casting, directing, shooting, and 

editing the format adaptation. The production company usually employs 

these people. The middle-management level includes executive producers and 

editors who are placed in-between the production level and the management 

level. They are the people communicating, negotiating, and following through 

management decisions onto the production level. Within the format 

adaptation process, this level would typically consist of executive producers or 

editors from both broadcaster and production company. The management 

level is made up of people on the very top-level of the organisational 

hierarchy and would typically include the head of programming and the heads 

of the different departments within the broadcaster commissioning the 

format for adaptation. 

For the purpose of this study, both management level and middlemanagement 

levels are represented. People on the management level can 

inform me about the particular reasons for selecting the format in question, 

but also about their policy on and experiences with format adaptation in 

general. People on the middle-management level can inform me about the 

general idea behind the concrete format design as well as the more practical 

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hands-on aspects like the choice of editing, music, casting, etc., which is why I 

do not find it necessary to interview people ‘on the floor’ of the production 

level. In line with the differences between broadcasters and producers, it is 

also likely that there are different interests at play according to the 

organisational level of the interviewees, which I must be aware of when 

analysing the interviews. 

Recruitment 

Even though I had outlined the above prerequisites for my interviewees, the 

actual recruitment of them proved quite a challenge, especially in Australia. 

Recruitment in Australia was difficult due to two reasons: Firstly, I did not 

have any detailed knowledge of people working in Australian television, and 

most importantly, I did not have any network within the industry whatsoever. 

Secondly, I only had a vague idea about what format cases to use in my study 

before I went to Australia because it would depend on what formats I could 

attain from the Australian broadcasters when I was there. This meant that 

recruitment happened via a ‘snowball’ principle, where I basically used the one 

academic contact I had in Australia previous to my arrival to get me 

interviews with some of his industry contacts, who then recommended me on 

to more contacts within the industry, and so forth. This of course made the 

recruitment process extremely time consuming and also more random than I 

could have wished for. This was primarily because above all I did quite a few 

not-so-relevant interviews in order to get to the relevant ones. Nonetheless, in 

the end the hard work paid off and I got to interview an adequate number of 

relevant television executives within the Australian broadcasting and 

production industries. And in the process I even got valuable additional 

insights into the Australian media system that were not directly linked to 

format adaptation. 

Recruitment of interviewees in the Danish television industry was a lot less 

difficult because I did have detailed knowledge of who worked where, and I 

did have a widely branched professional network within the industry. Also, at 

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the time of the recruitment I knew exactly what formats were to be used as 

cases, which made my recruitment even more focused and a lot less random. 

I did however use ‘snowball’ recruitment once or twice, but I did not at any 

time get refused access by any potential interviewee, nor did I interview 

broadcasters or producers who were not somehow relevant to the object of 

research. 

Interview guides 

The interview guides I used were all semi-structured, as it gave me the 

opportunity to easily compare the statements of the interviewees and at the 

same time enough flexibility for spontaneous changes during the interviews if 

something unexpected and interesting was to come up. Questions were for 

the most part ‘open’ – such as ‘tell me about the adaptation process from the 

beginning until the end’ – which allowed the interviewees to account for what 

were the most important aspects to them, which in turn could give me an idea 

of their priorities and ways of thinking as regards to the format. This meant 

that I did not ask specific questions concerning, for instance, casting, style, 

etc. to start off with. Instead I waited for the interviewee to touch upon the 

aspects himself and then followed his or her lead with more detailed and 

‘closed’ questions. I worked with three different interview guides for three 

different kinds of informants (see appendices number 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3): 

1. BROADCASTING EXECUTIVES. The first interview guide had more 

general type questions concerning station policy on format adaptation, 

previous experiences with format adaptation, and criteria for the general 

selection of formats for adaptation. However, questions about the 

selection of the particular formats were also included. 

2. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS. The second interview guide was designed to 

ask specific questions concerning the actual production process. What 

were the production choices made and why? The questions typically 

revolve around audio-visual style, casting, adjustments to local audiences 

and channel image, changes made compared to original format, etc. 

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3. DEVELOPERS OF ORIGINAL FORMATS. Finally, an interview guide was 

designed for the interviews with the original Australian and Danish 

developers of The Block and Nerds FC. These questions mainly revolved 

around the original idea and inspiration for the formats. In addition, 

slightly different interview guides were used for the two London 

interviews with the executive producers behind the two British formats 

Ground Force and Idol. 

People interviewed 

Below is a schematic outline of the names, job titles, organisations, and 

related formats of the informants whose interview statements are directly or 

indirectly referenced throughout this thesis. 

Table 4.1 > Interviewees’ names, job titles, organisations and formats 

AUSTRALIA 

JOB TITLE ORGANISATION FORMAT 

Brad Lyons 

Head of production and Channel Seven 

Ground Force 

development 

David Barbour 

Executive producer and Channel Nine 

The Block 

developer 

Margaret Murphy Commissioning editor SBS 

Nerds FC/FC Zulu 

factual entertainment 

Paul Waterhouse Executive producer Grundy Productions Nerds FC/FC Zulu 

Tim Clucas 

Head of production and Channel Ten 

Australian Idol/Pop Idol 

development 

Stephen Tate Executive producer Channel Ten Australian Idol/Pop Idol 

Michael Ward 

Head of policy and ABC 

None 

administration 

DENMARK 

Søren Therkelsen Commissioning editor 

entertainment 

DR 

Hokus Krokus/Ground 

Force 

Søren Bo Hansen Executive producer DR Lifestyle Hokus Krokus/Ground 

Force 

Anette Rømer 

Commissioning editor TV 2 

HUSET/The Block 

formats and lifestyle 

Kent Nikolajsen Executive producer Metronome Productions HUSET/The Block 

Keld Reinicke 

Channel manager and TV 2/Zulu 

FC Zulu/Nerds FC 

developer 

Karoline Spodsberg Program manager TV3 Idols/ Idol 

Pil Brandstrup Executive producer Blu Productions Idols/ Idol 

UNITED KINGDOM 

Linda Clifford Executive producer Endemol UK Productions Ground Force 

Stephen Flint Brand manager Fremantle Media Idol 

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The problem of access 

Interviewing television professionals poses a number of methodological 

challenges all related to the problem of access. Because broadcasting and 

production organisations are located within a private – as opposed to public – 

space, researchers have to negotiate access. Access is not a given. On top of 

this, media organisations and the people working within them hold a high 

cultural status and power in society and often have moral obligations as well 

as economic interests to protect and cultivate, making it even more difficult to 

get access on the right level and to the right information (Frandsen 2007). 

The problem of access may have vital consequences for the nature, and 

eventually the results, of the research process, and the issue therefore requires 

special attention. Below is a discussion of six important aspects concerning 

problems of access that a researcher must take into consideration when doing 

production studies (based on Frandsen 2007:44ff), each of which is related to 

how I approached the specific problem in the interviews undertaken for the 

project at hand. 

1. EXTERNAL STATUS OF ORGANISATION. First of all, the access 

negotiated by the researcher will depend on the external status of the 

organisation in question. Does the organisation have any vested interests 

in letting the researcher ‘in’? In terms of the interviews undertaken for the 

project at hand, it is not likely that the organisations of the interviewees 

had any vested interests in letting me into their organisations other than 

the personal goodwill and curiosity of the interviewees, whom I 

approached directly and not via their organisations as such. 

2. INTERNAL STATUS OF INTERVIEWEE. Secondly, access can be motivated 

by internal power plays. Does anybody within the organisation have any 

vested interests in talking to the researcher? At what level of the 

organisational hierarchy is the person interviewed? Is he or she the head 

of the department, the executive producer, or the producer’s assistant? All 

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of this will surely influence the kind of information given, and the 

researcher will have to assess it accordingly. In the case of my 

interviewees, this is certainly something I have been aware of and tried to 

address accordingly, as has already been discussed above. For example, 

the interviewees on the managing broadcaster level were a lot more 

apprehensive and ‘political’ in their answers to me, whereas generally 

people on the production level addressed my questions much more 

willingly and without any political or strategic apprehension. 

3. SOLIDARITY. There is also the danger of the researcher getting to feel 

(too much) solidarity with particular aspects or levels of production, 

according to where he or she gets access. In the case of my interviews, 

this problem has been counterbalanced by the detailed textual analyses 

undertaken. The textual analyses would reveal any cases where the 

interviewees did not address aspects a hundred per cent truthfully or were 

reluctant to discuss. 

4. FORMAL OR INFORMAL INFORMATION. The type of access achieved is 

central to the relevance of the knowledge generated in the research 

process. Is the access given formally by the managers and restricted to 

official interviews, or does the access have an informal nature, where the 

researcher is informed through, for example, casual conversations and 

invitations to confidential meetings? In the case of my interviews, I only 

received formal information and as such only have my interviewees’ word 

for the information given. I have not taken part in any of the processes 

concerning format adaptation myself and there may therefore be relevant 

aspects that have been overlooked. Consequently, there may be important 

questions that I have overlooked and not asked my interviewees. 

Nevertheless, the interview guides, which in turn were based on the 

various theoretical, contextual and methodological insights of Chapter 2 

and 3, were a means of trying to ask all relevant questions. 

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5. ACCESS AS TRADE OR GIFT. Another crucial aspect is the explicit and/or 

implicit expectations to the researcher that may come with both formal 

and informal access. In this respect, access can be obtained through a 

trade between researcher and organisation, which means that the 

researcher has to give consultancy or other academic expertise in return; 

or access can be given merely as a present. If access is obtained in a trade, 

the relationship between researcher and organisation is of a professional 

nature, and the parties are equally dependent on each other; ‘I give you 

something you need because you give me something I need’. However, if 

access is a gift, the relationship becomes less equal and often rather 

ambiguous because a symbolic and interpersonal dimension is added, in 

which the receiver is naturally expected to show a minimum of gratitude – 

and is certainly not expected to criticise neither present nor giver. Hence, 

access given as a gift can potentially limit the professional role of the 

researcher and easily lead to self-censorship and the exclusion of critical, 

but significant, questions. This is indeed a relevant problem in terms of 

the interviews undertaken here, as all my interviews were given to me as a 

present, and hence potentially limiting my professional role as a 

researcher. Nevertheless, as none of my questions were really critical in 

the first place because of their informative nature, it did not pose too 

much of a problem. Still, I also tried to avoid the problem by only letting 

the interviewees read my interview transcripts in cases where they asked 

me directly. This way I avoided the interviewees trying to edit out any of 

the more controversial answers they may have given. As a matter of fact, 

only one of 16 interviewees demanded to read my transcripts. 

6. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY PROBLEMS. Finally, and as a consequence 

of the above, the problem of access can potentially cause theoretical and 

methodological validity and reliability difficulties. If a researcher cannot 

get access to sufficient and satisfactory data to disclose his or her 

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particular object of research, the research findings may not hold enough 

validity. Furthermore, it is difficult to control the reliability of research 

conducted within a media organisation precisely because the 

organisational processes are not accessible to anyone. In the project at 

hand, these potential validity and reliability problems have been addressed 

by not letting the interviews stand on their own but also include the 

media systemic as well as the textual perspective and hence attempting a 

methodological triangulation of the empirical data collected, in which the 

results of data collected through various methods and various modes of 

analysis are compared and assessed accordingly. 

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ANALYSES OF PRIMETIME TELEVISION SCHEDULES 

The quantitative analyses of Danish and Australian primetime television 

schedules will explore the extent and frequency of format adaptation in the 

two countries in a historical perspective over a 10-year period from 1995 to 

2005. In this way it can provide insights into if and how the international 

boom in the use of format adaptations have affected television schedules in 

the two countries. Has the use of format adaptations increased? If so, what 

type of programming have the formats replaced? And are there important 

similarities or differences in the historical patterns of the two countries? In 

addition, it explores the development of genres both in general and in terms 

of the specific genres of the local format adaptations. 

It is important to note that in this study, the definition of a format is a little 

different to the industry definition accounted for in Chapter 2, which rear as: 

‘a program concept sold for adaptation in at least one territory outside its 

country of origin’. Here, a format is a foreign programming concept, which is 

sold for adaptation in at least one territory outside its country of origin’. 

Australian and Danish originated formats are therefore considered 100 per 

cent local production and not formats. 

Inspiration for schedule analyses 

Three main sources have served as inspiration for this quantitative study: 

Survey on format adaptations and imported programming in Australian primetime 

In this survey Moran (2004b) surveys one week of Australian primetime 

programming as a means of assessing Australia’s dependence on overseas 

formats and imported content. The survey accounts for both the percentage 

of locally produced versus imported programming content, and the 

percentage of format adaptations within the locally produced content for each 

of the five major free-to-air Australian broadcasters, the ABC, SBS, Channel 

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Seven, Channel Nine, and Channel Ten. My survey design is more or less an 

elaborated replica of Moran’s design. 

Genre change in UK primetime 

Brunsdon et al. (2001) has shown how British primetime has been the ‘victim’ 

of a true factual entertainment takeover. In the 1990s, British primetime 

changed dramatically, giving rise to various factual entertainment genres such as 

reality and lifestyle and, as a consequence, causing a decline in ‘real’ factual 

genres such as current affairs and documentaries, and in traditional 

entertainment and drama. A similar change has most likely taken place in 

many parts of at least the North-Western hemisphere (see for instance 

Frandsen & Carlsen 2005 for an historic account of Danish makeover and 

DIY shows), making it an important historical change in primetime 

scheduling and an indicator of a “post-documentary television culture” (ibid, 

my translation from Danish). Seeing as many of the formats that circulate 

internationally are precisely within the reality and lifestyle genres – and of 

British origin – one would suspect a correlation between the possible genre 

changes and the rise in format adaptation in countries like Denmark and 

Australia, whose broadcasters traditionally have looked to the UK for 

inspiration. 

More local content in Asian primetime on account of format adaptations 

Moran & Keane (2004) demonstrate how television schedules in various 

Asian countries have changed due to the advent of format adaptations. In 

some Asian countries the increased use of adaptations of overseas formats 

has caused a resurgence of locally produced content, marginalising especially 

American content in the primetime slots. 

Based on the above, I have formulated three basic assumptions to be 

investigated in the analysis of the television schedules of Denmark and 

Australia: 

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1. Format adaptations have taken up an increasing part of Danish 

and Australian primetime over the past 10 years 

2. Locally produced programming in Danish and Australian 

primetime has also increased; this may especially be the case with 

broadcasters who have traditionally relied heavily on imported 

(American) content 

3. In the process, factual entertainment genres within reality and 

lifestyle have marginalised genres such as current 

affairs/documentary, drama, and entertainment in primetime. 

If the assumptions turn out to be at least partly accurate, the question remains 

whether there is a connection between the changes concerning format 

adaptation and the changes to do with local content and genres. Are there any 

connections between an increased use of format adaptation in Danish and 

Australian primetime and a possible rise in locally produced programming 

content? Are there any connections between an increased use of format 

adaptations in Danish and Australian primetime and a possible rise in certain 

genres at the expense of others? What are the similarities and differences 

between the two countries? And what can be the explanations behind the 

possible changes and connections, similarities and differences? 

As a consequence, the analysis is designed in a manner that examines: 

(1) Locally produced and imported content; 

(2) Format adaptations within the locally produced content; 

(3) Genre changes over time; 

(4) Changes in the volume of format adaptations over time; and finally, 

(5) Changes in the volume of locally produced content over time. 

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Uncovering these five aspects of the assumptions is a necessary step towards 

discussing possible connections. The analysis is therefore based on the basic 

design of Moran’s survey, covering 1) and 2), with the additions of elements 

that cover the historical and generic aspects 3), 4) and 5). This is explained in 

detail below. 

Main broadcasters, primetime, 1995-2000-2005 

In Denmark the analysis covers the main channels of the four competing 

Danish broadcasters DR1, TV 2, TV3, and TvDanmark. In Australia it covers 

the five free-to-air channels and broadcasters: the ABC, SBS, Channel Seven, 

Channel Nine and Channel Ten. With a preference for popular programming 

in its widest sense, all of these broadcasters appeal to a wide audience, and 

catering for popular tastes makes them more prone to adapting the widely 

appealing foreign formats in primetime. The analysis only covers extended 

primetime in the two countries, as this is where broadcasters in both countries 

schedule the large part of their adaptations. Extended primetime in both 

countries is determined to be 18:30 to 22:30, which is the period of time 

when most viewers watch and consequently when the competition between 

the market players is at its fiercest. The analysis thus takes in the primetime 

scheduling of one week of late April and another week of late October in 

1995, 2000, and 2004/5, respectively; a total of six weeks to cover the 

development over a 10-year period. 26 

The three years and the specific weeks are chosen on the basis of various 

facts, historical developments and events concerning both the Danish and the 

Australian television systems. First of all, both April and October are part of 

Danish and Australian television’s peak seasons. This is where the new 

important locally produced programming ventures are broadcast, because people 

watch more television compared to the summer seasons, which in Australia’s 

26 2004/5 refers to the fact that the analysis is carried out on the basis of the October week in 

2004 and the April week in 2005, as the main body of the analysis was initialised and carried 

out in July 2005, i.e. before October 2005. 

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case is December-February and in Denmark’s case is June-August. In 

addition, in both countries spring and autumn are characterised by a large 

degree of strip and serialisation scheduling; that is, scheduling primetime 

programs at the same time each day throughout the week and as programs in 

a series. The specific survey weeks – weeks 17 (late April) and 43 (late 

October) – all but avoid public holidays such as Easter (and, in Denmark’s 

case, autumn holidays) and big sports events that would otherwise interfere 

with ‘normal’ strip and serialisation scheduling. 

The year 1995 is when the analysis commences. This marks the year in which 

the British ITV smash hit format Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush is successfully 

adapted in many countries around the world, including Denmark and 

Australia. This is likely to have opened the international television industry’s 

eyes to the great opportunities of blockbuster formats that differ from the 

traditional game show formats like Wheel of Fortune that had until then 

represented the large majority of format adaptations. In Denmark the 

duopoly of public service television is a reality in 1995 and, with it, the 

competition for both viewers and market shares. Denmark’s second public 

service broadcaster TV 2 – which went on air in 1988, financed by both 

license fees and advertising – has captured a considerable market share from 

the former monopoly public service broadcaster DR, and the first commercial 

broadcaster TV3 has also made its way into many Danish homes via satellite 

and thus become an important player on the commercial market 

(Søndergaard 2000). 1995 is also just before the introduction of the first 

supplementary channels, DR2 and TV3+ in 1996. 27 It should be noted that 

the broadcasters’ primary and only channel therefore contains the entirety of 

programming content and hence caters for all audience groups and tastes, 

especially in the case of the public service broadcasters. I therefore suspect 

the Danish scheduling to be less popular in 1995 than after the advent of the 

27 Actually TV3 started two supplementary channels as early as 1995, ZTV and TV6, but they 

failed, and in 1996 they merged into TV3+. TV 2’s and TvDanmark’s supplementary 

channels were not introduced until 2000. 

105


supplementary channels. On the whole, 1995 represents the ‘good old days’ 

of the Danish PSB one-channel duopoly. In Australia, 1995 in many ways also 

represents the good old days, not of PSB one-channel duopoly, but of freeto-air 

monopoly. Subscription television was not introduced in Australia until 

the late 1990s and up until then, both the commercial and the public free-toair 

broadcasters enjoyed an internal competition undisturbed from other 

market players, except for the insignificant community television sector. Also, 

free-to-air television – especially the commercial sector – is starting to recover 

from the crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which saw an increase in 

precisely lower-cost formats such as lifestyle programs and a reduction in 

local production (see Chapter 5). 

The year 2000 is midway between 1995 and now (2005) 28 and hence an 

appropriate year to survey. In Denmark, three important developments 

happened in the late 1990s that are likely to have had an overall effect on the 

primetime scheduling of the four broadcasters. First of all, the second half of 

the 1990s saw an augmented competition for commercial market shares 

(Søndergaard 2000). The networked commercial channel TvDanmark has 

seen the light of day in 1997, and Denmark is experiencing an economic 

downturn, which makes companies spend less on advertising all together. 

Secondly, and as a result of this, TV 2, the by far largest commercial 

broadcaster, cuts budgets in 1999, looking for cheaper ways to fill the 

schedules in order meet the increased competition. Thirdly, just prior to the 

budget cuts, TV 2 has made significant adjustments to its schedule, localising 

primetime entirely. This is another measurement taken to meet the 

competition from TV3 and TvDanmark and a realisation that Danish 

programs in most cases achieve higher ratings and thus, larger advertising 

revenues than foreign programs (Ibid; Søndergaard 2003). Overall, 2000 

represents a year of fierce commercial competition within the Danish market; 

plus an increased focus on the benefits of locally produced programming. In 

28 The schedule analyses were commenced in July 2005. 

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Australia, subscription television has been introduced and the competition is 

heating up between the new subscription television sector and the established 

free-to-air sector. As Chapter 5 shows, the introduction of subscription 

television in Australia also promoted a greater integration between national 

and international programming because the subscription television sector is 

predominantly foreign owned and thus acts as an instrument for foreign 

programming. This may influence the programming offered on the free-to-air 

stations. 

2004/5 constitutes the present, as the initial part of the study was carried out 

in the last half of 2005. The five years between 2000 and 2004/5 have seen a 

large growth in the international exchange of formats for adaptation (Schmitt 

et al. 2005). At the same time, the competition in both countries has increased 

even more with the advent of more commercial and – in Australia’s case – 

digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels, competing for both viewers, 

advertising revenue and, most importantly, the profitable subscription 

television market. In Denmark, this has mainly affected the smaller 

commercial broadcasters of TV3 (MTG Broadcasting) and TvDanmark (SBS 

Broadcasting). The two largest broadcasting companies DR and TV 2 have by 

and large kept their market share with the help of their supplementary 

channels. In Australia the increased competition has affected free-to-air 

television although the sector is still by far the largest. The subscription sector 

now has 19 per cent of the market (see Chapter 5). Because of the very 

restricted legislation on digital terrestrial television, the introduction of the 

DTT channels has not really had an impact on ratings. 

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Genre divisions 

The genre divisions used in the schedule analyses are the divisions already 

accounted for in Chapter 3. The table below illustrates the divisions. 

Table 4.1 > Genre divisions 

MAIN MODE OF 

REPRESENTATION 

Factual 

Fictional 

Traditional 

entertainment 

Factual entertainment 

GENRES 

Documentaries (including culture) (programs treating factual and 

cultural events with relevance to the public sphere of society; concrete 

examples are historic documentaries, investigative documentaries, nature 

documentaries, and literature programs) 

News & current affairs (programs about current events in the public 

sphere of society; the news & current affairs programs are often magazine 

style and studio-based programs, which treat issues relevant for current 

events only) 

Sports (programs about sports or telecasts of sports events) 

Children/young people (programs made especially for children or young 

people; cartoons and fiction for children are not included in this category) 

Fiction/drama (programs telling fictive stories such as cartoons, movies, 

drama series, sitcoms and soaps; children’s cartoons and fiction are included 

in this category) 

Entertainment (satire, talk, variety, clip shows, game & quiz, gossip, movie 

shows, concerts, etc.) 

Reality (programs on intimate issues and about ordinary people 

experiencing something out of the ordinary often in a somewhat staged 

reality; concrete programs are Big Brother, Survivor, Idol, World’s Wildest Police 

Videos, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, etc.) 

Lifestyle (programs on issues traditionally pertaining to the private sphere 

such as interior design, DIY, gardening, personal makeover, child-rearing, 

cleaning, cooking) 

The categories are made to be as unambiguous as possible, thus making them 

fairly general but at the same time useful for the purpose of the survey. 

However, there may still be programs overlapping two or more genres, in 

which case a basic assessment is done according to which of the overlapping 

genres is the most dominant. This problem is most prevalent within the 

various traditional and factual entertainment genres, as elements of reality 

seem to appear everywhere. For example: Is The Block lifestyle, as it has been 

categorised, or is it reality? Is Strictly Come Dancing entertainment, as it has been 

108


categorised, or is it reality? 29 The non-entertainment genres proved easier to 

categorise, mainly because the genres are more established, and therefore a 

more reputable consensus exists on their categorisation. However, a number 

of scholars do argue that some news & current affairs programs tend to be 

more entertaining than informative (see Thussu (1998) on the concept of 

‘infotainment’). 

Sample size and categorisation of programs 

One may argue whether the sample size of only six weeks to analyse the 

development over a 10-year period is enough. Consequently, one may ask 

whether the results of the study can be generalised to count for the 

scheduling developments of the entire 10-year period. In a perfect world, it 

may have created more valid results had the analysis covered a total of for 

instance four weeks in every year in the period between 1995 and 2005. Still, 

the way of qualifying the sampling is a means of creating more validity and 

hence making the results more representative. As has already been explained 

in much more detail, the sampling was qualified through picking a week in 

either of the surveyed years’ peak seasons, spring and autumn, which are 

characterised by a large degree of strip and serialisation scheduling and 

therefore serial programs such as many format adaptations. This means that 

one week in peak season looks very much like another week in peak season, 

making it fairly obsolete to analyse more than one week. Also, the five-year 

intervals are chosen carefully – and further qualified through the historical 

developments of the television systems of the two countries – and represent 

what could be called the pragmatically most reasonable interval size under the 

circumstances. 

The validity of the schedule analyses is primarily linked to the categorisation 

of formats and genres: Have I categorised the programs of the schedules 

29 Within fictional programs, elements of reality do also sometimes appear; for example in the 

American sit-com Curb Your Enthusiasm and its Danish equivalent Klovn, both of which star 

real life stand-up comedians and other real life celebrities acting as themselves, but in a 

semi-fictive universe. 

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correctly according to genre and whether or not they are based on foreign 

formats. And, hence, have I investigated what I set out to investigate? 

Sometimes it did prove difficult to immediately categorise a program, 

especially in the years 1995 and 2000, as they were removed from me 

historically. Also a larger part of the Australian programs were difficult for me 

to immediately categorise, as I had not watched Australian television on a 

regular basis over the past decade as I had Danish television. Luckily, most of 

the Australian programs were listed on some of the many Internet television 

databases (such as www.imdb.com and www.tv.com), and generally, program 

information was often still accessible on the websites of the respective 

broadcasters. Finally, I asked the broadcasters in case I still had doubts. This 

method should have hopefully caught the majority of formats in the 

Australian and Danish schedules and also made sure that my genre 

categorisations are correct. Nevertheless, the possibility for programs that 

have incorrectly been categorised as formats (and vice-versa) or pertaining to 

certain genres of course still exists. This goes especially for the Australian 

schedules because of my lesser knowledge of Australian television. On the 

other hand, the Australian programs were often easier to find on the Internet 

as the many television program Internet sites certainly cater more substantially 

for programs from the English-speaking countries, including Australia, than 

from Scandinavia and Denmark. Finally, the program schedules, including my 

categorisations, are attached in the appendices in order to make the 

categorisation more transparent. 

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PROGRAM ANALYSES OF FOUR ADAPTATIONS 

The four formats chosen for analysis all belong to the lifestyle and/or reality 

genres. Ground Force is a British lifestyle format doing garden makeovers for 

ordinary people; Idol is a British reality show in which contestants compete for 

fame and a recording deal showing off their singing talent; The Block is an 

Australian lifestyle-meets-reality format where participants redecorate 

apartments and compete to do the best and most popular refurbishment; and 

Nerds FC is a Danish reality format that sets out to turn a group of nerds into 

men by teaching them how to play football. 

Lifestyle and reality 

The lifestyle and reality genres are two of the more recent television genres to 

emerge and, at the same time, they are two of the genres in which format 

trade is most common because of their relatively ‘fixed’ and easily formatted 

structure. On top of this both genres are light entertainment, as opposed to 

fiction or documentaries, and usually people taking part in the programs are 

ordinary people and not celebrities, experts or journalists. 

However, they also exhibit important differences, as has been discussed in 

Chapter 3. Within the lifestyle genre, ordinary people – and the viewers – 

learn how to change their surroundings or themselves to their own benefit, 

and the genre has its thematic roots in women’s magazines and daytime 

television (Brunsdon et al. 2001). The programs are interesting because they 

mix traditionally “female” themes like fashion and interior design with DIY 

skills that traditionally appeal to the male half of the population. In this way, 

spaces and discourses traditionally belonging to the female sex are made 

available for men, and the personal, the private and the every day are brought 

into the public space (ibid.). As a result, the programs display culture in its 

most concrete form; that is, the exterior expression of culture in the shape of 

garden and interior design and personal makeovers. The reality show genre 

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contains elements from both the game show and the documentary genres, 

spiced up with a large portion of the soap genre’s conflicts and romantic 

complications (Fetveit 2002, Turner 2005). Reality shows are interesting, as 

ordinary people have to suffer through countless competitive and personal 

ordeals with large consequences for “the internal social relations […] and [the 

contestants’] continued participation in the program” (Hjarvard 2002, my 

translation from Danish). Contrary to the game show genre, a large emphasis 

is put on the contestants’ mutual relationships and their individual reactions, 

and these ordinary people and their reality thus becomes the pivotal point of 

the entire genre. Like lifestyle programs, reality shows display concrete culture 

– in this case the social codes and norms of culture. 

Although programs within the two genres have an easily formatted structure, 

their structure is by no means as fixed as is the case with the quiz & game 

show genre, which historically has been and still is the most popular format 

adaptation genre world-wide. The fact that they somehow put exterior and 

interior cultural expressions and codes on display and that they are usually not 

set in a studio, leaves a lot more manoeuvrability on the local producers’ part. 

I therefore assume that the various Danish and Australian adaptations of the 

four formats will exhibit more variations across the two countries in terms of 

both content and frequency and thus reflect media systemic differences more 

clearly. 

Ground Force, Pop Idol, The Block, and Nerds FC 

The four format cases are selected to cover four different aspects of crossborder 

format adaptation that are all of vital importance to my project. As 

already mentioned, both (1) the lifestyle genre and (2) the reality genre are 

covered. This will help answer questions like: what role do (trans-national) 

genres play in the trans-national similarities and differences in the adaptations 

of the same formats? On top of this, (3) two traditional format ‘journeys’ 

from a net-exporter, the UK, to the two net-importers of Denmark and Australia 

are covered: what happens when British formats are adapted in the two 

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countries? This is interesting because, on one hand, Australia – at least in 

theory – shares a larger cultural proximity to the UK, as both countries are 

have British culture in common. Denmark, on the other hand, shares a larger 

media systemic proximity to the UK, as both countries have a similar mixed 

multi-channel system, including a traditionally dominating public service 

sector (at least until recently). Finally, four format journeys between the two 

peripheral countries of Denmark and Australia are covered. These journeys 

represent the new trend within the international format trade that peripheral 

countries are increasingly exporting formats to other peripheral countries, in 

this sense meaning all countries within the European/Anglo-Saxon geolinguistic 

region except for the UK and the USA. What is at stake in this kind 

of format exchange, where national producers adapt a format from a less 

known and therefore, more ‘outlandish’, television culture? 

Textual points of analysis 

In accordance with what has already been proposed in Chapter 3, the analyses 

will take their departure in the semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and verbal areas 

of the texts, which again are linked to the themes, narrative composition, use 

and enunciation of the television texts. In the analyses of the four formats’ 

local adaptations I therefore explore and compare: 

• The themes of the adaptations. What is the actual adaptation 

about? DIY, personal relations, scandal, etc.? 

• The narrative composition and structure of the text. How is the 

narrative drive created? 

• The pragmatic use of the text, which is understood as the social 

use of television texts such as for example morning television or 

even reality and lifestyle television, which both enter into specific 

uses by the audience. 

• The mode of address of the text or how the text talks to its 

viewers, which again has a lot to do with how it regards its 

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viewers. How does the format adaptation communicate its 

themes to the viewers? Who is the implied viewer of the text? 

Here, the presenters will often be investigated more thoroughly, 

as they are often the viewers’ link to the program. 

No access to all episodes of all four formats 

It is important to note that one methodological problem in particular may 

have affected the results of the program analyses. For various reasons, I did 

not manage to obtain all episodes of the four Australian format series. With 

Nerds FC and Australian Idol I managed to get all of the relevant Australian 

program episodes, whereas the analyses of Ground Force and The Block are 

based on selected program episodes. This was primarily related to the fact 

that I had difficulty obtaining the Australian adaptations in the first place, as is 

accounted for in more detail below. Still, this constitutes a methodological 

bias insofar as I may have missed episodes that would have contradicted the 

analytical results obtained. Also, having access to the entire program series 

would have made it easier to make a more qualified pick of specific episodes 

for in-depth analysis. 

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TWO GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 

This leads us to consider two fundamental methodological problems of the 

way I have collected and analysed my empirical data. The first problem 

pertains to the order of my empirical data collection and the second concerns 

the fact that I am Danish and therefore may have a cultural bias as a 

researcher. 

Order of empirical data collection and analyses 

For obvious reasons, a large part of my empirical data collection had to 

happen in Australia, and this has come to play a central role for the order of 

the empirical data collection and subsequent analytical work. First of all, as it 

proved basically impossible for me to get hold of any Australian format 

adaptations from Denmark, I did not decide what specific format cases to 

analyse until I had finished interviewing and collecting hard copies of various 

format adaptations from the Australian television professionals. This had two 

logical consequences. Firstly, the interviews with the Danish television 

professionals had to be done after the Australian interviews, and secondly and 

most importantly, the actual format analyses could not be done prior to the 

interviews. In a perfect world, one could argue that doing the format analyses 

prior to the interviews would be the best choice because, on the one hand, 

the analyses could be done without any influence of what the informants had 

told me, and on the other hand, doing the analyses beforehand would help 

qualify and focus the interview questions. However, as this was not achievable 

in reality, I tried to make up for this by (1) doing the format analyses before 

thoroughly analysing the interviews, and (2) watching as many Australian and 

Danish format adaptations as possible before the interviews, in order for me 

to pin down as many relevant questions as possible. In addition, I had done 

the genre definitions prior to the interviews, as well, which also helped qualify 

the questions. 

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Biased attachment to Danish culture 

Being born and bred in Denmark I am indeed embedded into Danish culture, 

whereas Australian culture is more alien to me despite having a 

comprehensive knowledge of Australian society, language and media through 

living there for about two years of my life. Still, there is a risk that there are 

important and cultural issues about Danish television that I take for granted – 

and hence do not notice – but which could have been highly relevant. On the 

other hand, by not being part of Australian culture there may be important 

and relevant issues about Australian television that I do not understand, 

especially within the programs themselves. 

Nevertheless, I have tried to avoid this kind of cultural blindness and takenfor-granted 

issue precisely by doing a thorough comparative analysis of the 

two countries’ media systems and by specifically investigating how the media 

systems influence format adaptation processes. In this sense the media system 

is seen as a significant and very specific part of Danish and Australian culture 

when it comes to format adaptation and I have intentionally not looked at the 

cultural influences of, for example, taste and national mentality. 

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THE MEDIA SYSTEMS OF AUSTRALIA AND 

DENMARK 

This chapter contains a comparative analysis of the Australian and Danish 

television systems and thus constitutes the basis for the schedule analyses 

undertaken in Chapter 6 and the program analyses undertaken in Chapters 7, 

8, 9 and 10. The chapter investigates the two systems’ differences and 

similarities, which will be used to offer explanations to and perspectives on 

the analytical results of the next chapters. 

As discussed in detail in Chapter 3, the media system forms part of a 

symbiotic relationship with social macro structures, on the one hand, and 

media systemic agents, on the other. All three levels influence each other 

mutually. This is illustrated below in figure 6.1. 

Figure 6.1 > the media system, media systemic agents and macro structures 

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As was also thoroughly outlined in Chapter 3, the media system is defined as 

a system of media institutions acting as social agents. We can describe and 

analyse any media system through the positions and relations of these social 

agents to each other and the surrounding society, in this case social macro 

structures and media systemic agents. The various analytical parameters of the 

positions and relations of the media are shown in figure 6.2. Positions include 

penetration, diversity, and concentration. Relations include funding, 

ownership, and responsibility and accountability. 

Figure 6.2 > analytical parameters of the media system 

Because of the complexity of any empirical media system, a choice must be 

made regarding analytical levels, analytical perspectives, and analytical objects 

(see Chapter 3). For the purpose of this comparative study, I have chosen to 

focus on the television system in the two countries and on what I call the 

most important channels, i.e. the five free-to-air 30 channels in Australia (the 

public service channels ABC and SBS, and the private, commercial networks 

30 “Free-to-air” means that the television signals are terrestrial and accessible for the viewers without any 

charges. 

118


Channel Seven, Channel Nine, and Channel Ten) and the four main channels 

in Denmark (the public service channels DR1 and TV 2, and the private, 

commercial channels TvDanmark 31 and TV3). There are three main reasons 

why these channels are the most important: First of all, they are the channels 

that potentially have the widest reach and, in most cases, they also have the 

highest audience ratings. Secondly, they all represent different broadcasting 

organisations or companies, that is, none of the channels is owned or 

controlled by the same company which makes them the main competitors in 

the two markets. Finally, the nine channels are also the nine channels 

surveyed in the comparative schedule analysis in chapter 6, and it therefore 

makes sense to put a specific focus on them in this chapter, in order to better 

understand and provide perspective on the results of the schedule analysis. 

Having said this, other channels and/or broadcasters will be included as well, 

in order to understand the two television systems in their entirety, but only 

the above-mentioned nine channels will be singled out and described in a 

more comprehensive manner according to their various positions and 

relations. 

To fully understand and compare the television systems – and the related 

agents and macro structures – of the two countries, an historical perspective 

must necessarily be applied, as was pointed out in Chapter 3. A brief history 

of Danish and Australian television is therefore included. Moreover, the 

political systems of the two countries are briefly explained. In this respect, the 

political culture is seen as an important macro structure with significant 

explanatory power, especially when it comes to media legislation. Other 

macro structures such as macro economy and technology will be mentioned 

insofar as they are different from one country to the other, and insofar as they 

directly influence the systemic agents. 

31 TvDanmark has, since January 2007, operated under the name of SBS Net. 

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The chapter’s initial section commences by comparing the two television 

systems according to their various positions and relations, as outlined above 

in figure 6.2 and explained in detail in Chapter 3. This should begin to clarify 

in what areas the Danish and the Australian media systems are similar and, 

even more importantly, in what areas they differ. After this, the last two 

sections of the chapter are dedicated to thorough and detailed descriptions of 

the two television systems. First the Australian and then the Danish system 

are analysed to provide comprehensive background knowledge for the 

comparison made in the first part. These two parts are structured similarly: 

First, a brief introduction is given to the country and the country’s television 

system. Secondly, the history of television is outlined, and, thirdly, important 

media legislative features and trends are discussed, after which a conclusion 

sums up the most important aspects of the television system in question. 

Lastly, the two systems are plotted into the continuum between Hallin & 

Mancini’s (2004) three media systemic models in accordance with the 

similarities and differences pointed to in this chapter. 

Finally, it is important to note that this chapter does not contain a 

comprehensive account of the two television systems. This would be an entire 

PhD thesis in itself. The chapter instead comprises a broad outline containing 

a comparative systemic analysis of the two countries’ television systems and, 

as such, outlines, explains and analyses, in the most thorough manner 

possible, the most important overriding differences and similarities between the 

two systems. Its focus is consequently on the general picture and not so much 

the more detailed historical, political and legislative dynamics at play. 

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AUSTRALIA AND DENMARK COMPARED – POSITIONS AND RELATIONS 

The Australian and the Danish television systems are essentially quite 

different, although they also share important similarities. The Danish system 

still is and has always been dominated by the public service sector despite a 

recent and turbulent transition into a mixed public and private system. From 

the very beginning the Australian system has been, and still is, dominated by 

the private free-to-air sector with the public broadcasters being regarded as 

merely an alternative to the private broadcasters. The public sector 

domination in Denmark is reflected in the audience ratings – Danes spend 

almost 70 per cent of their television viewing watching channels with a public 

service remit – as well as in the media regulations, which have traditionally 

favoured the public sector. 

The complete opposite is the case in Australia. Australians generally prefer the 

private sector and spend 64 per cent of their television viewing watching the 

private broadcasters. In addition, the three free-to-air private broadcasters 

have enjoyed a fair amount of political and legislative goodwill, which until 

recently has protected them from competition from other sectors, including 

the public and the subscription sectors. Also, in the Australian system 

continuities in the institutional organisation have been stronger than forces 

for change. This in turn has led to conservatism in the system, whose 

structure remains largely as it was in the 1960s. Meanwhile, the last two 

decades have seen the Danish system undergo a turbulent transition from a 

public service monopoly with only one broadcaster (and only one channel) to 

a fully-fledged mixed multi-channel system with no less than 12 Danishlanguage 

channels in addition to many foreign and trans-national channels. 

Below is a comparison of the Australian and Danish television systems 

according to the analytical parameters of penetration, diversity, and 

concentration on the one hand, and funding, ownership, and responsibility 

121


and accountability on the other. This constitutes the basis for an in-depth 

understanding of the most important differences and similarities between the 

two countries. These can best be explained by applying the term ‘social liberal’ 

to the Australian system and ‘social democratic’ to the Danish system. The 

differences and similarities are illustrated in table 6.1 and explained in detail 

below. 

Table 6.1 > Overview of positions and relations in the Australian and Danish 

television systems 

AUSTRALIA 

DENMARK 

Commercial Public Commercial Public 

Positions 

Penetration High Medium Low High 

Diversity external High High 

Diversity internal Medium High Low High 

Concentration Medium High 

Relations 

Funding Businesses Legislators Businesses Citizens 

Businesses 

Ownership Private Public Private Public 

Responsibility & 

accountability 

Businesses 

Legislators 

Legislators Businesses Legislators 

Citizens 

Businesses 

Penetration 

Technical penetration – that is, how many people the actual broadcasting 

signals potentially reach – is high in both countries. In effect the public sector 

in both countries reaches almost 100 per cent of the Australian and Danish 

populations. The Australian commercial broadcasters have an equally high 

penetration of almost 100 per cent, whereas the two Danish commercial 

broadcasters only reach about 70-80 per cent of the population. 

As for audience reach, the remit of the Danish public broadcasters obliges 

them to have as wide a demographic reach as possible. Consequently they 

provide a wide variety of programming to suit all demographic groups and a 

very high percentage of all Danes therefore make use of both broadcasters: 

More than 80 per cent of the Danish population watch either of the DR 

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channels (DR1 and DR2) and TV 2 every week (TV 2 Public Service Account 

2005, DR Public Service Account 2005). The equivalent percentages for the 

Danish commercial broadcasters are only just under 30 per cent, which is the 

result of a combination of lower technical penetration and a less versatile 

programming schedule catering mainly for the demographically ‘right’ 

audiences that advertisers look for. 

The audience reach figures for free-to-air television in Australia have proven 

difficult to come by, and the ones that are available are not nearly as detailed 

as the equivalent Danish figures. Nevertheless, ABC has a weekly reach of 

between 60-70 per cent of Australians (ABC Annual Report 2005-06 2006), 

whereas SBS reaches 40-45 per cent of the population in a week (SBS Annual 

Report 2005-06 2006). This means that ABC and SBS actually reach quite a lot 

of different Australians in the course of a week, although their audience shares 

are only 12 and 4 per cent respectively. This is most likely a result of the 

public service remit to provide larger programming variety to cater for all 

demographic groups. Comparable figures unfortunately do not exist for the 

commercial broadcasters. However, judging from the fact that they have 

shares between 18 (Channel Ten) and 23 (Channel Seven and Channel Nine) 

per cent, it is likely that their reach would be quite substantial and probably 

bigger than ABC’s reach. According to Søndergaard (2006a:53), a 25 per cent 

audience share is likely to include a reach of about 80 per cent a week of any 

population, whereas only about 50 per cent are reached with a market share 

of 20 per cent or below. This means that the Australian private and 

commercial broadcasters, Channel Nine and Channel Seven, are likely to have 

a reach of just below 80 per cent in a given week, whereas Channel Ten may 

only have about 50 percent. 

Diversity 

Both countries have equally high external diversity. All major television 

sectors are present: public, commercial, subscription, and community. As for 

the internal diversity within the individual products of the media institutions, 

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this is also quite varied in both countries. All genres are represented and most 

minority groups are catered for – at least in the public sectors. Nevertheless, 

one could argue that the internal diversity is slightly higher in Australia 

because of the existence of SBS, which specifically targets a variety of ethnic 

minorities. Despite slowly becoming a more multi-ethnic society, Denmark’s 

television system does not cater for ethnic minorities in the same systematic 

way. 

On the other hand, if we look exclusively at the commercial sectors in the two 

countries the picture is somewhat different. The diversity of programming is a 

lot more limited, especially within the Danish commercial sector, which has a 

low degree of diversity as far as genres and ‘narrower’ programming go. 

However, the Australian commercial sector is also less diverse; especially 

when it comes to narrower programming content, whereas the genre variety is 

fairly diverse. In other words, only the existence of a public sector in the two 

countries guarantees a high overall diversity. 32 

Concentration 

The degree of concentration is basically a measurement of how centralised or 

de-centralised the control of the media is. If a system has very few 

independent players controlling the majority of the market, the concentration 

of power will most likely be high. In this respect, both Australia’s and 

Denmark’s television markets have a fairly high concentration of power. In 

Australia the three commercial networks have 64 per cent of the audience 

shares. In Denmark the two public broadcasters have 69 per cent (see tables 

6.2 and 6.4 later in the chapter). Again the Danish system has a somewhat 

higher degree of concentration, as the two public broadcasters – despite being 

governed by independent boards and funded in two different ways – are both 

ultimately owned by the Danish state and controlled through legislation 

32 These differences between the public and commercial sectors will be displayed in much more detail in 

Chapter 6’s comparative analyses of the Australian and Danish primetime schedules. 

124


agreed upon in Parliament, whereas the three Australian networks are owned 

and controlled by three separate players. 

Funding 

Funding of the commercial sector is similar in both countries. Advertisers pay 

for advertising airtime and the commercial broadcasters use this money to 

produce and acquire programming for the schedules. Ultimately, the 

audiences pay by eventually buying the advertised products. 

However, within the public sectors of the two countries, there are important 

differences. Firstly, the Australian public sector is financed almost exclusively 

by government funds. This means that the Government uses taxpayers’ 

money to fund the large majority of the sector, which therefore is part of the 

yearly Federal budget. In Denmark the public sector is financed in two equally 

important ways: 1) by licence fees paid by the Danish viewers directly to the 

public broadcasters (of which the large part goes to DR and a smaller part to 

TV 2’s regional stations), and 2) in the case of TV 2, by advertising revenues 

raised in the same manner as the privately owned commercial broadcasters. 

The Danish public sector is therefore quite different to the Australian public 

sector not only because a substantial part is funded commercially, but also 

because the funding goes directly from the viewers to the broadcasters and 

not via taxes and hence the political system. In theory, this makes Danish 

public broadcasters less susceptible to changes in the political system and less 

dependent on political goodwill, which ultimately should make them more 

independent from political interference. On the other hand, it also means that 

the public sector, in this case primarily DR, is more directly accountable to 

the Danish viewers, who fund DR, and is therefore often in a direct 

confrontation with them. As such, DR very much relies on the viewers’ 

support, despite the fact that the size of the licence fee and the distribution of 

the licence fee income among the public broadcasters are decided by the 

Danish Parliament in four-year intervals. Looking at it like this, DR especially 

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is in a sense stuck in the middle between the viewers (who directly provide 

the broadcaster’s funding) on one hand and the politicians, who decide how 

much the viewers have to pay to be able to watch public service television, on 

the other hand. 

This, combined with the fact that TV 2 is advertising-funded despite its public 

service remit, makes the Danish system less ‘pure’ than the Australian system, 

which has a clearer division between the private and commercially-funded 

sector on one hand, and the public and government-funded sector on the 

other. 

Ownership 

Private businesses own the private, commercial broadcasters in both 

countries, whereas the Australian and Danish states and thereby the 

Australian and Danish public owns the public broadcasters. Theoretically, 

public ownership provides more neutrality and diversity in, for instance, the 

coverage of political issues in news & current affairs programs or in the way 

certain products are either endorsed or critiqued in lifestyle programs. In 

other words, public ownership means no ties or obligations to commercially 

or politically vested interests. This is of course debatable especially in 

Denmark where one of the public broadcasters, TV 2, is largely dependent on 

advertising revenue and therefore accountable to businesses, as well. 

However, it is also debatable in Australia where politicians have a very large 

say in the public broadcasters’ budgets and programming content, making it 

easier for them to put (direct or indirect) pressure on, for example, the 

editorial line in news & current affairs programs. 33 

Responsibility and accountability 

In essence, the issue of responsibility lies in the question: ‘What is the 

responsibility of the media?’ Accountability covers the question ‘who are the 

33 This has actually happened in Australia lately. The current Howard Liberal Government introduced 

new regulation to prevent the ABC from demonstrating what the Government perceived as a leftist 

bias in the news coverage and political satire of the public broadcaster. 

126


media accountable to in the exercise of this responsibility?’ As has already 

been pointed to in the above, there are significant differences between the 

two systems and between the commercial and the public sectors. 

As for the commercial sector in the two countries, the responsibility of the 

three Australian networks is of course first and foremost to generate revenue 

for their owners. Nevertheless, the Australian networks also have to deliver 

certain content quotas and ethical standards as set forward in the various 

political regulations to help promote an Australian cultural citizenship. This 

means that they are accountable not only to the businesses that own them but 

also to the legislators, in this case mainly the Australian Communications and 

Media Authority (ACMA). The Danish commercial broadcasters on the other 

hand only have the responsibility of generating revenue and are therefore 

solely accountable to their owners, especially in the case of TV3, which 

broadcasts from the UK and therefore enjoys more lenient regulation, but 

also to a very large degree in the case of TvDanmark, whose community 

content obligations were considerably relaxed leading up to its re-launch as 

Kanal 4 in 2006 and its re-birth as SBS Net in 2007. 

As for the public sectors, Danish public service broadcasters have a very high 

degree of responsibility covering the promotion of a national cultural 

citizenship on one hand and a political citizenship on the other. This 

responsibility is set forward in detailed regulations concerning content quotas 

and standards, ethical standards and various overarching cultural and political 

goals. They are therefore accountable to the legislators – in this case the Radio 

& Television Board – but also to the Danish licence fee-paying citizens, as has 

already been discussed. However, as TV 2 is a commercial establishment 

despite its public service remit, TV 2 also has to provide advertisers with the 

right audiences and is therefore also accountable to the businesses that pay 

for the advertisements. 

127


The responsibility of the two Australian public broadcasters seems quite close 

to the responsibility of their Danish counterparts. However, there are minor 

but important differences. Firstly, content regulation is not as detailed and 

seems to focus mainly on the promotion of a national cultural citizenship by 

contributing to ‘a sense of national identity’ and reflecting ‘cultural diversity’. 

Political citizenship is less important. Secondly, SBS’ primary responsibility is 

the provision of services to ethnic minorities in their ethnic languages, which 

puts an even bigger emphasis on the reflection of Australia’s cultural diversity. 

This direct multicultural responsibility is not found in the remits of Danish 

public broadcasters. 

Figures 6.3 and 6.4 below illustrate the positions and relations of the 

dominating sectors in the two countries: the private sector in Australia and 

the public service sector in Denmark. 

Figure 6.3 > The commercial television sector in Australia 

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Figure 6.4 > The public television sector in Denmark 

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THE AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION SYSTEM 

Communications is seen like just any other market, and the market is 

the main solution for policy issues […]. [There is] no provision for “old” 

media values such as social accountability and obligations to serve agreed 

community needs (Armstrong et al. 1998). 

Australia is an egalitarian society with dispersed public powers. There are 

three layers of political power: the national (called Federal or Commonwealth) 

Parliament, the state governing bodies and the local municipalities. On the 

federal level there are two houses of Parliament, the House of 

Representatives, whose majority forms the national government, and the 

Senate (the upper chamber), which mainly operates as a check on the 

government. Both have virtually equal powers to make laws, and the system 

resembles that of the USA. 34 For various historical reasons, the Australians 

treat leadership and visionary ideas with suspicion, and national governments 

have in the last three decades rarely been able to command a Senate majority. 

As for federal media policy, it tends to be carried out very pragmatically, as 

different media services emerge, and not as part of a more holistic plan 

(Armstrong et al. 1998). Long distances also play an important role in 

Australian broadcasting – both within the vast country itself and in relation to 

the rest of the world – making cabling and terrestrial broadcasting difficult 

and costly. Australia is also one of the most urbanised countries in the world 

with a large majority of the population living in the five main metropolitan 

cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. 

If we turn our attention specifically to television, Australia’s television system 

displays what Moran calls “historical modernity” (Moran 1997). “Historical 

34 Source: Information and Services of Australian, State, Territory & Local Governments on www.gov.au. 

130


modernity” refers to the country’s mixed television system, consisting of both 

private, commercial broadcasting networks and public broadcasters; a heavy 

reliance on US-style programming practices as well as imported US programs; 

a popular commercial sector based on a mix of local and imported content; 

and a relatively weak public service sector caught in the dilemma of catering 

for minority audiences and attracting larger audiences with mainstream 

programs. Moran (1997) also argues that Australian television has followed 

the classic economic tendency of “import substitution”. That is, after an initial 

peak of imported American content, some of the imported programs were 

displaced by locally produced content with strong American style influences. 

All of these features are part of a more general international and historical 

pattern that has been repeated elsewhere in more recent times, for example in 

Western Europe (including Denmark) in the 1980s, and are the reason why 

the Australian system displays “historical modernity”. American television 

thereby played an important role in the development of a local production 

industry. Another important characteristic of Australian television is the 

creation of a rather successful export of particularly Australian-made 

miniseries and soaps (Moran 1997; 1998). 

The Australian media landscape has had a few significant recent 

developments. The first one has been the rollout of cable carried out in the 

1990s by the then two national telecommunications carriers, Telstra and 

Optus. The cable infrastructure delivers telephony services, various 

multimedia applications, and most importantly in this case subscription 

television via cable. Subscription television was banned until 1992 in order to 

preserve the size of the free-to-air market (Armstrong et al. 1998). In this 

respect, another thing worth mentioning is the fact that satellite television has 

been very limited in Australia. Due to the country’s openness to imported 

programs, viewers have had little incentive to look to the satellites, and unlike 

Europe, foreign satellite television was never seen as a threat to free-to-air 

television (ibid.). 

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A second significant development in recent years has been the introduction of 

DTT, digital terrestrial television, in 2001. Due to a fairly restricted legislation 

that only allows a very limited extent of multi-channelling, DTT has not 

exactly revolutionised Australian television. For example, it only allows the 

two national public service broadcasters to multi-channel. The free-to-air 

broadcasters cannot multi-channel (yet). Consequently, Australians are very 

reluctant to take up digital television. In 2006, after five years with DTT, only 

29 per cent of the population had access to digital television (C21 News 24 

November 2006). This has prompted the current Howard Federal 

Government to propose new media reforms that will grant the three free-toair 

commercial broadcasters the right to each launch one new digital channel, 

and thus supposedly encourage the take-up of digital television services ahead 

of the proposed analogue switch-off in 2010-2012 (Ibid; World Screen News 13 

July 2007). 

Another significant, and ongoing, development – encompassing not only 

Australian media, but also the entire Australian society – is Australia’s 

increased economic and political focus on and engagement in the Asia-Pacific 

region. On a formal level this development has been accelerated through 

Australia’s engagement with APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation 

forum. And assisting the engagement is the fact that an estimated 10-15 per 

cent of the Australian population is of Asian origin, a number, which keeps 

growing. Thus, Australia is increasingly turning to the Asia-Pacific region, 

instead of to Europe or America as the country has done in the past. For 

Australian media this means that both the commercial and the public service 

institutions have Asian outlets or participate in Asian joint ventures 

(Armstrong et al. 1998). 

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Television market structure 

There are three main national sectors in Australian television, of which the 

first two formed part of the system from the beginning, whereas the last 

sector was not introduced until the 1990s: 35 

• The public free-to-air sector consisting of the ABC and SBS, both of 

which are predominantly funded by government subsidies, 

• The private free-to-air sector, which is exclusively funded by 

advertising, and 

• The subscription sector, which is funded in a combination of viewer 

subscription fees and advertising. 

Due to a relatively small population and limited advertising revenue, 

Australian television relies on a large degree of cross-ownership and foreign 

venture capital (Armstrong et al. 1998), which is reflected in a legislative 

emphasis on foreign and cross-media ownership regulation. In free-to-air 

television a large number of local, commercial stations have coalesced into the 

three national networks Seven, Nine, and Ten. Seven and Nine were the two 

original commercial networks, while Channel Ten did not enter the market 

until the introduction of a third commercial licence in metropolitan areas in 

the mid-1960s. Also, the national public service broadcasters, the ABC and 

SBS, are free-to-air. 

In Australian subscription television there are three major players, Foxtel and 

Optus Vision, both on cable, and Austar, a satellite service that mainly caters 

for Australians living in rural and regional areas, which in effect is owned by 

Foxtel although it is a publicly listed company. Foxtel has the largest 

subscriber base of 600,000 households and is a joint venture between News 

35 Australia also has a fourth sector, community television. However, just like the regional television 

sector of Denmark, this sector does not play a significant role on a national scale and certainly does 

not constitute any competition to the other sectors. 

133


Ltd (Australia’s largest newspaper group owned by Rupert Murdoch), Telstra 

(Australia’s main telecommunications provider), and publishing giant PBL, 

which is also the main shareholder in the Channel Nine Network (Flew 2002). 

Optus Vision is owned by Australia’s second major telecommunications 

provider Optus and has approximately 210,000 subscribers (Ibid.). Austar has 

400,000 subscribers (Ibid.). 

In addition, Australia started digital terrestrial television in 2001, and since 

then, all five free-to-air channels have been required to digitally simulcast their 

analogue signals. Moreover, the two public broadcasters are permitted to 

multi-channel: ABC produces one digital-only channel, ABC2, offering new 

and repeat programming including children’s, regional, documentary and arts 

programming, as well as international and regional news. SBS produces two 

digital-only channels, the World News Channel, with repeat newscasts from a 

number of different countries, and SBS Essential, an electronic program, 

news and information guide. 

Table 6.2 below shows the distribution of audience shares among the 

different broadcasting sectors in the Australian television market in two time 

periods, 6am to midnight and 6pm to midnight. 36 

Table 6.2 > Australian audience shares 2006 

Channel 6am-midnight 6pm-midnight 

ABC 12 % 13 % 

SBS 4 % 5 % 

SEVEN 23 % 23 % 

NINE 23 % 25 % 

TEN 18 % 19 % 

Subscription 19 % 13 % 

Total 99 % 98 % 

Source: OzTAM (Australian Television Audience Measurement) 37 

36 Audience ratings are only measured in the five big metropolitan areas of Australia – Sydney, 

Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane – and the table consequently does not cover the entire 

Australian population. However, as most Australians live in these areas, it still provides an adequate 

measurement. 

37 OzTAM, “Viewing Report D1 – 6pm-12am” and “Viewing Report D2 – 6am-12am”, 24 December 

2006 (www.oztam.com.au). 

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As is evident from table 6.2, Australian television is characterised by having a 

strong commercial sector and a relatively weak public sector. As far as the 

public sector is concerned, ABC has a share of approximately 12 per cent in 

the five metropolitan markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and 

Perth. SBS only has 4 per cent. Over the past years, Channel Seven and 

Channel Ten both have had just over 20 per cent while the most popular of 

the commercial networks, Channel Nine, has had an audience share of about 

24 per cent. However this has changed recently. Channel Seven has now 

caught up with Channel Nine (Daily Telegraph 4/12/2006), and in 2006 they 

both had a 23 per cent audience share. Channel Ten has an 18 per cent 

audience share. 

This means that Australians only spend 16 per cent of their television viewing 

time on either of the public broadcasters, whereas they spend no less than 64 

per cent on the three commercial networks. Table 6.2 also clearly displays the 

advantageous position of the free-to-air market in general. ABC, SBS, 

Channel Seven, Channel Nine and Channel Ten together account for no less 

than 80 per cent of Australian television viewing, which leaves the 

subscription channels with only about a 20 per cent audience share. In 

extended primetime these trends are even more marked and terrestrial freeto-air 

television has an 85 per cent audience share. 

Table 6.3 below shows the five main Australian broadcasters and their 

ownership, funding, legislation, distribution and sister channels. The 

ownership structures of the commercial networks are fairly complicated and it 

has proven difficult to uncover detailed information. Furthermore, the 

ownership structures seem to change quite frequently, which has been 

exacerbated now after the announcement by the Howard Government of a 

new media reform that will abolish regulations on foreign ownership. 

However, Australian Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) predominantly 

owns the Nine Network. PBL has the majority share in the network and is 

ultimately owned by one of the richest men in Australia, Mr. James Packer, 

135


who apart from considerable interests in commercial television has substantial 

investments in subscription television and the publishing industries (and 

gambling). The Seven Network’s largest shareholders include Kerry Stokes, 

an Australian businessman who owns a private equity firm and other 

subsidiaries such as heavy equipment supplier WesTrac and Rupert 

Murdoch’s newspaper group; News Ltd. Mr Stokes is also among Australia’s 

richest people. Finally, Canadian media company CanWest Global 

Communications is the largest shareholder in the Ten Network. 

Table 6.3 > The five main Australian broadcasters 

ABC (on 

air from 

1956) 

SEVEN 

(1956) 

NINE 

(1956) 

TEN 

(1965) 

SBS 

(1981) 

Ownership Funding Legislation Distribution Digital 

channels 

Public Government Yes: ‘Australian Analogue and ABC2 (2005) 

/tax-payer Broadcasting digital terrestrial 

funded 

Act’ 

‘ABC Code of 

Private: 

Kerry Stokes 

News Ltd 

Private: 

Publishing & 

Broadcasting Ltd 

(PBL) 

Private: 

CanWest Global 

Communications 

Public 

Advertising 

Advertising 

Advertising 

Government 

/tax-payer 

funded + 

Advertising 

Practice’ 

Yes: ‘Australian 

Broadcasting 

Act’ 

‘Commercial TV 

Code of Practice’ 


Broadcasting 

Act’ 




Broadcasting 

Act’ 




Broadcasting 

Act’ 

‘SBS Codes of 

Practice’ 

Analogue and 

digital terrestrial 

Analogue and 


Analogue and 


Analogue and 


World News 

Channel 

(2002) 

SBS 

Essential 

(2002) 

History of Australian television 

Australian television broadcasting started in 1956 and was from the beginning 

a dual system, made up of a commercial, private sector and a governmentfunded 

public service sector, just like Australian radio. As a matter of fact, the 

dual structure of the system was established in 1950 when the then newly 

elected conservative government “reversed the decision of the post-war 

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socialist government that television was to be a monopoly in the hands of a 

public service broadcaster” (Moran 1997). Consequently, it had a liberal and 

commercialised bias and was very much an industry project from its 

commencement, as opposed to Denmark, where television was regarded as a 

public service from which nobody should be allowed to make money. Two 

commercial licences were granted in the four biggest cities – Sydney, 

Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide – and one licence granted in smaller cities 

and towns. This paved the way for networking and resulted in the Seven 

Network and the Nine Network. The Australian Broadcasting Commission 

(later Corporation) – ABC – was to run public service television, just as it did 

public service radio (Moran 1997). The history of Australian television can be 

divided into five periods, each lasting approximately a decade: 

1956-1964 

This was a period marked by the technological limits of early broadcasting, 

and the various stations still displayed a distinct regional character because of 

the lack of cable facilities. Imported American programs dominated the 

schedule completely, leaving very little room for local content. In the period 

1956-63, a senate committee found that a staggering 97 per cent of the drama 

screened on Australian television was imported (Flew 2006). However, there 

were local programs, mainly in the genres of variety and quiz, and often under 

the heavy influence of American formats. The ABC did not care too much 

about their new television service and made television very much like an 

extension of radio. Thus, by 1964, the public service broadcaster only had a 

10 per cent share, while commercial ratings were soaring (Moran 1997). 

Ownership of commercial broadcasting licences was dominated by print 

media interests such as Consolidated Press (later Publishing and Broadcasting 

Ltd) and the John Fairfax Newspaper Group, and from the very start there 

was a political allegiance between the liberal/conservative government at the 

time and commercial licence owners who traditionally were supportive of 

conservative parties. This initial allegiance led to weak regulatory agencies that 

seem to persist until the present (Flew 2006). 

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1964-1976 

In this period television became a part of everyday life, and programming 

content became increasingly Australian. In the mid-1960s, a limited degree of 

cabling was introduced, and Network Ten was created in 1964. This led to a 

scarcity in imported programs, which again sparked a rise in the production of 

local drama, and current affairs and documentary programs. 38 In this period 

the commercial stations’ Australian programming was the key factor in a rise 

or a fall in ratings. Seeing as the local or national programming quotas were 

slowly increased, federal legislation was a contributing factor to this. 

However, as it turned out, Australians clearly favoured local programs, and 

advertisers hence flocked to commercial television. The increase in local 

production also marked the beginning of Australia’s successful programming 

exports, as the television adventures of the bush kangaroo Skippy were sold 

overseas (Moran 1997). 

1976-1986 

This was a period of decline for the ABC, whose budget was constantly cut 

by the government, and the public service broadcaster gradually lost staff and 

ratings to the commercial players. On the other hand, the commercial 

networks had their heyday. The advent of colour television made advertisers 

even more eager, and finances rose significantly. In 1980 a second public 

service broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Services (SBS), went to air. SBS’ 

main task was to cater for ethnic Australians via multilingual programming 

such as foreign films, news, current affairs, and documentary. The period also 

saw generous tax concessions implemented by the government, which made 

it possible for packagers to make good deals for the sale of programs 

internationally, and by 1985, these international sales outrivaled domestic 

transactions. One of the main reasons for this was the international success of 

Australian miniseries such as Return to Eden and, to a lesser extent, Australian 

38 Current affairs and documentary were initially introduced by the ABC, and the advent of the genre 

remains one of the few instances where the ABC has influenced the commercial stations, and not the 

other way round. 

138


television movies, and it is no wonder that Moran dubs this period the 

“golden years of Australian drama” (Moran 1997, Flew 2006). 

1987-1995 

This was a period of recession. The advent of the remote control together 

with the introduction of people metres drove advertisers away from 

television, and commercial television was no longer a prosperous media 

sector. The crisis coincided with an economic recession reducing advertising 

expenditure and leading to severe cuts in program spending. Lower-cost local 

formats such as various lifestyle programming were sought after and highercost 

drama formats such as mini-series and television movies practically 

disappeared from the commercial schedules (Flew 2006). Also, the ABC 

suffered a great deal of turmoil, as it was politically decided to outsource 

much of its drama production to independent or overseas packagers, leaving 

the national broadcaster with very little in-house production. Instead the ABC 

turned to international co-productions for profit. A similar 

internationalisation was felt among the private players, as many of the large 

Australian production companies – for example Grundy – moved their head 

quarters overseas, and local production returned to its 1965 level! Finally, the 

period saw a great change in the bureaucratic and legislative environment with 

the passing of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. The Act lessened ‘public 

interest’ as a principle in broadcasting policy, and instead recognised 

technological innovation and economic viability as the most important factors 

(Moran 1997, Flew 2006). 

1995 to the present 

As already discussed in detail the last decade has been dominated by the 

rollout of cable television and the introduction of digital terrestrial television. 

The rollout of cable has meant increased competition within the Australian 

television system and has in effect brought the private, commercial free-to-air 

television oligarchy to an end. The first subscription television services did 

not go to air until 1995 even though various government enquiries had 

139


recommended the introduction of subscription television since the early 

1980s (Flew 2006). Consequently, and despite the fact that Australians still 

seem to prefer free-to-air television, subscription television has challenged the 

“historical logic” of Australian television in two key respects (Flew 2006): 

• It has introduced real competition to the commercial free-to-air 

broadcasters when it comes to audiences as well as advertisers. 

• It has promoted a “greater integration” between national and 

international programming due to the fact that, firstly, the 

subscription sector is predominantly foreign owned and, 

secondly, the sector acts as an instrument for foreign 

programming through services such as CNN, BBC World, 

Cartoon Channel, and Discovery (Flew 2006). 

Nevertheless, the current Howard government has proposed impending 

legislative reforms that will relax cross-media and foreign ownership rules and 

will give the free-to-air commercial broadcasters the right to each launch a 

new digital terrestrial channel. This reform is likely to yet again favour the 

commercial broadcasters’ competitive abilities over and above the 

subscription sector. 

Legislation 

Electronic media issues are primarily the responsibility of the Federal 

Government. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 sets out most of the rules 

concerning the control of Australian radio and television broadcasting. The 

Act can be seen as part of a broad trend in the Australian policy environment 

toward deregulation and increased competition. Hence, it reduced some 

aspects of broadcast regulation, and at the same time replaced the social 

values of earlier broadcasting acts with new economic values. The Broadcasting 

Services Act (1992) is administered by the Australian Communications and 

Media Authority (ACMA) and is mainly targeted at commercial free-to-air 

140


television that is considered a more influential medium than radio (Armstrong 

et al. 1998). With a few exceptions, the Act does not apply to the public 

service broadcasters, the ABC and SBS. They both have their own legislation. 

As far as the control and cross-media ownership of commercial television and 

radio are concerned, a person must not control: 

• Commercial television licences reaching more than 75 per cent of 

the population, 

• More than one commercial television licence in the same area, 

• More than two commercial radio licences in the same area, or 

• A commercial television licence and a commercial radio licence or 

a major newspaper in the same area (The Broadcasting Services Act 

1992). 39 

As for foreign ownership, a foreign person must not have company interests 

exceeding 15 per cent in a commercial television licence, and the aggregate of 

foreign interests must not exceed 20 per cent. 40 Other kinds of broadcasting 

such as community broadcasting and commercial radio broadcasting do not 

have any restrictions (The Broadcasting Services Act 1992). 

The cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions may very well be 

considerably deregulated and further liberalised within a very short period of 

time. The current Howard Liberal Government has committed to reform 

media ownership and has introduced The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media 

Ownership) Bill 2002, which will eventually remove the regulatory barriers to 

investment in Australian media by foreign enterprises in order to “broaden 

the scope for increased competition and improve access to capital and 

technology in the media industry” (The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media 

39 The cross-media restrictions do not apply for subscription television services. 

40 The foreign ownership limit for subscription television is 20 per cent individual and 35 per cent in 

aggregate. 

141


Ownership) Bill 2002 Explanatory Memorandum). The reforms are expected to be 

passed by the Australian Parliament sometime soon and include the relaxation 

of cross-media ownership rules, the complete removal of any foreign 

ownership restrictions, the lifting of programming restrictions on ABC’s and 

SBS’ digital channels, and granting commercial free-to-air broadcasters the 

right to each launch one new digital channel (World Screen News 13 July 2006). 

The ABC is financed exclusively by the Federal Government through 

triennial funding. In 2005-06, the total government funding for the ABC was 

$792AUD million for both ABC TV and ABC Radio. For the three years to 

2006, government funding to the ABC totalled nearly $2.3AUD billion. 41 SBS 

is for the main part financed by the Federal Government, also through 

triennial funding. SBS’ total government funding in 2005–06 was $182.8AUD 

million. For the three years to 2006, government funding to the SBS was in 

excess of $500AUD million. However, unlike the ABC, since 2004 SBS has 

been permitted to accept advertising on its domestic broadcasting services to 

create revenues to fund its television, radio and online activities. As already 

briefly mentioned, the ABC is the original and traditional public broadcaster, 

which was created as an equivalent to the BBC in Britain. SBS has a narrower 

remit, which constitutes catering for Australia’s multi-ethnic communities. 

This is explained in more detail below. 

On a more general note, the public broadcasters have often struggled for 

sufficient government funding and have never been funded to achieve the 

profile in the national broadcasting system that for instance Britain’s BBC and 

Denmark’s DR have enjoyed in their respective countries. Public 

broadcasting is seen as a complement to, rather than a direct competition 

with, commercial television (Flew 2006). 

41 Source: Australian Government Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts on 

www.dcita.gov.au. 

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Content regulation and standards 

As for content obligations, commercial broadcasters are required to provide 

an “adequate and comprehensive service” (The Broadcasting Services Act 1992). 

But this has, not surprisingly, proved impossible to define in practice. Less 

vague obligations apply to the standards for Australian content and for 

children’s television set forth in The Broadcasting Services (Australian Content) 

Standard 1999 and The Children’s Television Standards 2002. 

Commercial broadcasters are obliged to: 

• Meet a total score of points for new drama, 

• Meet a total score of points for children’s drama, 

• Meet a total score of points for diversity of program types, 

• Make sure 55 per cent of programs transmitted between 6am and 

midnight are Australian, 

• Make sure 80 per cent of advertisements broadcast during the 

same period are made in Australia, 

• Produce a minimum of 10 hours of Australian documentaries a 

year, 

• And produce a minimum of 32 hours of Australian children’s 

drama a year. 

Arguments for local content regulation in the commercial sector include the 

promotion of diversity and innovation in the local production industry and 

the promotion of Australian national culture as an opposition to cultural 

domination from imported American content in particular (Flew 2006). 

The two public service broadcasters have their own legislations. The Australian 

Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 governs the ABC, and The Special Broadcasting 

Services Act 1991 governs SBS. The ABC is a statutory authority with 

143


programming and operational independence from the Australian 

Government. The board of directors is guided by the ABC Charter, which 

sets out the functions of the organisation. Under the Charter, the principal 

function of the ABC is to provide “innovative and comprehensive […] 

services of a high standard that inform, educate and entertain all Australians”. 

Its programs must contribute to a sense of national identity and reflect the 

cultural diversity. The ABC must also provide educational programs, transmit 

“news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment” to countries 

outside Australia, and encourage and promote the performing arts (The 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983). 

SBS is a corporation and like the ABC it also has programming and 

operational independence from the government and its board of directors is 

also guided by a charter. Under the SBS Charter, the principal function of the 

broadcaster is to provide “multilingual and multicultural […] services that 

inform educate and entertain all Australians […] and reflect Australia’s 

multicultural society”. This includes foreign-language newscasts from 

countries around the world, and foreign-language documentaries and films 

(Special Broadcasting Services Act 1991). 

In addition to federal legislation, the commercial sector and both of the 

national broadcasters have been required to develop their own codes of 

practice, containing detailed provisions for content, classification and 

scheduling. These codes are binding and enforceable by ACMA and include 

the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2004, SBS Codes of Practice 2002, 

and ABC Code of Practice 2004 (also see Armstrong et al. 1998). These codes 

do not provide additional requirements within certain programming genres or 

categories. Instead, they set up ethical and qualitative standards for program 

content in, for instance, current affairs, documentaries and children’s 

programming and consequently act as a benchmarking for the respective 

broadcasters. 

144


As Flew points to in the following quote, Australian content regulation is very 

much an issue of promoting a “national and cultural citizenship” through 

quotas on local content and not so much the promotion of a “political 

citizenship” through enabling audiences to participate in the political 

processes. 

If moves in Australia to enshrine a principle of political citizenship 

through public participation in broadcast media policy have been largely 

unsuccessful, initiatives to promote principles of national and cultural 

citizenship through local content regulations have had a greater history of 

success (Flew 2006). 

Conclusion: Continuity over change 

Characteristics and important features of the Australian television system 

include: 

1. Continuities in the institutional organisation have been stronger 

than forces for change. This has in turn led to conservatism in the 

system, whose structure remains largely as it was in the 1960s, 

albeit with the competition of the newly introduced subscription 

television sector. Legislation has been rather hostile towards new 

market players, either via the prohibition of a new commercial 

free-to-air network or by putting very restrictive limits on 

subscription television (Flew 2006, 2002). 

2. The commercial sector is dominating the public sector. Australian 

television has been primarily shaped by the commercial sector, 

and the public broadcasters have only been funded so as to 

complement, rather than to compete directly with, a highly 

profitable commercial television sector (Flew 2006). 

145


3. As a consequence, commercial broadcaster interests are strong 

and regulatory agencies weak. Flew (2006) argues that the 

regulatory agencies have failed to act as “an effective conduit for 

public participation or an effective regulator of program 

standards” and have instead over-identified with the industry 

which they are supposed to regulate (Flew 2006, Flew 2003). 

4. Legislation and policies are conducted in a pragmatic way with a 

stated reliance on market forces and with a growing disregard to 

traditional media values such as the principle of political 

citizenship through public participation (Flew 2006, Armstrong et 

al. 1998). 

5. Legislators have instead put a relatively large emphasis on the 

production of local media content on the commercial 

broadcasters and in return protected the commercial free-to-air 

market from outside competition (Flew 2006, Flew 2002, 

Armstrong et al. 1998). 

146


THE DANISH TELEVISION SYSTEM 

Denmark is, like Australia, an egalitarian society with dispersed public powers. 

Denmark also has three layers of political power: local municipalities, regions, 

and the national Parliament. The political system of Denmark is a multi-party 

structure with one single national Parliament, where several parties are 

represented. Danish governments have most often been minority 

administrations, governing with the aid of one or more supporting parties. 

This means that Danish politics is characterised by inter-party compromising. 

Since 1909 no single party has had the majority of parliamentary seats. 42 

Denmark has been a member of NATO since 1949 and of the EU since 

1973, which means that the Danish media has to comply with EU regulations 

in addition to the regulations made by the Danish Parliament. Denmark also 

has a strong tradition of cultural and political affiliation with other Nordic and 

Scandinavian countries (Mortensen 2004). 

Denmark is a capitalist society with a large public sector and a strong social 

democratic legacy. It is also an equally strong welfare state with a high 

standard of living and relative homogeneity with regards to culture and values, 

which is also reflected in the public service dominance of the television 

system. Media are legislated by the national Parliament and it is often an issue 

of public debate. However, media policy has never been a main election issue. 

Geographically, Denmark is flat and is thus easy to cable and it is cheap to 

implement terrestrial broadcasting (Mortensen 2004). Danish urbanisation is 

uneven with approximately a third of the 5.3 million population living in the 

metropolitan area of the capital, Copenhagen, another third in larger 

provincial towns and the last third in rural areas. 

Denmark has for the past two decades had a mixed public and private 

television system. However until then, the public service broadcaster, DR, 

42 Source: Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official website of Denmark on www.denmark.dk. 

147


had a monopoly, and public service television remains the dominating sector 

of Danish television. Danish television has traditionally had a relatively high 

share of locally produced content (Søndergaard 2006b; Bruun 2005; Bruhn 

Jensen 1997), and Danish content remains a strong factor – especially for the 

public service sector – in the competition for viewers (Søndergaard 2003; also 

see chapter 2). 

As for significant recent developments in the Danish television landscape, the 

most important have been 1) the 1988 introduction of a second public service 

broadcaster, TV 2, to end DR’s 37-year monopoly; and 2) the subsequent 

advent of commercial and private television broadcasters on the Danish 

market during the 1990s. Since then, there have been several waves of 

liberalisation and of media legislation allowing more private as well as public 

players on the market (Mortensen 2004). The past decade has seen a tripling 

of Danish-language channels and the number of satellite and cable 

households has also risen considerably. 

However, despite the turbulent transition of the past two decades, old 

audience habits persist in the multi-channel environment. Danish audiences 

still prefer public service television. Almost 70 per cent of the time Danes 

spend watching television is spent on either of the two public service 

broadcasters, which more or less equals the share the private free-to-air sector 

has in Australia. Thus, Denmark has the exact opposite distribution between 

the public and private sector as compared to Australia. 

Television market structure 

The Danish market consists of four main broadcasting organisations: 

• The traditional and 100 per cent licence fee-funded public service 

broadcasting organisation DR, which broadcasts national and 

regional radio in addition to its two national television channels, 

DR1 and DR2 (which are more or less the equivalent of Britain’s 

BBC1 and BBC2). 

148


• The second public service broadcaster TV 2/Danmark, which is a 

public limited company (plc.) fully financed by advertising and 

other commercial activities despite its public service remit. TV 

2/Danmark now has six channels, TV 2, TV 2/Zulu, TV 

2/Charlie, TV 2/Film, TV 2/News and TV 2/Sport, of which 

only TV 2 is run under the public service remit. 

• The private broadcasting organisation Modern Times Group 

(MTG), which broadcasts the two advertising and subscription 

fee-funded Danish-language channels, TV3 and TV3+, from the 

UK due to more lenient advertising regulations. MTG is a media 

company owned by the Swedish Kinnevik Group, which runs 

television and radio stations in the Nordic countries and Eastern 

Europe and the production company Strix (Søndergaard 2006b). 

• The private, Netherlands-based and ultimately American-owned 

broadcasting organisation SBS Broadcasting, which broadcasts 

the three Danish-language channels, SBS Net, Kanal 4 and Kanal 

5. SBS also runs several other European television services. 

DR1 and TV 2 have an almost 100 per cent reach of the Danish population, 

whereas TV3 and TvDanmark only have a reach of about 80 percent. Table 

6.4 shows the distribution of channel shares in the Danish market in two 

different time frames; all day and in extended primetime. 

Table 6.4 > Danish audience shares 2005 (Source: TV 2 Public Service Account 2005) 

Channel All day 5pm-midnight 

DR1 28 % 32 % 

DR2 5 % 6 % 

TV 2 36 % 36 % 

TV 2/Zulu 3 % 2 % 

TV 2/Charlie 1 % 1 % 

TV3 5 % 5 % 

TV3+ 4 % 3 % 

TvDanmark 4 % 3 % 

Kanal 5 2 % 2 % 

Others 12 % 10 % 

Total 100 % 100 % 

149


As is evident from the table, the public service broadcasters DR and TV 2 

enjoy a rather advantageous position compared to their competitors. In actual 

fact they dominate the market completely, which means that Danish public 

service television has approximately 70 per cent of all viewing, and even more 

so in extended primetime. The advantageous position originates in a number 

of factors, of which the most important are: 

• A larger penetration. Virtually all Danes can view DR and TV 2. 

TvDanmark and TV3 have penetration rates at about 80 per cent. 

• A financial head start. DR is funded exclusively by licence fees 

which every year equals DKK 3,085 million ($685AUD million), 

and TV 2 is the only commercial broadcaster with a 100 per cent 

reach of Danish households and is therefore popular with 

advertisers. 

• A historical head start. DR and TV 2’s public service duopoly was 

already well consolidated when the private, commercial 

broadcasters entered the market in the 1990s. 

• Legislation with a broad definition of ‘public service’ allowing for 

pluralistic programming that contains all the television genres, 

including entertainment. This has made Danish public service 

broadcasters competitive even in a mixed television system. 

• More Danish content in their schedules with which the Danish 

audience can better identify (Søndergaard 2003; see Chapter 2). 

Another striking feature of the Danish system is the fact that Denmark has 12 

Danish-language channels for a population of only 5.3 million: DR1, DR2, 

TV 2, TV 2/Zulu, TV 2/Charlie, TV 2/Film, TV 2/News, TV 2/Sport 43 , 

TV3, TV3+, TvDanmark, and Kanal 5. Together they take up 88 per cent of 

43 TV 2/Film, TV 2/News and TV 2/Sport were established after 2005 and therefore do not figure in 

table 6.4. 

150


the viewing, leaving only 12 per cent to foreign channels such as Discovery 

and MTV. This is despite the fact that foreign television can be viewed by 80 

per cent of Danish households and despite the fact that three-quarters of all 

households have access to at least 24 channels either via satellite or cable 

(Mortensen 2004). However, only DR1 (and partly DR2), TV 2, and 

TvDanmark are free-to-air, terrestrial channels. The other channels can only 

be received via a cable or satellite dish connection, and in most cases viewers 

are charged a subscription fee per channel. Below is a table of the four main 

Danish-language channels showing their ownership, funding, legislation, 

distribution form, and respective sister channels. 

Table 6.5 > The four main Danish language channels 

DR1 (on air 

from 1951) 

Ownership Funding Legislation Distribution Sister 

channels 

DR: Publicly Licence fee Danish Terrestrial DR2 (1996) 

owned by the 

Broadcasting Act 

Danish State 

PSB Contract 

TV 2 (1988) TV 2/ 

Danmark plc. 

(Public 

Limited 

Company) 

Advertising 

Danish 

Broadcasting Act 

PSB Contract 

Terrestrial 

TV 2/Zulu 

(2000) 

TV 2/Charlie 

(2003) 

TV 2/Film 

(2005) 

TV 2/News 

(2006) 

TV3 (1990) 

Modern 

Times Group 

(MTG) 

Advertising 

Subscription 

fee 

No Satellite TV3+ (1996) 

TvDanmark 

(1997-2006) 

(from 2007 

SBS Net) 

SBS 

Broadcasting 

Advertising Partly 44 Terrestrial Kanal 5 

(2000) 

Kanal 4 

(2006) 

As far as TvDanmark is concerned, it is important to note that the channel 

has undergone two significant changes recently. In 2006, TvDanmark was relaunched 

as Kanal 4, and from January 2007, TvDanmark was re-launched yet 

again and is now called SBS Net. Nevertheless, just like TvDanmark, SBS Net 

151


is a network of local stations, which is required to broadcast a small amount 

of local and community-oriented programming. 

History of Danish television 

Because of DR’s monopoly up until 1988, the history of Danish television in 

many ways equals that of DR. If we exclude the first three-year trial period 

from 1951-54, the history of Danish TV broadcasting can roughly be divided 

into four stages of 10-15 years (Bruhn Jensen 1997, 2003; for an alternative 

division see Søndergaard 2006b). During these stages DR’s initially 

uncontested public service ideology was modified and compromised before it 

finally collapsed as a monopoly culture during the 1980s and was substituted 

by the new, modified Western European mixed television system (Bruhn 

Jensen 2003, 1997; Søndergaard 2006b). 

1954-64 

After a three-year trial period, Danish television broadcasting started in 1954, 

and the next 10 years marked the establishment period of Danish television. 

The new medium experienced a remarkable expansion and by the end of this 

period, television was the dominant mass medium (Bruhn Jensen 1997, 

Søndergaard 2006b). In 1954 only a little more than 1,200 licences had been 

bought. In 1964 almost one million licences were registered. Content was 

paternalistic and greatly influenced by an educational and ‘enlightening’ 

ideology. Information and current affairs took up the large majority of the 

schedule, often in very academic packaging, and drama broadcasts were 

mainly based on classical literature and theatre. However, a Danish tradition 

of television entertainment was slowly materialising from the end of the 

1950s, together with original television drama, marking the beginning of the 

more pluralistic programming policy of the following years (Bruhn Jensen 

1997; Søndergaard 2006b). 

44 TvDanmark is required to broadcast 30 minutes of locally produced programming per day, and the 

station is also subject to the Danish Broadcasting Act when it comes to advertising (Bruhn Jensen 

2003). 

152


1964-80 

The next period has been termed the “classical” period of Danish public 

service television (Bruhn Jensen 1997). A new broadcasting act determined 

that for the first time DR was obliged to broadcast entertainment alongside its 

news and information. Even though entertainment had been broadcast since 

the late 1950s, within the dominant public service ideology the genre was still 

seen as something that was ultimately a negative. Nevertheless, this changed 

with the new legislation, and DR grew into probably the most important 

institution within the Danish media system by way of a broad and diverse 

schedule containing a variety of national and international genres (Ibid.). DR 

became agenda-setting within news, entertainment and drama and in many 

ways also a threat to other news and entertainment media. Most importantly 

however, television became ‘something to talk about’, a common reference 

point for Danes, and a source of their understanding of Danish history and 

cultural identity (Ibid.). Although the schedule did contain foreign 

programming, local production was still the main content source. 

1980-1995 

This period is characterised by the slow introduction of a mixed television 

system and the resulting conclusion of the DR monopoly era and the advent 

of what can be called – if not in theory, then in practice – a public service 

‘duopoly’ consisting of DR and the new public service broadcaster TV 2. 

After a long political foreplay, TV 2 went to air in 1988 and within just five 

years it had overtaken DR in the audience ratings and was the most popular 

Danish broadcaster (Ibid.). TV 2 had five culture-political purposes 

(Mortensen 2004): 

• To protect Danes from foreign cultural influence coming from 

foreign cable and satellite television. 45 

45 Cable television was already introduced in the 1960s giving the Danish audience access to Swedish 

and West and East German TV, and by the early 1980s two-thirds of the population had access to 

foreign TV, either by cable or by terrestrial reception in the parts of Denmark bordering other 

countries (Mortensen 2004). However, the appearance of satellite television in the early 1980s came as 

153


• To create competition on news broadcasting. DR had often been 

accused of a left-wing bias in their news coverage. 

• To fight off DR’s perceived Copenhagen bias by moving TV 2’s 

headquarters outside the capital and setting up eight regional 

stations scattered around the country. 

• Most of the program production was placed with independent 

producers outside the institution of TV 2 (following the British 

Channel 4 model) to avoid the heavy bureaucracy of DR. 

• Advertising was allowed in between programs. In the beginning, 

TV 2 also drew on a licence fee income, which for the main part 

went to finance the eight regional television stations that formed 

part of TV 2’s remit. Nevertheless, today TV 2 is 100 per cent 

commercially financed following the regional stations’ 

organisational and financial separation from TV 2/Danmark in 

2002 and TV 2/Danmark’s subsequent transition into a public 

limited company in 2003 (Søndergaard 2006b). 

Up until the advent of TV 2, advertising had not been allowed on Danish 

television. As already briefly mentioned, another important part of TV 2’s 

public service remit was the establishment of eight regional stations to cater 

for local communities and their need for news sourced from their particular 

region. During the 1980s, local and commercial community television stations 

had also been introduced, most notably in the Copenhagen area (see Bruhn 

Jensen 1997). These local stations were nowhere near as successful and 

professionalised as TV 2’s regional stations, but they did serve as important 

forerunners for more commercialised and entertainment skewed Danish 

television (Ibid.). However, these local stations did not play any significant 

role in the Danish television system until a 1997 change in the Danish 

somewhat of a shock also to Danish politicians, and as part of a national cultural self-defence, it was 

thus decided to break the monopoly of DR and introduce a second public service broadcaster. 

154


broadcasting legislation allowed networking, after which they coalesced into 

the national TvDanmark Network, now called SBS Net. 

In 1990 another important commercial player in the new mixed Danish 

television system, TV3, started Danish-language satellite broadcasts. 46 TV3 is 

owned by MTG and broadcasts out of the UK due to more lenient British 

advertising laws (Mortensen 2004). Despite the advent of this new mixed and 

internationalised TV system, the reality was that Danes preferred the public 

service broadcasters. By the mid-1990s, Danes still spent 75 per cent of their 

television time on either DR or TV 2. This figure has only dropped a little 

since then. 

1995 to the present 

As previously mentioned, the three Danish public service channels – DR1, 

DR2 and TV 2 – continue to enjoy widespread popularity with Danes, and 

today they still account for almost 70 per cent of Danish TV viewing. 

However, underneath the apparently calm surface as far as audience shares 

are concerned, this was a period of turbulent transition. Three main 

developments characterise the period: more channels, further 

commercialisation and liberalisation, and digitisation of cable and satellite 

television. Between 1995 and 2001, the share of Danish satellite and cable 

households grew from 50 to 69 per cent and the average number of channels 

per household went from 10 to 16 (Bruhn Jensen 2003). Moreover, since 

1995 the number of Danish-language channels available to the audience has 

tripled with the four main Danish-language broadcasters’ introduction of one 

or more supplementary satellite and cable channels: TV3+ in 1995/1996, 

DR2 in 1996, TvDanmark 1 in 2000 (now Kanal 5), Kanal 4 in 2006, TV 

2/Zulu in 2000, TV 2/Charlie in 2003, TV 2/Film in 2005, and most recently 

TV 2/News in 2006 and TV 2/Sport in 2007 (also see Søndergaard 2006b). 

46MTG started pan-Scandinavian satellite broadcasts as early as 1987, in the form of TV3/Scansat, which 

did not significantly influence the Danish market until it was divided into three channels, one for each 

of the Scandinavian countries: Norway, Sweden and Denmark, in 1990 (Søndergaard 2006). 

155


The supplementary channels are part of an increased competition in the 

market and their main purposes are to: 

• Target narrower audience groups and hence win audience shares. 

• Create more platforms for the sale of advertisements. 

• Generate more revenue from satellite and cable subscription fees. 

In effect the introduction of the many supplementary channels means that 

Danes watch a very limited degree of foreign-language cable and satellite 

television, and still prefer Danish-language television, especially the three 

public service channels; DR1, DR2 and TV 2. In 2005 the Danish audience 

spent 88 per cent of their television time on a Danish or Danish-language 

channel, of which 69 per cent belonged to the three public service channels, 

DR1, DR2 and TV 2. 

The past decade has also seen a political liberalisation of the media legislation, 

which eventually has led to further commercialisation of the Danish market 

after the initial introduction of the mixed model around 1990 (Bruhn Jensen 

2003). First of all, legislative reform in 1997 meant that TV 2 could dispose 

freely of its advertising revenues. Up until then TV 2’s budgets were decided 

politically, to prevent unnecessary commercialisation, and the remaining 

revenues kept in the so-called TV 2 Fund. The most important consequence 

of the legislative change was that TV 2 was now able to make more ambitious 

and costly changes to its schedule to fight off commercial competition. These 

included broadcasting more hours and establishing supplementary channels. 

However, it also meant that TV 2 became more sensitive to general macroeconomic 

trends, as it no longer had the financial security of the TV 2 Fund 

(Søndergaard 2006b). In addition, and as mentioned previously, legislative 

changes were made in 2002 and 2003 by the current Liberal Fogh-Rasmussen 

Government to prepare for a complete privatisation of TV 2/Danmark. 

156


Firstly, the eight regional stations were separated organisationally as well as 

financially from TV 2/Danmark, which was subsequently transformed into a 

public limited company (Ibid). 

Secondly, and as already mentioned in the last paragraph, the 1997 legislation 

also allowed for local stations to come together in what in effect became a 

third national broadcaster – and the first commercial one – the TvDanmark 

Network, controlled by American SBS Broadcasting (Mortensen 2004, Bruhn 

Jensen 2003, Søndergaard 2006b). On top of this, but outside of the 

legislative realm of the Danish political system, TV3 also grew stronger due to 

the rise in the number of Danish satellite and cable equipped households. 

As far as the development towards digitisation is concerned, it seems a fairly 

slow process. Digitisation of cable and satellite began in 1998 and in 2001 

there were about 200,000 households on the two platforms Viasat, owned by 

MTG, and Canal Digital, owned by Norwegian Telenor (Mortensen 2004). 

However, when it comes to the digitisation of the terrestrial network, the 

political forces have been hesitant. Digital terrestrial television has been 

legislated for by Parliament many times. Yet, so far only DR and TV 2 

simulcasts are available on the DTT net, MUX1, although the current 

analogue switch-off date is set to 2009. 

Legislation 

The Danish broadcasting media has traditionally been – and still is – regulated 

carefully and in much detail (Mortensen 2004). As far as national television 

broadcasting is concerned, the broadcasting act includes legislation on the 

public service broadcasting organisations DR and TV 2 and the network, 

TvDanmark (Ibid.). The act also includes rules on sponsorship and 

advertising (Bekendtgørelse af lov om radio- og fjernsynsvirksomhed 2006, referred to 

as The Danish Broadcasting Act). Independent boards govern the public 

broadcasters (Mortensen 2004). 

157


DR is financed exclusively by licence fees. TV 2 has, since 2003, been a public 

limited company, TV 2/Danmark PLC, operating one commercial channel, 

TV 2, under a public service remit and five other commercial channels 

without public service obligations, which are financed by a combination of 

advertising revenue and subscription fees. Besides this, eight regional stations 

use TV 2’s schedules to transmit their programs three times a day. The 

regional stations are 100 per cent licence-fee funded. 

In 1997 networking was allowed for local commercial television, with one 

hour of local news and three hours of ‘windows’ for non-commercial 

community television required. The result was the TvDanmark Network, now 

SBS Net. However, this requirement was reduced by the current government 

as part of media reforms and the requirement is now half an hour of local 

news a day with the non-commercial community television ‘windows’ 

restricted to the time frame of 9am-noon (The Danish Broadcasting Act 2006). 

In general, a higher degree of liberalisation and competition on the Danish 

television market has been on the agenda of especially parties to the right of 

the centre in the Danish parliament in recent years, and the current 

government is planning to privatise TV 2 completely within the next few 

years. However, due to pending EU million-euro court cases against TV 2 

and the Danish State for illegal state subsidies causing unfair competition, the 

privatisation has been put on hold. It is important to note that a full 

privatisation of TV 2 will not remove its public service remit. 

As for advertising, advertising breaks must be clearly marked, and are only 

allowed between programs; that is, advertisement breaks within a program are 

not allowed. Advertising must take up a maximum 15 per cent of the schedule. 

As DR is 100 per cent funded by licence fees, advertising is not allowed on 

DR1 and DR2. 

Until 2001 the Ministry of Culture controlled electronic media, but a new 

broadcasting act set up the independent Radio and Television Board 

158


(Mortensen 2004). The board’s major tasks include issuing permits to future 

digital television and radio channels, issuing satellite and cable permits, 

handling cases of illegal advertising and subsidies, supervision of advertising 

directed at children, and commenting and analysing the public service charters 

of DR and TV 2. Another important regulatory agency is the Danish 

Competition Board, which since 1998, and according to EU competition law, 

has examined the Danish system and made decisions on, for example, sports 

rights and the dominant position of TV 2 in the advertising market of 

electronic media (Mortensen 2004). 

Generally it is important to note that because of Denmark’s EU membership, 

the Danish media regulation is a subject to EU law and regulations such as 

Television Without Borders and regulation on State subsidies, taxes and 

competition. In this respect, the Danish Parliament does not have complete 

regulatory and legislative sovereignty in broadcasting matters and Denmark 

hence differs considerably from Australia, whose Parliament and media 

legislation are independent of any trans-national regulatory bodies. 

Content regulation and standards 

The two public service broadcasters must provide news, information, 

education, entertainment and arts to Danes, and they must do so with fairness 

and impartiality focusing on “quality, diversity, and plurality” (Danish 

Broadcasting Act 2003, Mortensen 2004). It is important to note that the 

principles of diversity and plurality throughout most of the history of Danish 

public service television each in their own way point to the diversity of genres 

as well as political opinion (Søndergaard 2006b): 

• A diverse, versatile and pluralistic programming schedule 

providing a full-scale public service, including genres such as drama, 

entertainment and sport as well as news, current affairs, 

documentaries and children’s programs. 

159


• A diverse, versatile and pluralistic comprehensive political and social 

coverage in the factual genres particularly, but also in drama and 

children’s programs, including opinions and views from all areas 

of the political and social arena. 

Furthermore, DR and TV 2 must give special consideration to Danish 

language and Danish culture. Public service television is thus seen as a means 

to promote a cultural citizenship through the provision of Danish 

programming, on one hand, and as a means to promote a political citizenship 

through the provision of a diverse and pluralistic political and social coverage, 

on the other. 

Online activities are also considered a part of the public service remit 

(Mortensen 2004). On top of this, every three to four years, DR and TV 2 are 

required to each produce a legally binding and detailed public service contract 

outlining specific content quotas regarding the amount of news & current 

affairs, Danish and Nordic and European content, children’s programs, and 

Danish drama production. Moreover, new Danish drama cannot be 

scheduled opposite each other on the two public service broadcasters. Every 

year, each public service broadcaster then has to present a detailed public service 

account that explains just how the different quotas and the general public 

service regulations have been met. Sanctions mainly consist in fines and are 

carried out by the Radio & Television Board. As the TV 2 public service remit 

has gradually been liberalised, DR’s public service contract is now more 

restrictive and detailed than that of TV 2. Below are the most important 

content regulations for the two public service broadcasters according to the 

2003-2006 public service contracts: 47 

47 DR has a new public service contract for the period 2007-2010. Nevertheless, I have chosen to 

disregard this, as the analyses carried out in this thesis are undertaken on schedules and programs 

from no later than 2005. 

160


Both DR and TV 2 must 

• Provide news, information, education, entertainment and arts to 

Danes, and they must do so with fairness and impartiality 

focusing on “quality, diversity, and plurality”, 

• Give special consideration to Danish language and Danish culture 

• Offer online activities, 

• Broadcast a certain amount of European and Nordic 

programming, 

• And coordinate the scheduling of new Danish drama to prevent it 

from being scheduled opposite each other on the two channels. 48 

DR must 

• Provide at least 520 hours of news between 5pm and midnight a 

year, 

• Provide at least 20 hours of new Danish primetime drama a year, 

• And provide at least 700 hours of children’s programming and 

275 hours of youth programming a year. 

TV 2 must 

• Provide at least 260 hours of news between 5pm and midnight a 

year, 

• And provide at least 600 hours of children’s programming a year. 

48 The same requirement used to apply for news programming. However, in 2004 this requirement was 

abandoned (TV 2 Public Service Account 2005). 

161


In other words, DR must provide approximately double the amount of news 

and children’s/youth programming a year. Besides, DR has a specified 

amount of new drama in primetime, whereas TV 2 is just required to provide 

an unspecified amount of Danish drama. However, to meet the requirements, 

DR gets a larger share of the licence fee and has a second channel at its 

disposal (DR2). 49 

As mentioned above, the local commercial stations in the TvDanmark 

network were required to provide one hour of local news and three hours of 

‘windows’ for non-commercial community television a day. However, the 

current Liberal Fogh-Rasmussen government reduced this requirement and 

the requirement is now half an hour of local news a day. Besides this there are 

no content requirements for TvDanmark. As to the last Danish-language 

broadcaster, there is no Danish legislation governing TV3, as it is broadcast 

from Britain. British media law is more lenient and allows TV3 to have 

advertising breaks within programs, broadcast a larger share of advertisements, 

and finally allows it to advertise for alcohol and non-prescriptive drugs, which 

is not allowed under Danish law. 

Conclusion: transition into a ‘bastard’, mixed multi-channel system 

Characteristics and important features of the Danish system include: 

1. Danish television has experienced a recent and quite turbulent 

transition into what can be termed a kind of ‘bastard’ multichannel 

system. In less than two decades, the Danish television 

landscape has gone from being a public service monopoly with 

only one national station to being a multi-channel system with 

several public, commercial, and subscription players of both local 

and foreign origin competing for a slice of the small market. The 

adjective ‘bastard’ refers to the fact that the public, commercial 

49 DR2 is part of DR’s public service remit. However, TV 2’s supplementary channels are not considered 

part of the public service remit. They are commercial channels in line with TV3 and TvDanmark and 

run accordingly. 

162


and subscription sectors are not entirely separated, as the by far 

largest commercial broadcaster with the most subscription 

channels is actually the second public service broadcaster, TV 

2/Danmark. These developments are completely opposite to 

Australia, whose television system today in many ways resembles 

that of the 1960s, that is, a fairly pure mixed system with public 

and non-commercialised broadcasters on one side and private, 

commercial broadcasters on the other. 50 

2. The Danish public service sector dominates the private 

commercial sector. In contrast to Australian television, Danish 

television has predominantly been shaped by the public sector. 

The dominance covers the whole spectrum from history over 

legislation to audience preferences. Curiously, and as already 

implied, even the commercial market for television advertising is 

dominated by the public service channel TV 2. 

3. Public broadcaster interests have been favoured in media policies 

and legislation. DR and TV 2 have been allocated frequencies 

with what in effect is a 100 per cent reach of the Danish 

population and have been funded through fairly high public 

licence fees. Moreover, TV 2 has been awarded a very 

advantageous position in the Danish advertising market compared 

to its private competitors. 

4. Regulation and legislation within the public service sector have 

been quite detailed. The Danish television legislation has generally 

been used as a tool to promote both a national cultural citizenship 

and a political citizenship. That is, traditional media values like 

social, cultural and political accountability and obligations to serve 

certain needs within Danish democracy and within Danish society 

50 Australian public service broadcaster SBS also generates revenue from advertising. However, it has 

only done so since 2004 and apart from that is a minor player on the Australian market in general, 

which means that it does not as such represent a threat to the commercial players in the advertising 

market. 

163


in general have to a large extent shaped policies and legislation. In 

return for meeting these values and requirements, Denmark’s 

public sector has been somewhat protected against commercial 

competitors. 

5. The private, commercial broadcasters only have a very limited 

regulation. They do not have to meet particular obligations in 

respect of any significant content standards or ethics and as such 

Danish commercial broadcasters are markedly less regulated than 

their Australian counterparts. 

6. Despite the multi-channel system, old audience habits persist. 

Danes still prefer to watch public service television. In addition to 

this specific public service preference, Danish audiences also 

prefer Danish-language broadcasters in general. Very little time is 

therefore spent on foreign channels. 

164


AUSTRALIA AND DENMARK’S TELEVISION SYSTEMS: SOCIAL LIBERAL & 

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC 

As has become evident throughout this chapter, there are many important 

differences between the Australian and Danish television systems. The public 

service sector dominates the private sector in Denmark, whereas the private 

sector dominates the public service sector in Australia. Australian television 

was commercialised and Americanised from the beginning, whereas Danish 

television has always relied on large shares of locally-produced content and 

was run as a public service monopoly until its recent and turbulent transition 

into a fully-fledged mixed multi-channel system. On the other hand, 

Australian television has been stable and has not changed considerably since 

the 1960s. 

In spite of the many differences, there is one important feature that the 

systems share; that is, in both systems television has a certain degree of social 

responsibility. This social responsibility is of course larger and more carefully 

regulated in the Danish system with its public service dominance. However, it 

is also present in Australia, most obviously in the existence of the two public 

service broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, but also in the content obligations of 

the three private free-to-air broadcasters, Channel Seven, Channel Nine and 

Channel Ten. In return for the lucrative broadcasting permits and a legislative 

protection from other competitors, the three broadcasters must provide a 

minimum of locally produced content, primarily within drama. This 

Australian content regulation seems to focus mainly on the promotion of a 

cultural citizenship by contributing to a sense of national identity, as opposed 

to a political citizenship, which in the Danish system is promoted alongside 

the cultural citizenship via the public service principle of (political and 

generic) versatility. 

165


In this sense, Danish television was a social-democratic project from the 

beginning with its dominating view of television as a public service to educate, 

enlighten and inform Danes and thus promote a cultural citizenship as well as 

a political citizenship. Additionally, nobody was to make money out of this 

public service. In contrast, Australian television was established as an industry 

project from the beginning due to the initial political allegiance between the 

liberal/conservative government at the time and the private, commercial 

licence owners. To protect the local television and advertising production 

industries – and secondarily to promote a cultural citizenship – the private 

broadcasters in return had to provide a minimum of Australian produced 

television and advertising content. 

With Halllin & Mancini’s three archetypical television systems in mind (see 

Chapter 3), Australia thus has what is essentially a social liberal (as opposed to 

a purely liberal system) system, which is situated somewhere between the 

“liberal” and the “democratic corporatist” systems (Hallin & Mancini 2004), 

although with a marked skewing towards the liberal model. Denmark’s system 

is essentially social democratic at its core and as such is situated fairly close to 

the democratic corporatist model but with a slight bias towards the liberal 

one. This is illustrated in figure 6.5. 

166


Figure 6.5 > Relation of Denmark and Australia to Hallin & Mancini’s three media 

systemic models 

The social democratic approach to media has three main arguments, as 

summed up by Flew (2006): 

1. The media is [not just another business] since it has a broader 

social responsibility to its local and national community, and 

reforms to media policy need to be evaluated on the basis of 

social rather than exclusively economic criteria. 

2. Media pluralism and diversity are not necessarily best served by 

the expansion of commercial media, and there remains a strong 

role for national public broadcasters, either as the principal 

bearers of public sphere issues in the national media and 

communications system, or as an important countervailing 

influence to the commercial broadcasting sector. 

167


3. There is a need to defend national audiovisual spaces, and the 

cultural and institutional infrastructure that underpin them, in 

light of the pressures associated with globalisation and 

international trade agreements […]. 

These are arguments that fit perfectly to the dominant political philosophy 

behind Danish television, and the national public service broadcasters have 

always been – and still are – the “principal bearers” of public sphere issues. In 

Australia the social democratic arguments are still recognisable, but seem 

twisted into a social liberal version, in which there is a much stronger belief in 

the commercial sector as an additional and equally important supplier of 

pluralism with an equally important responsibility to serve the national 

community. The social liberal system of Australia therefore only views the 

public sector as a supplement to the dominating commercial sector. 

168



IMPACTS OF FORMAT ADAPTATION ON 

DANISH AND AUSTRALIAN PRIMETIME 

In addition to the qualitative format analyses, the quantitative analysis of the 

Danish and Australian television schedules explores the extent and frequency 

of format adaptation in the two countries in a historical perspective over the 

past 10 years. In this way it can provide insights into how and if the 

international boom in the use of format adaptations has affected television 

schedules in the two countries. Has the use of format adaptations increased? 

If so, what type of programming have the formats replaced? Are there 

important similarities or differences in the historical patterns in the two 

countries? In addition, it explores the development of genres both in general 

and in terms of the specific genres of the local format adaptations. 

The results of the study are discussed in detail below. Firstly, the results 

concerning each of the Danish channels are outlined and discussed – in an 

historical as well as a contemporary perspective – and important trends are 

identified. After this, the general findings and trends for Denmark on a more 

general level are outlined and discussed. Secondly, the same procedure is 

followed for the Australian channels and for Australia in general. Thirdly, 

comparisons will be made, parallels drawn, and noticeable trends, differences 

and similarities identified between Denmark and Australia, and finally the 

conclusion will investigate various explanations for these trends, differences 

and similarities. The design of the study is explained in detail in Chapter 4 but, 

briefly, it covers the primetime schedules of the five Australian free-to-air 

channels and the four most important Danish-language channels over a 10- 

year period. The schedules and the program categorisation of the six weeks of 

1995, 2000 and 2004/5 are found in appendices 6.1-6.9. 

169


DENMARK 

DR1 51 

Local content and the use of formats 

DR1 has seen a steady level of locally developed content over the ten year 

period. The share of locally produced content is very high at just over 80 per 

cent in 1995, 2000, and 2004/5. The adaptation of foreign formats has also 

been fairly steady over the years. Formats constitute 4 per cent of local 

content in 1995, and 5 per cent in both 2000 and 2004/5. 

Table 7.2 ▶ DR1/Denmark: the development within local and foreign content, 

format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2005 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 

Formats (of 

local content) 

Local, foreign, and format content 

45.75 hrs 

46 hrs 

82% 

82% 

10.25 hrs 

10 hrs 

18 % 

18 % 

2hrs 

2.5hrs 

4% 

5% 

46.25 hrs 

83% 

9.75 hrs 

17 % 

2.5hrs 

5% 

Genre distribution 

Documentaries 6.75 hrs 

12 % 

4.75 hrs 

8 % 

News & 

15.75hrs 

19.25 

current affairs 28 % 

34 % 

Sport 

5.5 hrs 

3.5 hrs 

10 % 

6 % 

Children and 2.5hrs 

Nil 

youth 

4 % 

Fiction and 

9 hrs 

14.5hrs 

drama 

16 % 

26 % 

Traditional 12.75 hrs 

6.25 hrs 

entertainment 22 % 

11 % 

Reality Nil 2 hrs 

4 % 

Lifestyle 

3.75 hrs 

5.75 hrs 

7 % 

10 % 

Total 

56 hrs 

56 hrs 

99 % 

99 % 

6.5 hrs 

12 % 

20.5 hrs 

37 % 

4 hrs 

7 % 

Nil 

12.75 hrs 

23 % 

4.25 hr 

7 % 

Nil 

8 hrs 

14 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

51 See appendix 6.1 

170


Genres 

As far as the development in genres is concerned, documentaries on DR1 are 

at a steady level of 12 per cent over the 10-year period between 1995 and 

2004/5. However, there was a decline to 8 per cent in 2000. News & current 

affairs have been on the rise: 28 per cent of the primetime viewing in 1995, 34 

per cent in 2000, and 37 per cent in 2004/5. Sport has experienced a slight 

decrease from 10 per cent in 1995, down to 6 per cent in 2000 and 7 per cent 

in 2004/5. However, evidently it has stabilised – and even gone up one 

percentage point – between 2000 and 2004/5. Children’s and youth 

programming only appears in the 1995 primetime, after which DR1’s 

supplementary niche channel DR2 was introduced and most of the youthskewed 

programming was subsequently moved to the new channel and/or to 

other time slots outside of primetime. Fiction has seen an increase from 16 

per cent in 1995 up to 26 per cent in 2000 and 23 per cent in 2004/5 although 

obviously the genre has decreased slightly between 2000 and 2004/5. 

Entertainment has plummeted from 22 per cent of the primetime schedule in 

1995 to 11 per cent in 2000 and just 7 per cent in 2004/5. Reality only 

appears in the 2000 primetime schedule in the form of various reality 

documentaries. Lifestyle has been very much on the increase. Its share of the 

DR1 schedule has doubled from 7 per cent in 1995 to 10 per cent in 2000 and 

then to 14 per cent in 2004/5. 

Formats and the genres of lifestyle and reality 

Formats in 1995 are Husk lige tandbørsten/Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush (UK) and 

Enten eller – du bestemmer/Voce Decide (Brasil). Formats in 2000 are Hit med 

sangen/The Lyrics Board (Ireland), Røg i køkkenet/Ready Steady Cook (UK), 

Formats in 2004/5 are SOS – jeg har gjort det selv/DIY SOS (UK), and again Hit 

med sangen/The Lyrics Board (Ireland). As already mentioned, reality only 

appears in the 2000 program schedule. It takes the form of the reality 

documentaries Bladet (DK), Livet på Godset and Fitness på Godset (both UK), 

and Drengebandet/The Band (US). The only Danish reality documentary is Bladet 

and is not an adaptation but a locally developed series that follows the daily 

171


tribulations of a big Danish tabloid newspaper. Lifestyle is very much on the 

increase, and here we find format adaptations as well: SOS – jeg har gjort det 

selv/DIY SOS (UK) and Røg i køkkenet/Ready Steady Cook (UK). However, 

there is no increase in the use of foreign lifestyle formats to coincide with the 

increase in the lifestyle genre and adaptations only make up a small part of the 

lifestyle genre, as is evident in table 7.2.1 below. 

Table 7.2.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on DR1 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Lifestyle Nil 9 % 

0.5 hr 

6 % 

0.5 hr 

Reality --- Nil --- 

Conclusions 

Format adaptations do not play a large role in DR1’s primetime and they have 

been at a fairly steady level throughout the years. Hence, there is no apparent 

connection between the rise in lifestyle programs and a rise in format 

adaptations, as the large majority of the new DR1 lifestyle programs are 

locally developed and produced. Nor are any of the reality docu-dramas of 

2000 based on format adaptations, but are either British or American 

productions or, in the case of Bladet, developed locally in Denmark. The 

genres of news & current affairs, fiction, and lifestyle have apparently replaced 

children’s programming and entertainment, and to a certain degree sports. By 

far the most important genre in DR1’s primetime in 2004/5 is news & 

current affairs (37 per cent), followed by fiction in second place (23 per cent), 

and lifestyle and documentaries with 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. 

TV 2 52 

Local and foreign content and the use of formats 

Locally developed and originated content has experienced a slight increase – 

from 79 per cent in 1995 down to 77 per cent in 2000 then up to 82 per cent 

52 See appendix 6.2. 

172


in 2004/5 – which puts TV 2 on par with DR1 as far as the level of local 

content is concerned. An overall increase in the use of format adaptations has 

also occurred, from 20 per cent of local content to 28 per cent in 2004/5. 

However, there was a slump down to 14 per cent in 2000, which makes the 

increase from 2000 to 2004/5 especially dramatic where the adaptation share 

of local production doubles from 14 to 28 per cent. The share of formats in 

1995 is fairly high due to several-times-weekly adaptations of the American 

game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. The rise in format adaptations seems 

to – at least in part – have contributed to the rise in local content. However, 

whereas the rise in local content is modest, the rise in adaptations is relatively 

higher. 

Table 7.3 ▶ TV 2/Denmark: the development within local and foreign content, 


YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




44 hrs 

43 hrs 

79 % 

77 % 

12 hrs 

13 hrs 

21 % 

23 % 

9 hrs 

6.25 hrs 

20 % 

14 % 

46 hrs 

82 % 

10 hrs 

18 % 

13 hrs 

28 % 



8% 

3.5 hrs 

6% 

4 hrs 

7 % 

News & 

current affairs 

19.75hrs 

35% 

21.75hrs 

39% 

24.25hrs 

43 % 

Sport 

4.75hrs 

8 % 

2.75hrs 

5% 

0.75hr 

1 % 

Children and 

Nil Nil Nil 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

11.5hrs 

21% 

13.5hrs 

24% 

10 hrs 

18 % 

Traditional 

entertainment 

14.25 hrs 

26% 

8.75 hrs 

16 % 

9 hrs 

16 % 

Reality Nil 1 hr 

2% 

2.75hrs 

5 % 

Lifestyle 

1.25 hr 

2% 

4.75hrs 

8 % 

5.25hrs 

9 % 

Total 

56 hrs 

100 % 

56 hrs 

99 % 

56 hrs 

99 % 

173


Genres 

Documentaries are at a fairly steady level in the surveyed period: 8 per cent, 6 

per cent and 7 per cent in 1995, 2000 and 2004/5 respectively. News & 

current affairs have been on the rise from 35 per cent in 1995 to 39 per cent 

in 2000 and 42 per cent in 2004/5, which for a large part is due to the 

introduction of a daily half-hour current affairs show in 2004/5. Sport has 

decreased considerably from 8 per cent in 1995 and 5 per cent in 2000 down 

to only 1 per cent in 2004/5. 53 Children’s and youth programming does not 

appear at all in the primetime schedule of TV 2. Fiction is on the decrease 

after an initial slight increase between 1995 and 2000: 21 per cent in 1995; 24 

per cent in 2000; and 18 per cent in 2004/5. Entertainment has been on the 

decrease from 26 per cent to 16 per cent from 1995 to 2004/5. However, the 

genre plunge happens between 1995 and 2000, after which it stabilises in 

2004/5. Reality appears only in the primetime schedules of 2000 and 2004/5 

and has experienced an increase from 2 per cent to 5 per cent. Lifestyle has 

dramatically increased between 1995 and 2000 – 2 per cent in 1995; 8 per cent 

in 2000 – after which it is fairly stable at 9 per cent in 2004/5. 


Formats in 1995 were Lykkehjulet/Wheel of Fortune (US), Ugen der gak/Have a 

Good News Week (UK), Kun for sjov (NL) and Jeopardy (US). Formats in 2000 

were Roomservice/Changing Rooms (UK), Hvem vil være millionær/Who Wants to be a 

Millionaire (UK), Surprise (NL) and Jeopardy (US). Formats in 2004/5 were 

Hvem vil være millionær/Who Wants to be a Millionaire (UK), Huset/The Block 

(AUS), Rent hjem/How Clean Is Your House (UK), Hold da helt ferie/Holiday 

Showdown (UK), Helt solgt/House Doctor (UK), Scenen er din/Star Search (US), 

Jeopardy (US), Min restaurant/My Restaurant Rules (AUS), and Vild med 

dans/Strictly Come Dancing (UK). A large part of the reality and lifestyle 

programs on TV 2 are format adaptations and the rise in these genres can be 

53 The comparatively high levels of sport in 1995 and 2000 were caused by the live broadcasts of an 

important European Cup qualifying soccer match in 1995 and an equally important World Cup 

handball match in 2000. There were no similar live sports telecasts in 2004/5. 

174


directly connected with an increased use of foreign formats. As far as reality is 

concerned, the dramatic rise in the genre between 2000 and 2004/5 is all but 

exclusively due to the adaptation of Australian format My Restaurant Rules in 

2004/5. In this period the hours of reality programming went up 1.75 hrs 

from 1 hr to 2.75 hrs, of which My Restaurant Rules took up 1.5 hrs, i.e. 55 per 

cent of the reality genre. As for the lifestyle genre, a staggering 86 per cent of 

the lifestyle programming scheduled in 2004/5 was based on foreign formats, 

as opposed to only 26 per cent in 2000 and none in 1995 (se table 7.3.1 

below). 

Table 7.3.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on TV 2 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 


1.25 hr 

86 % 

4.5 hrs 

Reality --- Nil 55 % 

1.5 hr 

Conclusions 

Format adaptations play a considerable role in TV 2’s primetime and they can 

be partly connected to both the rise in local content and the rise in the 

lifestyle and reality genres. As far as the general development in genres is 

concerned, news & current affairs, reality, and lifestyle have in part replaced 

sports and entertainment in the TV 2 primetime schedule. In 2004/5 the 

biggest genre is news & current affairs (43 per cent), followed by fiction (18 

per cent) and entertainment (12 per cent). Lifestyle comes fourth with a 9 per 

cent share. 

TV3 54 


Locally developed and originated content has experienced a decrease from 

1995 to 2004/5 from 44 per cent in 1995 to 38 per cent in 2004/5. However, 

the decrease is even bigger in 2000, where local content falls to only 31 per 


175


cent of the primetime schedule. This means that local content is actually on 

the rise between 2000 and 2004/5, from 31 to 38 per cent, making the share 

of local programming a lot smaller than the two PSBs: DR1 and TV 2. At the 

same time, a dramatic increase in the use of format adaptations has occurred 

over the 10-year period, from 16 per cent of the local content in 1995, to 33 

per cent in 2000, up to an enormous 72 per cent in 2004/5. In other words, 

almost two thirds of local content broadcast in TV3’s primetime in 2004/5 is 

based on adaptations of foreign formats. Furthermore, even though local 

content decreases considerably from 1995 to 2000, both the share and the 

amount of format adaptations increased in the same period. As for the rise in 

local content between 2000 and 2004/5, this is undoubtedly attributed to the 

explosive rise in format adaptations in the same period. Format adaptations 

have indeed come to play an unrivalled and crucial part in TV3’s primetime. 

Table 7.4 ▶ TV3/Denmark: the development within local and foreign content, 


YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




24.5 hrs 

17.5 hrs 

44 % 

31% 

31.5 hrs 

56 % 

4 hrs 

16 % 

38.5 hrs 

69 % 

5.75 hrs 

33% 

21.5 hrs 

38% 

34.5 hrs 

62 % 

15.5 hrs 

72% 

Documentaries 

News & 


Sport 

Children and 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

Traditional 

entertainment 

1.5 hrs 

3 % 

5 hrs 

9 % 

1.5 hrs 

3 % 


0.25 hr 

0 % 

Nil 

4.5 hrs 

8% 

Nil 

Nil 

Nil 

Nil Nil Nil 

32.25 hrs 

58 % 

15.75 hrs 

28 % 

41.25hrs 

74% 

6.75 hrs 

12% 

Reality Nil 3.25 hrs 

6% 

30.75hrs 

55% 

Nil 

11.5hrs 

21% 

Lifestyle Nil Nil 13.75hrs 

25% 

Total 

56 hrs 

101 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

56 hrs 

101 % 

176


Genres 

Documentaries only appear in the 1995 primetime viewing schedule, as does 

news & current affairs. Sport increases from 3 per cent to 8 per cent from 

1995 to 2000, but is non-existent in the 2004/5 schedule. Most sports 

programming has been moved to TV3’s supplementary channel TV3+. 

Children’s & youth programming does not appear at all in the primetime 

schedule of TV3. Fiction increases dramatically from 1995 to 2000 – partly 

due to daily adaptations of the Swedish soap Vita løgna – but decreases back 

to the 1995 level in 2004/5; that is, from 58 per cent in 1995, over 74 per cent 

in 2000, and back to 55 per cent in 2004/5. Entertainment has seen a major 

decrease from 28 per cent in 1995 to only 12 per cent in 2000, after which it 

disappears completely from the 2004/5 schedule. Reality appears only in 2000 

and 2004/5 where it sees a dramatic increase from 6 to 21 per cent. Lifestyle 

only appears in 2004/5, where it takes up no less than 25 per cent of the 

prime time schedule. This means that documentaries, news & current affairs, 

sports, and entertainment have totally disappeared from the schedules in 

2004/5, where they have been replaced by reality and lifestyle that together 

make up a staggering 46 per cent of the primetime schedules, leaving room 

for only one other genre, fiction. 


TV3 had three format adaptations in 1995, Stjerneskud, Man O Man (G) and 

Blind Date (UK). In 2000, the TV3 format adaptations were Vita løgna/Hvide 

løgne (S) and Robinson Ekspeditionen/Survivor (UK/S). Formats in 2004/5 were 

Par på prøve/Wife Swap (UK), Robinson Ekspeditionen/Survivor (UK/S), Idols/Idol 

(UK), De Fantastiske Fem/Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (US), Fra Skrot til Slot 

(S), Farmen/The Farm (S), Top Model/Next Top Model (US), and Du er hvad du 

spiser/You Are What You Eat (UK). The large part of the lifestyle and especially 

the reality programming on TV3 is based on format adaptations, and the rise 

of these two genres is undoubtedly accredited to the increased use of format 

adaptations. Almost half – 49 per cent – of the lifestyle hours of the 2004/5 

schedule is based on foreign formats. As far as the reality genre is concerned, 

177


no less than 76 per cent of the reality hours in the 2004/5 schedule are 

adaptations, whereas in 2000, format adaptations make up 54 per cent of the 

reality genre (see table 7.4.1 below). 

Table 7.4.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on TV 3 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Lifestyle --- --- 49 % 

6.75 hrs 

Reality --- 54 % 

1.75 hr 

76 % 

8.75 hrs 

Conclusions 

Format adaptations have come to play an absolutely vital role in TV3’s 

primetime and they are directly connected to both the increase of local 

content between 2000 and 2004/5 and the introduction and subsequent 

increase in the lifestyle and reality genres. Furthermore, the increase in fiction 

between 1995 and 2000 is to a certain extent caused by the adaptation of the 

Swedish soap Vita Løgna/White Lies. Documentaries, news & current affairs, 

sport, and entertainment have totally disappeared from the 2004/5 TV3 

primetime schedules, where they have instead been replaced by reality and 

lifestyle that together make up a staggering 46 per cent, leaving room for only 

one other genre – fiction. As a result, TV3’s primetime has completely 

changed and in 2004/5 consists of only three genres: fiction, reality and 

lifestyle, whereas its 1995 and 2000 schedules were generically more varied. 

Fiction, however, is still the most important genre making up approximately 

55 per cent. Lifestyle comes second with a 25 per cent share, and reality third 

with 21 per cent. 

178


TvDanmark 55 


In the period between 2000 and 2004/5, locally produced content on 

TvDanmark has experienced a decrease from 28 per cent to only 19 per cent. 

As a consequence, and in spite of its name, TvDanmark has the lowest share 

of local content of all the Danish channels surveyed. Actually its share of local 

content is only half that of TV3 and less than a quarter of DR1’s and TV 2’s 

local content shares. In the same period, a very dramatic increase in the use of 

format adaptations has occurred from 25 per cent of local content in 2000 to 

71 per cent in 2004/5, which resembles the development of TV3 in the same 

period. In other words, the large majority of local content broadcast in 

TvDanmark’s primetime in 2004/5 is based on format adaptations. This also 

means that even though local content decreased from 2000 to 2004/5, the 

amount of format hours increased considerably in the same period. In fact it 

almost doubled from 4 hours in 2000 to 7.5 hours in 2004/5. Hence, format 

adaptations indeed play a crucial part in TvDanmark’s primetime. This is 

most notable in 2004/5, but the network relies heavily on foreign formats 

already in 2000, where adaptations made up a quarter of local production. 

55 See appendix 6.4. In TvDanmark’s case only 2000 and 2004/5 are surveyed. The TvDanmark 

Network was not set up until 1997 and for the first few years if its existence the local stations in the 

network only had limited networking. Even in primetime only some time slots contained the same 

programs, which would make it impossible to survey properly. Nevertheless by 2000 TvDanmark had 

become a fully operational network with comparable primetime schedules, quite similar to the 

Australian networks except for a few time slots dedicated to community television. 

179


Table 7.5 ▶ TvDanmark/Denmark: the development within local and foreign 

content, format adaptation and genres in primetime 2000-2005 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 


Local content --- 15.75 hrs 

28 % 

Foreign 

content 



--- 40.25 hrs 

72 % 

--- 4 hrs 

25 % 

10.5 hrs 

19 % 

45.5 hrs 

81 % 

7.5 hrs 

71% 


Documentaries --- 4 hrs 

7 % 

3.25 hrs 

6% 

News & 

--- 0.75 hr 

Nil 


1 % 

Sport --- Nil Nil 

Children and 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

Traditional 

entertainment 

--- Nil Nil 

--- 34.25 hrs 

61 % 

--- 1.75 hrs 

3 % 

Reality --- 13.25 hrs 

24 % 

Lifestyle --- 2 hrs 

4 % 

Total --- 56 hrs 

100 % 

25.25 hrs 

45% 

3.5 hrs 

6% 

21.5 hrs 

38% 

2.5 hrs 

4% 

56 hrs 

99 % 

Genres 

As for TvDanmark’s genre development, documentaries have kept a fairly 

steady level at 6 to 7 per cent. However, news & current affairs only appear in 

2000 and then constitute merely 1 per cent of the schedule. Sports 

programming does not appear at all in the primetime schedule of 

TvDanmark, but is confined to TvDanmark’s supplementary channel; nor 

does children’s programs. Fiction has decreased considerably from a 61 per 

cent to a 45 per cent share of the schedule. Entertainment on the other hand 

has increased from 3 to 6 per cent, and reality has experienced a considerable 

increase from 24 per cent to 38 per cent. Lifestyle has kept a steady level at 4 

per cent in both years. To sum up the genre development of TvDanmark, 

reality – and partly entertainment – has replaced fiction and, with a 38 per 

180


cent share of the 2004/5 schedules, it has become almost as important as 

fiction with its 45 per cent share. 


Formats in 2000 are Helt til grin and Villa Medusa/The Villa. Formats in 

2004/5 are Strandvejsvillaen/Under Construction (UK) 56 , Stop Tyven (UK), 

Forunderlig forandring/Extreme Makeover (US) and Hyret eller fyret/The Apprentice 

(US). Lifestyle only appears in the 2004/5 schedules, and none of the lifestyle 

shows are based on foreign formats. On the other hand, a large part of the 

reality programs on TvDanmark is based on format adaptations, and the rise 

in the reality genre can be partly contributed to the increased use of 

adaptation. In 2004/5, all Danish produced reality programs on TvDanmark 

are adaptations, and they comprise 33 per cent of the total reality 

programming output (see table 7.5.1 below). In 2000 Danish-produced reality 

programs make up 70 per cent of the total reality output, and about 50 per 

cent of these are format adaptations. Of the total reality output 26 per cent 

are based on formats (see table 7.5.1 below). In other words, TvDanmark 

plays it very safe in 2004/5 when it comes to reality programs compared to 

five years earlier. Apparently only formats with the advantage of a proven 

track record – like for example The Apprentice and Extreme Makeover – or 

original American or British reality shows like My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancée and 

Airline get a chance. Another important thing to note about the reality 

adaptations on TvDanmark is that, in both the case of The Apprentice and 

Extreme Makeover, the original American versions of the two formats are 

scheduled in the six months prior to the Danish adaptations, meaning that 

Danish viewers will already know of the original formats before watching the 

Danish adaptations. 

56 Under Construction is classified as reality although it does contain some lifestyle features. This is because 

of the strong competitive elements of the show where one couple is voted off every week and its large 

emphasis on conflicts amongst the couples. 

181


Table 7.5.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on TvDanmark 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Lifestyle --- Nil Nil 


3.5 hrs 

33 % 

7 hrs 

Conclusions 

Format adaptations have come to play an absolutely vital role in 

TvDanmark’s primetime and they seem to be partly connected to a 

considerable increase in reality programs. Reality, and to some degree 

entertainment, has partly replaced fiction and has become nearly as important 

as fiction in the primetime line-up. Thus, the two most important genres on 

TvDanmark, fiction (45 per cent) and reality (38 per cent), are almost on par. 

Documentaries, entertainment, and lifestyle are the remaining genres with 

between 4 to 6 per cent shares. 

Summary and perspectives on Denmark in general 

The use of format adaptations is on the rise, most notably on TV 2, TV3 and 

TvDanmark. As table 7.6 below indicates, the number of adaptations has 

been very much on the rise through the years: In 1995, nine foreign formats 

made it into the Danish schedules, taking up a total of 15 hours; in 2000 the 

number had risen slightly to 10 formats and 18.5 hours; while there were an 

amazing 23 formats taking up 38.5 hours of the primetime schedules of the 

four broadcasters in 2004/5. Here, it is important to note that TvDanmark 

did not figure in the 1995 survey, which means that the rise between 1995 and 

2000 is primarily caused by the advent of the TvDanmark Network. As a 

consequence, the real rise in adaptations does not happen until 2004/5. 

However, as the table below also shows, there is an important change in 

format genres in 2000 with the appearance of scripted fiction, lifestyle and 

reality formats in addition to the entertainment formats of 1995. 

182


Table 7.6 ▶ Distribution of Danish format adaptations according to year and genre 

1995 2000 2004/5 

The Lyrics Board, (DR1) The Lyrics Board (DR1) 

Entertainment Don’t Forget Your 

Toothbrush, Voce Decide 

(DR1) 

Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, 

Have a Good Newsweek, 

Kun for sjov (TV 2) 

Blind Date, Man O Man, 

Stjerneskud (TV3) 

Who Wants to be a 

Millionaire, Jeopardy, Surprise 

(TV 2) 

Helt til grin (TvDanmark) 

Who wants to be a 

millionaire, Strictly Come 

Dancing, Star Search, 

Jeopardy (TV 2) 

Fiction 

Lifestyle 

Reality 

Vita Løgna (TV3) 

Ready Steady Cook (DR1) 

Changing Rooms (TV 2) 

Survivor (TV3) 

Villa Medusa (TvDanmark) 

D.I.Y. SOS (DR1) 

How Clean is Your House, 

House Doctor, The Block, 

Holiday Showdown (TV 2) 

Queer Eye for the Straight 

Guy, Fra skrot til slot, You 

Are What You Eat (TV3) 

Stop tyven (TvDanmark) 

My Restaurant Rules (TV 2) 

The Farm, Wife Swap, Next 

Top Model, Survivor, Pop 

Idol (TV3) 

The Apprentice, Under 

Construction, Extreme 

Makeover (TvDanmark) 

Total format hrs 15 hrs 18.5 hrs 38.5 hrs 

No. of formats 9 formats 11 formats 23 formats 

The genre change is even more unmistakable in 2004/5. As table 7.7 below 

shows, a majority of the adaptations in 2004/5 are found either within the 

reality or the lifestyle genres; both of which have not surprisingly experienced 

a general increase over the surveyed period. There are nine lifestyle and nine 

reality formats, while five formats fall within the traditional entertainment 

subgenres. Except for TV3, whose schedules have undergone a dramatic 

change due to the introduction of more reality and lifestyle formats, the rise 

of new genres and format adaptations seems to mainly affect traditional 

entertainment and in some cases fiction and sport. On DR1, TV 2, and 

TvDanmark adaptations have not replaced the factual genres of 

documentaries and news & current affairs. On the contrary news & current 

183


affairs have been on the rise on both DR1 and TV 2, whereas documentaries 

on all three channels have kept a fairly steady level in the surveyed period. 57 

On TV3 however, reality and lifestyle programs – which for a large part are 

adaptations – have indeed replaced all other genres but fiction. 

Table 7.7 ▶ 2004/5 distribution of Danish format adaptations according to genre and 

channel 

BROADCASTER/ 

FORMAT 

HOURS 

DR1/ 

2.5 hours 

TV 2/ 

13 hours 

TV3/ 

15.5 hours 

LIFESTYLE REALITY ENTERTAINMENT 

D.I.Y. SOS (UK) 

How Clean is Your House 

(UK) 

House Doctor (UK) 

The Block (AUS) 

Holiday Showdown (UK) 


Guy (US) 

Fra skrot til slot (Sweden) 

You Are What You Eat 

(UK) 

My Restaurant Rules 

(AUS) 

The Farm (Sweden) 

Wife Swap (UK) 

Next Top Model (US) 

Survivor (Sweden/UK) 

Pop Idol (UK) 

The Lyrics Board (Ireland) 

Who wants to be a millionaire 

(UK) 

Strictly Come Dancing (UK) 

Star Search (US) 

Jeopardy (US) 

TvDanmark/ 

7.5 hours 

Stop tyven (UK) 

The Apprentice (US) 

Under Construction 

(UK) 

Extreme Makeover 

(US) 

On TV 2 and especially on TV3 a direct link also exists between a rise in local 

content and an increased use of format adaptations. This is not the case with 

DR1, whose local content level has been the same throughout the period, and 

TvDanmark, whose share of local content has actually decreased in the 

surveyed period in spite of a considerable increase in format adaptations. TV3 

and TV 2 are without doubt the most important Danish users of formats in 

2004/5. TV3 has the most format hours of the four broadcasters – 15.5 

hours – whereas TV 2 has 13 hours. TV 2 on the other hand has the most 

formats – a total of nine formats – whereas TV3 has eight. TvDanmark 

57 As for the documentaries, one can speculate as to whether their nature might have changed and 

become more reality skewed in the sense that some of the recent documentary programs like 48 

timer/48 Hours on TvDanmark have a tendency to treat softer issues such as consequences of new 

legislation on ordinary people or the conditions of teenage mothers, instead of harder public sphere 

subjects such as for instance disclosure of political scandals and abuse of power (again see Thussu 

1998 on infotainment). 

184


comes third with a total 7.5 hours and four formats. DR1 has two formats 

that take up only 2.5 hours, which makes the station the least important 

format purchaser of the four. 

On a more general level, the findings of the study also uncover striking – 

although perhaps not surprising – differences between the Danish public 

service broadcasters and the commercial broadcasters as far as both the 

general distribution of genres and the specific use of foreign formats are 

concerned. These are differences that exist both historically over the 10 years 

and in the present pointing towards an exceptionally and maybe even 

increasingly biased television system. In this system the public service sector is 

one extreme – with high levels of local content and factual programming, and 

lower levels of format adaptations – and the commercial sector is another – 

with low levels of local content and factual programming, and high levels of 

format adaptations, in relative terms. Having said this, TV 2 is still a very 

important consumer of foreign formats given its generally high share of 

locally produced content. 

185


AUSTRALIA 

Channel Seven 58 


The level of local content on Channel Seven has been unsteady: 51 per cent 

of primetime in 1995 was Australian-produced, which in 2000 decreased to 46 

per cent. Yet in 2004/5 the level increased to 60 per cent. Whilst the local 

content has seen a 9 per cent increase over the 10-year period of nine 

percentage points, the statistics also show that, when one looks exclusively at 

the development between 2000 and 2004/5, the increase is relatively more 

dramatic; that is, 14 percentage points, because of the initial decrease between 

1995 and 2000. The share of adaptations has been equally unsteady: 12 per 

cent of local content in 1995, up to 18 per cent in 2000, and down to only 7 

per cent in 2004/5. This means that the adaptation share of local content has 

actually gone down over the 10-year period, after an initial increase between 

1995 and 2000. 

In fact, the development of the adaptation share of local content is the exact 

opposite to the development of local content; that is, when the share of local 

content goes down, the share of adaptations goes up and vice versa. 

However, as the levels of local content have been quite unsteady, the actual 

amount of format hours has not varied as much as it may seem: 3.5 hrs (6 per 

cent share of the entire schedule), 4.5 hrs (8 per cent share), and 2.5 hrs (4 per 

cent) respectively. 


186


Table 7.8 ▶ Channel Seven/Australia: the development within local and foreign 

content, format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2004/5 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




28.5 hrs 

25.5 hrs 

51 % 

46 % 

27.5 hrs 

49 % 

3.5 hrs 

12 % 

30.5 hrs 

54 % 

4.5 hrs 

18 % 

33.75 hrs 

60 % 

22.25 hrs 

40 % 

2.5 hrs 

7 % 

Documentaries 

News & 


Sport 

Children and 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

Traditional 

entertainment 

Reality 

Lifestyle 

1 hr 

2 % 

5 hrs 

9 % 

1 hr 

2 % 


2.5 hrs 

4 % 

5 hrs 

9 % 

Nil 

3 hrs 

5 % 

5 hrs 

9 % 

Nil 

Nil Nil Nil 

33.5 hrs 

60 % 

10.5 hrs 

19 % 

1 hr 

2 % 

4 hrs 

7 % 

38.75hrs 

69% 

2.25 hrs 

4 % 

2.5 hrs 

4 % 

5 hrs 

9 % 

35 hrs 

63 % 

2.5 hrs 

4 % 

6 hrs 

11 % 

4.5hrs 

8 % 

Total 

56 hrs 

101 % 

56 hrs 

99 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

Genres 

As for the genre developments on Channel Seven, documentaries have seen a 

continuous but rather small rise with a 2 per cent share in 1995, 4 per cent 

share in 2000, and a 5 per cent share in 2004/5. News & current affairs are at 

a steady level of 9 per cent throughout the entire period. Sports programming 

only appears in 1995 in the shape of an entertainment type Rugby League 

show called The Hard Yards, which takes up just 2 per cent of primetime. 

Children’s and youth programming does not figure in any year. Fiction 

increases slightly from 1995’s 60 per cent to 2004/5’s 63 per cent. However 

the level of fiction is at its highest in 2000 when it occupies 69 per cent of 

primetime. Entertainment has plummeted from 19 per cent of the primetime 

schedule in 1995 to merely 4 per cent in both 2000 and 2004/5. Reality is very 

187


much on the rise from only 2 per cent of the schedule in 1995 and 4 per cent 

in 2000 to 11 per cent in 2004/5. Lifestyle has been fairly steady: 7 per cent in 

1995; 9 per cent in 2000; and 8 per cent in 2004/5. As a result it seems that 

documentaries, fiction and, most recently and importantly, reality 

programming has replaced traditional entertainment programs. Nevertheless, 

fiction has been and still is by far the most dominant genre in Channel 

Seven’s primetime. In 2004/5, fiction makes up 63 per cent of primetime, 

whereas reality (11 per cent), news & current affairs (9 per cent) and lifestyle 

(8 per cent) are at the distant second, third and fourth places. 


World’s Greatest Commercials (UK), Gladiators (US), and World’s Wackiest Videos 

(US) are the formats on Channel Seven in the surveyed weeks of 1995. 

Formats in 2000 include Pop Stars (NZ), Treasure Island, World’s funniest Bloopers 

(US), Ground Force (UK), and The Villa. In 2004/5, the only format in the 

surveyed weeks is Dancing with the Stars/Strictly Come Dancing (UK). As 

mentioned, reality is on the rise – particularly between 2000 and 2004/5 – 

which seems to be partly linked to the Australian originated My Restaurant 

Rules, which was subsequently adapted in several other countries including 

Denmark. My Restaurant Rules constitutes more than a third of the reality 

hours broadcast in 2004/5; that is. 2.25 hours out of 6 hours. Lifestyle is 

steady. Hence, there seems to be no direct connections between the use of 

format adaptations on one hand, and the development of certain genres 

and/or the level of local content on the other hand. As a matter of fact, the 

trend seems to be the opposite as far as local content is concerned – as 

mentioned above – which of course also has to do with the overall share of 

local content which dropped dramatically in 2000. The amount of format 

hours is actually fairly steady; the level of local content is not. As far as the 

adaptation share of the lifestyle and reality genres, Channel Seven only uses 

format adaptations within these genres in 2000. As is evident in table 7.8.1 

below, in 2000 a staggering 100 per cent of the broadcaster’s reality shows are 

based on foreign formats, including Treasure Island, Pop Stars, and The Villa. 

188


For the lifestyle genre 30 per cent are based on formats. In both 1995 and 

2004/5, Channel Seven’s format adaptations all fall within traditional 

entertainment, including primarily clip shows in 1995 and Dancing with the Stars 

in 2004/5. In other words there are no apparent connections between the 

development within these two genres and the use of format adaptation on 

Channel Seven. 

Table 7.8.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on Channel Seven 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 


Nil 

1.5 hr 

Reality Nil 100 % 

2.5 hrs 

Nil 

Conclusions 

Channel Seven has experienced quite an unsteady development both in terms 

of the levels of local content and format adaptations, which leaves no clear 

trends. Neither does there seem to be any connections whatsoever between 

the development within certain genres and local content on one hand and the 

use of format adaptations on the other. In actuality, when it comes to local 

content, the trends are almost the opposite of what could be expected 

because typically when the share of local content goes down, the use of 

adaptations goes up and vice versa. As far as genres are concerned, 

documentaries have seen a steady but minute increase. Reality has not 

surprisingly seen quite a dramatic increase, whereas traditional entertainment 

has plummeted. Consequently, documentaries, fiction and most recently and 

importantly, reality programming seem to have replaced entertainment. 

Fiction remains by far the most important genre on Channel Seven’s 

primetime, distantly followed by reality, news & current affairs, and lifestyle. 

189


Channel Nine 59 


On Channel Nine, locally produced content went up to 68 per cent in 2000 

from 60 per cent in 1995. However, in 2004/5 it decreased dramatically with 

a 27 percentage points’ fall to only 41 per cent of the primetime schedule in 

2004/5. Similar to Channel Seven, the development in local content is 

unsteady and there are no clear trends over the three surveyed periods. What 

have been steady however, are the levels of format adaptation. Their share of 

local content has been stable over the entire period: 30 per cent of local 

content in 1995, 33 per cent of local content in 2000 and 32 per cent in 

2004/5. This also means that the actual amount of format hours went down 

dramatically from 12.5 hours to only 7.25 hours between 2000 and 2004/5 – 

together with the amount of locally produced content. As a result, formats 

play a very important role in Channel Nine’s primetime as a constant source 

of local content, and have it seems done so for the past ten years. The use of 

overseas formats has neither increased nor decreased over the years, and has 

therefore not affected the share of local content either. 


190


Table 7.9 ▶ Channel Nine/Australia: the development within local and foreign 

content, format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2004/5 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




33.5 hrs 

38 hrs 

60 % 

68 % 

22.5 

40 % 

10 hrs 

30 % 

18 hrs 

32 % 

12.5 hrs 

33 % 

22.75 hrs 

41 % 

33.25 hrs 

59 % 

7.25 hrs 

32 % 

Documentaries 

News & 


Sport 

Children and 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

2 hrs 

4 % 

8 hrs 

14% 

4 hrs 

7 % 


1 hr 

2 % 

7 hrs 

13 % 

4.5 hrs 

8 % 

Nil 

7 hrs 

13 % 

3 hrs 

5 % 

Nil Nil Nil 

24.5 hrs 

44 % 

19 hrs 

34 % 

30.75hrs 

55 % 

Traditional 

entertainment 

Reality 

Lifestyle 

Total 

12.5 hrs 

22 % 

0.5 hr 

1 % 

4.5 hrs 

8 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

10.5 hrs 

19 % 

6.5 hrs 

12 % 

7.5 hrs 

13 % 

56 hrs 

101 % 

5.25 hrs 

9 % 

3 hrs 

5 % 

7 hrs 

13 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

Genres 

As for the genre development on Channel Nine, documentaries decreased 

from 2 per cent in 1995 to 4 per cent in 2000, after which they disappear 

from the 2004/5 schedules. News & current affairs have been kept at a fairly 

steady level of 13 to14 per cent over the three periods, whereas sport has 

decreased a little: from 7 to 8 per cent in 1995 and 2000 to 5 per cent in 

2004/5. Fiction went down from 44 per cent in 1995 to only 34 per cent in 

2000, after which it increased to 55 per cent in 2004/5. Entertainment has 

decreased from 22 per cent in 1995 and 19 per cent in 2000 to only 9 per cent 

in 2004/5. Reality is almost non-existent in 1995, after which it increases 

dramatically to 12 per cent in 2000. However, in 2004/5 it went back down to 

5 per cent. Lifestyle experienced an increase from 8 per cent in 1995 to 13 per 

191


cent in 2000, after which it has kept a steady level. Thus, only a few genres 

demonstrate consistent trends: News & current affairs have been kept at a 

steady level; entertainment has had a consistent decrease; and so has lifestyle. 

However, documentaries, sport, fiction, and lifestyle have all – to some 

degree or another – had inconsistent trends. Fiction is by far the most 

dominant genre with its 55 per cent share of Channel Nine’s primetime in 

2004/5. News & current affairs and lifestyle come in a shared second, each 

with a 13 per cent share. 


Channel Nine formats in 1995 are 60 Minutes (US), Sale of the Century (US), 

Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (US), World’s Weirdest TV (UK), Don’t 

Forget Your Toothbrush (UK) and This Is Your Life (US). Formats in 2000 are 

World’s Worst Drivers Caught on Tape (US), 60 Minutes (US), Sale of the New 

Century (US), Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (US), Changing Rooms (UK), 

Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Surprise (NL), and This Is Your Life (US). In 

2004/5, the formats are Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show, 60 Minutes, Who 

Wants to be a Millionaire, and This Is Your Life. Obviously, many of Channel 

Nine’s format adaptations have been with the channel for several years – like 

60 Minutes, This Is Your Life, Funniest Home Video Show, Sale of the (New) Century, 

and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the adapted genres are quite varied: 

entertainment (the various clip shows, the comedy game show Don’t Forget 

Your Toothbrush, the more traditional quiz shows Sale of the Century and 

Millionaire, and the talk show This Is Your Life), current affairs (60 Minutes), and 

lifestyle (Changing Rooms). Nevertheless there are no reality formats. Nor is 

there any evidence to suggest that format adaptation played a role in the 

development of certain genres. What the evidence does suggest is that 

Channel Nine’s use of format adaptation is fairly conservative and perhaps 

less likely to go with the current trends and much more prone to go with old 

and well-established formats like Australia’s Funniest Home Videos, This is Your 

192


Life, and not least 60 Minutes, which has been with Channel Nine since 1979, 

and Sale of the Century, broadcast for the first time in 1980. 60 

Consequently it is not surprising that there are very few lifestyle and reality 

format adaptations on Channel Nine. Just like it was the case with Channel 

Seven, Channel Nine only has adaptations within the two genres in 2000, 

where they make up 20 per cent of the lifestyle programming – Changing 

Rooms – and only 8 per cent of the reality programming (see table 7.9.1 

below). 

Table 7.9.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on Channel Nine 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 


Nil 

1.5 hr 

Reality Nil 8 % 

0.5 hr 

Nil 

Conclusions 

Format adaptation has played an important and steady part in Channel Nine’s 

primetime over the past ten years as a constant source of local content. 

Adaptations of overseas formats have been fairly steady at just over 30 per 

cent of the local content in all of the three years surveyed. The format genres 

are varied – through various entertainment programming and lifestyle shows 

to current affairs – and many of the formats are the same throughout the 

years, pointing towards a certain stability and conservatism in Channel Nine’s 

primetime schedules and adaptation use. In addition, the genres in general 

also demonstrate a large degree of permanence with only small and 

inconsistent fluctuations and no clear trends, except for a small increase in 

documentaries, a big decrease in primetime entertainment, and an early 

increase in lifestyle. 

60 Although Sale of the Century does not figure in the 2004/5 primetime schedules, the format is still with 

Channel Nine. However it has been revamped under the name of Temptation and moved to an earlier 

time slot. 

193


Channel Ten 61 


The volume of local content on Channel Ten has experienced quite a 

dramatic increase in the surveyed period, from 14 per cent in 1995 to 37 per 

cent in 2000 and up to 46 per cent in 2004/5, making Channel Ten’s local 

content share in 2004/5 bigger than Channel Nine’s at 41 per cent, but still 

trailing far behind Channel Seven’s 60 per cent. An increase in the use of 

format adaptations has also occurred between 1995 and 2004/5. It has gone 

from merely 13 per cent of local content (one hour) in 1995 to 27 per cent of 

local content (seven hours) in 2004/5. This means that about one in four 

locally produced hours is based on an overseas format in 2004/5. On the 

other hand it is important to note that the adaptation share of local content 

went down to only 7 per cent in 2000. It therefore appears that the rise in 

local content between 2000 and 2004/5 has somehow contributed to an 

increase in format adaptation, whereas formats play no part in the initial local 

content rise between 1995 and 2000. In other words, formats have played an 

inconsistent part in Channel Ten’s primetime especially in 1995 and 2000. 

However, there is evidence to suggest that recently their part is becoming 

progressively more important. 


194


Table 7.10 ▶ Channel Ten/Australia: the development within local and foreign 

content, format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2005 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




8 hrs 

20.75 hrs 

14 % 

37 % 

48 hrs 

35.25 hrs 

86 % 

63 % 

1 hr 

1.5 hrs 

13 % 

7 % 

25.5 hrs 

46 % 

30.5 hrs 

56 % 

7 hrs 

27 % 


Documentaries 2 hrs 

4 % 

1 hr 

2 % 

1 hr 

2 % 

News & 

Nil 

05 hr 

Nil 


1 % 

Sport Nil Nil 3 hrs 

5 % 

Children and 

Nil 

0.5hr 

Nil 

youth 

1 % 

Fiction and 

drama 

48.5hrs 

87 % 

36 hrs 

64 % 

35 hrs 

63 % 

Traditional 

entertainment 

3.5 hrs 

6 % 

13 hrs 

23 % 

6 hrs 

11 % 

Reality Nil 2 hrs 

4 % 

8 hrs 

14 % 

Lifestyle 

2 hrs 

4 % 

3 hrs 

5 % 

3 hrs 

5 % 

Total 

56 hrs 

101 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

Genres 

Documentaries decrease from 4 per cent in 1995 to 2 per cent in 2000, after 

which the genre stabilises. News & current affairs and children’s 

programming only appear in 2000 – each with only 1 per cent shares – 

making the genres basically non-existent in the Channel Ten primetime. Sport 

only appears in 2004/5 where one Australian Football League match was 

broadcast, constituting 5 per cent of the schedule. Fiction has decreased 

considerably, especially between 1995 (87 per cent) and 2000 (64 per cent), 

after which it seems to have stabilised. Entertainment on the other hand 

increased considerably between 1995 and 2000, from 6 per cent to 23 per 

cent, after which it decreased to 11 per cent in 2004/5. Reality appears for the 

first time in 2000 – with a 4 per cent share – after which it increases 

dramatically to 14 per cent in 2004/5. Lifestyle is kept at a fairly steady level 

195


of 4 to 5 per cent over the three years surveyed. The initial dominance of 

fiction has been replaced by entertainment and most notably reality. Fiction 

(63 per cent) however is still by far the biggest genre in Channel Ten’s 

primetime. Reality and entertainment are a distant second and a distant third 

with 14 and 11 per cent shares respectively. 


Channel Ten had only one format in 1995: Your Favourite Commercials. In 2000 

the Channel Ten formats were World’s Wildest Police Videos and The Band. 

Formats in 2004/5 were Pop Idol, The X Factor, and Queer Eye for the Straight 

Guy. The rise in the reality genre parallels the rise in the use of formats 

between 2000 and 2004/5, making format adaptations an important 

contributor to the genre’s rise. As only one of the formats above is within the 

lifestyle genre – Queer Eye for the Straight Guy – and the lifestyle genre has been 

at a fairly steady level throughout the period, there is no apparent parallels 

between a rise or fall in the lifestyle genre and a rise or fall in format 

adaptation. As is evident in table 7.10.1 below, this one lifestyle format 

comprises 33 per cent of the genre in 2004/5. On the other hand, within the 

reality genre format adaptations make up 75 per cent of the genre in both 

2000 and 2004/5 – in 2000 1.5 hour and in 2004/5 6 hours – and thus 

constitute a very important reality ‘backbone’ on Channel Ten. 

Table 7.10.1 ▶ Format share of the lifestyle and reality genres on Channel Ten 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Lifestyle Nil Nil 33 % 

1 hr 


1.5 hr 

75 % 

6 hrs 

Conclusions 

Format adaptations have come to play a crucial part in Channel Ten’s 

primetime in the period between 2000 and 2004/5, and seem to play a role in 

both the rise of local content and the increase of the reality genre in this 

196


period as well. The initial dominance of fiction has been replaced by other 

genres, especially entertainment and recently reality. The data suggests that 

import substitution, where an initial high share of imported content is gradually 

substituted by local content, has been taking place, in this case partly aided by 

adaptations of overseas formats between 2000 and 2004/5. Fiction – mainly 

of American origin – however, is still by far the biggest genre, distantly 

followed by reality and entertainment. 

ABC 62 


Locally developed and originated content has experienced an increase in the 

surveyed period: from 67 per cent in 1995 and 71 per cent in 2000 to 75 per 

cent in 2004/5. There are no adaptations in any of the years and weeks 

surveyed, which mean that format adaptations have had no part in the local 

content increase. 


197


Table 7.11 ▶ ABC/Australia: the development within local and foreign content, 

format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2005 63 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




37.25 hrs 

39.5 hrs 

67 % 

71 % 

41.75 hrs 

75 % 

18.75 hrs 

16.5 hrs 

14.25 hrs 

33 % 

29 % 

25 % 

Nil Nil Nil 

Documentaries 

News & 


Sport 

Children and 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

Traditional 

entertainment 

15.75 hrs 

28 % 

19 hrs 

34 % 

05 hr 

1 % 


9.75 hrs 

17 % 

16.25 hrs 

29 % 

5.5 hrs 

10 % 

11.25 hrs 

20 % 

16.25hrs 

29 % 

Nil 

Nil Nil Nil 

17.75hrs 

32 % 

2 hrs 

4 % 

18.75hrs 

33 % 

3.75 hrs 

7 % 

12.75hrs 

23 % 

8.75 hrs 

16 % 

Reality Nil Nil 5 hrs 

9 % 

Lifestyle 

Total 

1 hr 

2 % 

56 hrs 

% 

2hrs 

4 % 

56 hrs 

% 

2hrs 

4 % 

56 hrs 

% 

Genres 

Documentaries have experienced a decrease, especially between 1995 and 

2000 where the genre went from a 28 per cent share to a 17 per cent share. In 

2004/5 it has risen a little to a 20 per cent share of primetime. News & 

current affairs is slightly down between 1995 and 2000 – from 34 to 29 per 

cent – after which it has stabilised on 29 per cent. Sport went up considerably 

from 1 per cent in1995 to 10 per cent in 2000, after which it disappeared 

completely in 2004/5. Children’s & youth programming does not appear in 

any of the schedules surveyed. Fiction has decreased from 33 and 32 per cent 

63 Most of the ABC schedules contain one brief five minute news programs at the end of some shows 

every night. These programs are not caught by the analysis because it only works in 15 minute 

intervals; that is, the ABC’s share of news & current affairs is in effect a little higher. Also, the share of 

sport in 2000 is unusually high because the ABC broadcasts the Paralympics Games in Sydney in 

October 2000. 

198


in 1995 and 2000, respectively, down to 23 per cent in 2004/5. Instead 

entertainment has increased considerably from a mere 4 per cent share in 

1995 and a 7 per cent share in 2000 to a 16 per cent share in 2004/5. Reality 

only appears in 2004/5.mainly in the shape of various docu-dramas like the 

Australian Stories from a Children’s Hospital and the British Brat Camp. 

Nevertheless the ABC also runs the locally produced reality dancing game 

show Strictly Dancing. Lifestyle experienced an initial increase from 2 per cent 

in 1995 to 4 per cent in 2000, after which it has stabilised in 2004/5. News & 

current affairs, fiction, and documentaries are the three most important 

genres. Entertainment comes in a distant fourth. 

SBS 64 


As it was the case with the other public service broadcaster ABC, there are no 

adaptations in any of the years and weeks surveyed. Nevertheless, locally 

developed and originated content has experienced quite a dramatic increase in 

the surveyed period without format adaptations playing any part in this 

increase whatsoever. The share of local primetime content is 50 per cent in 

1995 and this increases to 63 per cent in 2000 and again to 73 per cent in 

2004/5. 


199


Table 7.12 ▶ SBS/Australia: the development within local and foreign content, 

format adaptation and genres in primetime 1995-2005 65 

YEAR 1995 2000 2004/5 

Local content 

Foreign 

content 




27.75 hrs 

35.5 hrs 

40.75 hrs 

50 % 

63 % 

73 % 

28.25 

20.5 hrs 

15.25 hrs 

50 % 

37 % 

27 % 

Nil Nil Nil 



26 % 

16.5 hrs 

29 % 

16.5 hrs 

29 % 

News & 


12 hrs 

21 % 

15 hrs 

27 % 

15 hrs 

27 % 

Sport 

10 hrs 

18 % 

9 hrs 

16 % 

6.5 hrs 

12 % 

Children and 

Nil Nil Nil 

youth 

Fiction and 

drama 

15.5hrs 

28 % 

11.5hrs 

21 % 

10.75hrs 

19 % 

Traditional 

entertainment 

1.25 hr 

2 % 

2.5 hrs 

4 % 

2.5 hrs 

5 % 

Reality Nil Nil 3 hrs 

5 % 

Lifestyle 

2.5 hrs 

4 % 

1.5 hr 

3 % 

1.75hrs 

3 % 

Total 

56 hrs 

99 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

56 hrs 

100 % 

Genres 

Documentaries have experienced an initial increase, from 26 to 29 per cent 

between 1995 and 2000, after which the genre has stabilised. The same goes 

for news & current affairs. Sport has decreased over the period from 18 per 

cent in 1995 and 16 per cent in 2000 to 12 per cent in 2004/5. Children’s & 

youth programming does not appear in any of the schedules surveyed. Fiction 

has also decreased: from 28 per cent in 1995 to 21 and 19 per cent in 2000 

and 2004/5, respectively. Entertainment increased a little from 1995 to 2000, 

after which it stabilised. Reality only appears in 2004/5, with 5 per cent, and 

65 Some of the factual programs primarily within the genres of documentaries and news & current affairs 

are hosted by Australians and thus figure as locally produced in the survey, despite very high levels of 

segments done by foreign reporters and broadcasters. However, because they show as Australian 

produced in the various TV guides, it has proven impossible to check whether these programs are 

actually more foreign than Australian. 

200


with shows like the Japanese Iron Chef and the locally produced National 

Karaoke Challenge. Lifestyle has kept a fairly steady level of 3-4 per cent. Fiction 

– and to a certain degree sports – have been partly replaced by documentaries 

and news & current affairs and – to a lesser degree – entertainment and 

reality. Documentaries and news & current affairs are the most important 

genres, followed by fiction. Although it has been on the decrease over the 

past 10 years, sport still comes fourth in 2004/5 due to the daily sports news 

show, World Sports. 

Summary and perspectives on Australia in general 

Formats were only present on the commercial networks. Neither ABC nor 

SBS had any format adaptations in the weeks surveyed, leading to the 

conclusion that formats play an insignificant role in Australian public service 

broadcasting. 

Table 7.13 ▶ Distribution of Australian format adaptations according to year and 

genre 

1995 2000 2004/5 

Current affairs 60 Minutes (Channel Nine) 60 Minutes (Channel Nine) 60 Minutes (Channel 

Nine) 

Entertainment Gladiators, World’s Greatest World’s Funniest Bloopers Dancing with the Stars 

Commercials, World’s (Channel Seven) 

(Channel Seven) 

Wackiest Videos (Channel 

Seven) 

Sale of the Century, 

Australia’s Funniest Home 

Videos, World’s Weirdest TV, 

Don’t Forget Your 

Toothbrush, This is Your Life 

(Channel Nine) 


Videos, Sale of the New 

Century, Who Wants to be a 

Millionaire, Surprise - Surprise, 

This is Your Life (Channel 

Nine) 


Videos, Who Wants to be 

a Millionaire, This is Your 

Life (Channel Nine) 

Lifestyle 

Your Favourite Commercials 

(Ten) 

Ground Force (Channel Seven) 

Changing Rooms (Channel 

Nine) 

Reality Treasure Island (NZ), The 

Villa (UK), Pop Stars (NZ) 

(Channel Seven) 


Guy (Ten) 

The X Factor, Australian 

Idol (Ten) 

World’s Worst Drivers Caught 

on Tape (Channel Nine) 

The Band (US), World’s 

Wildest Police Videos (Ten) 

Total format hrs 14.5 hrs 18.5 hrs 16.75 hrs 

No. of formats 10 formats 15 formats 8 formats 

201


This is substantiated by the fact that SBS has only ever produced one 

adaptation, namely the 2006 version of the Danish reality format Nerds FC 

that will be the subject of a textual analysis later (also see Murphy 2005). 66 

ABC on the other hand has done more than one adaptation, but still has only 

used adaptations to a limited degree, for example Outback House from 2002 

based partly on the American PBS-channel format Frontier House and the 

British Channel Four format Edwardian Country House. 

As for the use of format adaptation on the commercial networks, the three 

networks display significant differences, historically as well as presently, and 

there are no consistent trends among them. The differences are displayed in 

table 7.13 above and table 7.14 below. In relation to Channel Nine, format 

adaptations have played a vital and consistent role in the entire period. The 

share of adaptations has been kept at around 30 per cent of the local content 

in both 1995, 2000 and 2004/5, making Channel Nine the most important 

adapter of overseas formats in Australia. In the two surveyed weeks of 

2004/5 the network had adapted four formats, which equalled a total of 7.25 

format hours. As for Channel Ten, format adaptations have also come to play 

quite a vital role, but mainly in the period between 2000 and 2004/5. About 

one in four locally produced hours was based on overseas formats in 2004/5, 

which equals three formats and 7 format hours, making Channel Ten the 

second most important format purchaser in Australia. Format adaptations, 

however, play a much less significant role on Channel Ten’s primetime in 

1995 and 2000, partly due to a much smaller share of local content. Whereas 

Channel Seven’s format adaptation seems significantly less important in the 

schedule compared to Channel Nine and Channel Ten. As a matter of fact in 

2004/5, Channel Seven only has one format, Dancing with the Stars, that took 

up 2.5 hours of the schedule, making Channel Seven the only one of the 

Australian – as well as the Danish – broadcasters to experience an actual 

adaptation decrease in 2004/5. 

66 SBS’ adaptation of Nerds FC was very successful and the network is making a second series for 

202


Table 7.14 ▶ 2004/5 distribution of Australian format adaptations according to genre 

and channel 

BROADCASTER/ 

FORMAT 

HOURS 

Channel Seven/ 

2.5 hrs 

Channel Nine/ 

7.25 hrs 

Ten/ 

4 hrs 

LIFESTYLE REALITY ENTERTAINMENT CURRENT 

AFFAIRS 

Queer Eye… (US) The X Factor 

(UK) 

Australian Idol 

(UK) 

Dancing with the Stars 

(UK) 

Funniest Home Videos 

(US) 

Millionaire (UK) 

This Is Your Life (US) 

60 Minutes (US) 

As far as possible, and where connections between format adaptation and 

local content share are concerned, only Channel Ten’s rise in local content 

seems somewhat aided by an increased use of format adaptations. On 

Channel Nine, the share of adaptations has paralleled the share of local 

content throughout all three years surveyed. This implies that format hours 

on Channel Nine have gone down when local content has gone down and 

vice versa. Finally, Channel Seven displays the exact opposite trend. When 

local content on Channel Seven has gone down, format hours have gone up. 

This essentially means that format adaptation has played no part whatsoever 

in the rise and fall of local content on Channel Seven, rather the opposite. 

When it comes to genre, Channel Ten is also the only one of the three 

networks to demonstrate parallel increases in the reality genre and the use of 

reality formats. This is not the case on either Channel Seven or Channel Nine. 

Nor is there any apparent connection between the lifestyle genre and format 

adaptations on any of the networks. When one looks at table 7.14 above, it is 

evident that the majority of Australian format adaptations are found within 

traditional entertainment subgenres, even in 2004/5. After the appearance of 

various lifestyle and especially reality formats in 2000, the number of both has 

actually decreased in 2004/5. In 2000 there were two lifestyle formats and six 

reality formats. In 2004/5 there were only one lifestyle format and two reality 

broadcast in 2007. 

203


formats. This is the exact opposite trend of Denmark where both lifestyle and 

reality formats have experienced a continuous increase over the surveyed 

period. As for the number of entertainment formats on the Australian 

networks, this has also reduced slightly. In actual fact, both the number of 

formats and the amount of format hours on the Australian broadcasters 

peaked in 2000 where there were a total of 15 formats and 18.5 format hours, 

compared to only 7 formats and 16.75 format hours in 2004/5 (see table 

7.13). Once again this contradicts the Danish trend, which saw more than a 

doubling of both formats and format hours in 2004/5. 

On a more general note, the Australian television system is also polarised 

between the commercial sector and the public service sector, as is the case 

with the Danish system. On one hand, ABC and SBS have comparatively 

high levels of local content and factual programming, and no format 

adaptations at all. On the other hand, Channel Seven, Channel Nine and 

Channel Ten have much lower levels of local content and factual 

programming, and format adaptations play a fairly important role in their 

program production. In addition, fiction (the large majority of which 

originates in the US) plays a much more dominant role on the commercial 

broadcasters than on ABC and SBS. On the three commercial broadcasters 

the primetime share of fiction is about 60 per cent; on ABC and SBS it is only 

about 20 per cent. However, having said this, the polarisation does not seem 

quite as strong as in Denmark. First of all, the Australian public service 

broadcasters have a little less local content than the Danish public service 

broadcasters; and the Australian commercial broadcasters have comparatively 

more local content than their Danish counterparts. Secondly, the Australian 

commercial networks have a relatively larger share of factual content, in this 

case documentaries and news & current affairs, than the Danish commercial 

broadcasters, of which only TvDanmark has a small share of documentaries. 

TV3 has no factual programming at all. These differences will be discussed in 

more detail below. 

204


DENMARK AND AUSTRALIA COMPARED 

This paragraph is dedicated a comparison of the two sets of results from the 

Danish and the Australian schedule analyses. The comparison focuses on 

both similarities and differences between the two countries when it comes to 

genres, broadcasters, sectors, and of course format adaptations. It takes its 

point of departure in the three basic assumptions made in the introduction of 

the research design in Chapter 4. The three basic assumptions were as 

follows: 

• Format adaptations have taken up an increasing part of Danish 

and Australian primetime over the past 10 years 

• Locally produced programming in Danish and Australian 

primetime has also increased; this may especially be the case with 

broadcasters who have traditionally relied heavily on imported 

(American) content 

• In the process, factual entertainment genres within reality and 

lifestyle have marginalized genres such as current 

affairs/documentary, fiction, and entertainment in primetime 

In other words, I shall try to answer whether there is a connection between 

changes in the use of format adaptation in the two countries and changes in 

genres and local content. One thing worth mentioning here is however that 

generally the results of the schedule analysis more or less substantiate and 

confirm the results of Schmitt et al.’s (2005) analysis of the Danish and 

Australian format markets, which were accounted for in Chapter 2. Finally, 

possible explanations for the similarities and differences are outlined and 

related to the comparative media system analysis undertaken in Chapter 5. 

205


More formats in Denmark than in Australia 

In 2004/5, Denmark had more adaptations than Australia; both as far as the 

number of different formats and the actual format hours. Moreover, all four 

Danish broadcasters use format adaptation. In Australia, only the three 

commercial networks have adaptations in their schedules. As table 7.15 below 

shows, the 2004/5 schedules of the four Danish broadcasters contain a total 

of 23 formats and 38.5 format hours, against only 8 formats and 16.75 format 

hours in the Australian schedules. Therefore, there are striking differences 

between the Danish and the Australian television systems in terms of format 

adaptation. But this is not the case in a historical perspective, as is also 

revealed by the below table 7.15. In 1995 and 2000 the differences are a lot 

less marked. In both years the two countries are essentially on par, and the 

differences are not really noteworthy. 67 This means that the first assumption 

fits perfectly with the situation in Denmark but not so well with the 

Australian television schedules. Australia has even experienced a decrease in 

the use of formats on primetime television from 2000 to 2004/5. 

Table 7.15 ▶ The development of format hours and number of formats in Denmark 

and Australia 

Format 

hours 

No. of 

formats 

1995 

DK 

1995 

AUS 

2000 

DK 

2000 

AUS 

2004/5 

DK 

2004/5 

AUS 

15 hrs 14.5 hrs 18.5 hrs 18.5 hrs 38.5 hrs 16.75 hrs 

9 formats 10 formats 11 formats 15 formats 23 formats 8 formats 

Clearer Danish connections between formats and local content and genre development 

In Denmark there are also clearer connections between the rise of the reality 

and lifestyle genres and the increase in format adaptation. A rise in reality and 

lifestyle format adaptations seems to correspond with a rise in the two genres. 

In addition, there is a minor parallel between a rise in local content on TV 2 

67 Here, one of course has to take into consideration that one more broadcaster is surveyed in Australia 

in 2000 and two more in 1995, which means that Denmark still outranks Australia per broadcaster. 

However, the differences are still not as striking as in 2004/5. 

206


and TV3 and a higher share of format adaptation. In Australia the 

development of format adaptations cannot consistently be linked to 

developments in local content and/or in the lifestyle and reality genres. Only 

on Channel Ten are there some links between a rise in local content and in 

reality programming and an increased use of format adaptation. This also 

means that assumption number two is partly true. Channel Ten and TV3 have 

both traditionally relied heavily on imported content and they have both 

experienced a local content increase partly aided by format adaptations. On 

the other hand, TvDanmark, which has also relied significantly on imported 

content, has not experienced a local content increase despite a format 

increase. In fact TvDanmark’s share of local content has decreased 

significantly instead, making the assumption only partly accurate. 

No marginalisation of factual genres on account of lifestyle and reality formats 

Generally there has been no marginalisation of the factual genres of 

documentaries and news & current affairs due to an increase in lifestyle and 

reality formats. This makes assumption three inaccurate for all but one 

channel, TV3, where lifestyle and reality indeed have replaced all other genres 

but fiction. On the other channels – both the Danish and the Australian – 

lifestyle and reality shows seem to have replaced traditional entertainment, 

fiction and sport more than anything. Channel Seven, DR1, and TV 2 have 

even experienced an increase primarily in news & current affairs, whilst the 

level of documentaries and news & current affairs has been steady on 

TvDanmark, Channel Nine, and Channel Ten. 

Larger polarisation in Denmark 

As mentioned above, there is clearly a polarisation between the commercial 

and the public sector in Denmark as well as in Australia. Yet this polarisation 

seems stronger in Denmark. First of all, the Australian public service 

broadcasters have a little less local content than the Danish public service 

broadcasters; and the Australian commercial broadcasters have comparatively 

more local content than their Danish counterparts. Secondly, the Australian 

207


commercial networks have a relatively larger share of factual content, in this 

case documentaries and news & current affairs, than the Danish commercial 

broadcasters, of which only TvDanmark has a small share of documentaries. 

TV3 has no factual programming at all. Below is a table demonstrating the 

differences in the distribution of the documentary/news & current affairs 

genres versus the traditional and factual entertainment genres in the two 

countries, and the differences in local content shares. 

Table 7.16 ▶ share of factual, entertainment and local content on Danish and 

Australian public service and commercial broadcasters in 2004/5 

PSB Denmark: 

DR1/TV 2 

PSB Australia: 

ABC/SBS 

Commercial Denmark: 

TV3/TvDK 

Commercial Australia: 

7/9/10 

FACTUAL 

(DOCUMENT. & 

NEWS/CURRENT 

AFFAIRS) 

ENTERTAINMENT 

(INCL. REALITY 

AND LIFESTYLE) 

LOCAL 

CONTENT 

49% / 50% 21% / 30% 83% / 82 % 

49% / 56% 29% / 13% 75% / 73% 

0% / 6% 46% / 48% 38% / 19% 

14% / 13% / 2% 23% / 27% / 30% 60% / 41% / 46% 

Another important difference between the Australian and Danish commercial 

broadcasters is that TV3 and TvDanmark have very high shares of traditional 

and factual entertainment compared to Channel Seven, Channel Nine, and 

Channel Ten, which in turn have higher shares of the factual genres and 

fiction. Having said this, an important exception is Australia’s Channel Ten, 

which actually has a very diminutive share of documentaries and news & 

current affairs and therefore in many ways bears closer resemblance to TV3 

and TvDanmark than to Channel Seven and Channel Nine. 68 The explanation 

of this may be found in historical similarities and in the fact that Channel Ten 

– like TV3 and TvDanmark – is a relatively new player in the Australian 

commercial free-to-air market. Channel Seven and Channel Nine were the 

two original commercial networks in Australia have benefited from a larger 

68 Contrary to TV3 and TvDanamrk, Channel ten does however have regular newscasts. The Channel 

Ten newscasts are broadcast just outside primetime and therefore do not figure in the above results. 

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consolidation in the Australian market and a competitive head start to 

Channel Ten, very much as has been the case with Denmark’s DR1 and TV 

2. Channel Ten has – much like TV3 and TvDanmark – had to distinguish 

itself, in this case by targeting a younger demographic than the more 

established commercial networks. TvDanmark and especially TV3 have also 

chosen to target the younger and commercially more interesting 

demographics as a means to generate advertising revenue and gain a stronger 

foothold in the market 

Concluding, Denmark’s commercial broadcasters in many ways seem more 

commercial and populist than their Australian counterparts, judging from 

genre composition and levels of local and foreign content. In addition, 

Denmark’s public service broadcasters appear to be a little more public 

service oriented because of slightly higher levels of local content, especially in 

a historical perspective. Still, when it comes to shares of documentaries, news 

& current affairs, and traditional/factual entertainment, the public service 

broadcasters in the two countries are more or less on par. In Australia, the 

commercial and the public sectors are statistically a little closer to each other 

than it is the case in Denmark. In the light of this it is interesting that format 

adaptation is a fairly well-established practice on the Danish public service 

broadcasters, whereas adaptations are virtually non-existent on the ABC and 

the SBS. This will be further questioned and discussed below. 

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MEDIA SYSTEMIC EXPLANATIONS 

A number of systemic factors in the Danish and the Australian television 

systems will now be outlined as explanations for why the schedules in the two 

countries look like they do and why they portray the above differences and 

similarities. 

Different market sizes 

First of all, the two television markets are relatively different in size. 

Australian broadcasters have a market of about 20 million people; the Danish 

broadcasters only just over 5 million potential viewers. Although they are 

both fairly small markets when compared to markets like the UK, France, 

Germany, and the USA, we are still safe to assume that Australian 

(commercial) broadcasting generates more advertising revenue than the 

Danish market and therefore generally has more money to spend on 

production. Therefore the Danish players – like perhaps players in other small 

markets – may opt for the safer format adaptations more frequently than their 

Australian counterparts. In addition, TV 2’s dominant position on the Danish 

market for television advertising makes the two private, commercial 

broadcasters TV3 and TvDanmark even ‘poorer’ and therefore more prone 

to go for the safe program bets such as formats with a proven track record. 

Also, because TV 2 is commercially driven despite having public service 

obligations, it has an obligation towards the advertisers to provide as many 

viewers as possible and may therefore also be more prone to using formats 

with a track record than for instance DR. DR’s aspirations are purely public 

service oriented in the sense that DR primarily aims at attracting a large 

variety of Danish viewers by way of a large variety of programming. DR is 

therefore less dependent on international formats because formats are often 

highly standardised and targeted the broad, mainstream audience as opposed 

to niche audiences. Additionally, DR has for some years had an unwritten rule 

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about only producing an absolute minimum of format adaptations and 

instead focus more on 100 per cent locally developed and research programs. 

Different ideas of public service 

As the analysis has shown, the Danish public service broadcasters have a 

much higher use of format adaptations than the Australian public service 

broadcasters, the ABC and the SBS. This may be explained in the fact that 

public service is viewed and treated differently in the two countries. As we 

have seen in Chapter 5, Danish public broadcasters have legislatively, 

financially, and historically been treated as more important than the 

commercial broadcasters and have additionally been obliged to appeal very 

broadly. A broad appeal includes entertainment, traditional as well as factual, 

which is where we find a great deal of the formats. The Australian public 

sector has historically, legislatively and financially been viewed and treated as 

merely an alternative to the commercial broadcasters. The public sector has to 

provide something the commercial sector does not, which may be part of the 

reason why the ABC and the SBS seem reluctant to use format adaptations. 

Australia: early Americanisation and English-speaking 

Australian television was a commercial and Americanised system from the 

beginning and Australians have therefore always been accustomed to foreign 

television content: that is mainly American or British or, less importantly, 

other English-language content (see Chapter 5). On top of that, and despite 

being a diverse multicultural society, Australia’s primary language is English, 

making American and British programs much easier accessible to the general 

television audience. Hence, the need for adaptations of overseas formats may 

not be as urgent and the advantages not as big for Australian as for Danish 

broadcasters, who have traditionally had to rely on a very high share of local 

content in order to fight off competition from other national competitors as 

well as foreign language competitors. 

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Mature mixed system in Australia 

Additionally, Australia has a much more mature mixed television system. 

Australian television was from the beginning both public and private. 

Denmark has had commercial television for less than two decades and even 

had a monopolistic public service broadcaster up until 1988 (see Chapter 5). 

Perhaps Australia’s broadcasters are less susceptible to contemporary trends 

because all players are already quite consolidated in the system. In Denmark 

the players – especially the commercial ones – are still trying to find their 

place and they are, perhaps, more prone to turn to foreign formats and genre 

trends for help. Some examples of this higher degree of maturity could be the 

fact that the Australian levels of format adaptation are more consistent 

through the years; and the fluctuations in genre levels – for example within 

reality and lifestyle – are not as marked as in Denmark. 

Another explanation, related to the maturity of the Australian dual system, 

could simply be that the Australian television market is commercially ahead of 

the Danish market due to its longer history of commercial television. Hence, 

Australian broadcasters react quicker to industry trends such as format 

adaptation and genre trends. This could explain why lifestyle and reality 

programming seems on the decrease in Australia as opposed to Denmark, 

where the genres have increased considerably over the 10 year period. For the 

Australians, lifestyle and reality may already be a thing of the past and they 

have therefore moved on to the next trend. Also it could partly explain the 

more consistent use of formats. For the Australian commercial broadcasters 

format adaptation has been a practice employed for many decades (with longrunning 

formats such as 60 Minutes and Sale of the Century), whereas the 

advantages of format adaptation is just starting to dawn on the broadcasters 

of countries such as Denmark, which have only recently introduced a dual 

system. Danish broadcasters are therefore really wearing international formats 

thin for the time being but may later use formats at a more consistent level, as 

soon as the market matures. However, this is something only time will tell. 

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Turbulent transition in Denmark 

Another reason why the use of formats is presently significantly higher in 

Denmark than in Australia could also be the fact that the Danish television 

system has undergone an extremely turbulent transition recently. This 

transition has led to a great variety of new channels and hence an increase in 

market competition. The Danish players may therefore again be more open to 

the safer adaptations of foreign formats. In relation to this, there is an 

increasingly growing demand for content and it is likely that the Danish 

producers struggle to keep up and therefore cannot supply enough 

(interesting) programs. In fact, this is also suggested by both executive 

producer from TV 2, Anette Rømer, and program manager from TV3, 

Karoline Spodsberg (Rømer 2006; Spodsberg 2006). 

More fiction on Australian schedules 

Both historically and at present, Australian schedules have a larger share of 

fiction compared to Danish schedules. The genre of fiction is in many ways 

different to other genres as it very often travels better than other types of 

content like entertainment. This is especially the case with American fiction, 

which is particularly abundant in the Australian schedules, because it is 

narratively very transparent and therefore easy to understand for people 

outside the USA (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 3). Fiction is maybe therefore a 

genre without a lot of format adaptations compared to the entertainment 

subgenres. As well, Australia has actually been a relatively successful exporter 

of television fiction to the rest of the world, mainly in the shape of original 

Australian drama series and soaps, or in a few instances even scripted drama 

formats (Moran 1997, 1998; also see Chapter 5). 

A pervasive Danish public service ideology 

As for the significant increase in the factual entertainment genres in Denmark 

– especially lifestyle but also partly reality – an explanation could be the 

historic importance of educational, informative programs in the Danish 

public service tradition. This is a tradition that may have had a certain affect 

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on the commercial broadcasters too, whose employees for a large part have 

previously worked for the public broadcasters and are thus trained within the 

public service mentality and ideology (also see Reinicke 2006 and Spodsberg 

2006, who both suggest the same). The many international format successes 

in the factual entertainment genres are hence likely to have been beneficial for 

the Danish broadcasters. As for the lifestyle formats in particular, most of 

them originate in the UK, which has a similar tradition for educational and 

informative public service television, and the formats in this genre may 

therefore fit particularly well on Danish TV. 

In the next four chapters we turn to the qualitative and comparative analyses 

of the Australian and Danish adaptations of the formats Ground Force, The 

Block, Nerds FC and Idol. The program episodes chosen for in-depth analysis 

are found as appendices on the DVDs attached to the thesis. 

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“GROUND FORCE” AND “HOKUS KROKUS” 

The Ground Force format represents a typical format journey from the centre, 

which in this case is the UK, to the periphery, in this case Denmark and 

Australia, of the European/Anglo Saxon geo-linguistic region. 

Ground Force was originally developed for the BBC in 1997 by Bazal 

Productions, which later became Endemol’s British production unit, 

Endemol UK Productions. The format has been a big success in its home 

country where it first went on air on BBC2 but due to its success was quickly 

moved to BBC1. On BBC1 it achieved ratings of up to 12 million Britons, 

that is, approximately 20 per cent of the population (Western Mercury Online 

2004). The format is still going strong in the UK and has been adapted in at 

least six countries, among which are both Denmark and Australia. The other 

countries, USA, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany, are all within the same 

geo-linguistic region as Denmark and Australia, which indicates that the 

format is regional rather than global. 

In Denmark DR1 adapted the format under the title of Hokus Krokus. In 

Australia Channel Seven did the adaptation, retaining the original title Ground 

Force. Like the original format the two adaptations have also been relatively 

successful. DR1 made its first series of the format in 1999 and has since then 

made a new series every year, which means that it has been made in nine 

series to date. The shares have been between 40 and 50 per cent (Hansen 

2006; Gallup TV-Meter 2006), which gives an approximate average rating of 

15 per cent of the Danish population (Gallup TV-Meter 2006). These ratings 

have been fairly stable throughout the years and this indicates that the format 

is not losing its footing with the Danish audience just yet. 

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As far as the Australian Ground Force is concerned, it has not been possible to 

obtain exact ratings. However, it ran for four seasons from 2000 until 2004, 

and according to head of production and development at Channel Seven, 

Brad Lyons, it did well although it faced fierce competition from other 

popular Australian lifestyle shows on gardening at the time such as Channel 

Nine’s Burke’s Backyard and, from 2000, its spin-off, Backyard Blitz. The latter 

was more or less a copycat of Ground Force and the two therefore cannibalised 

each other and, according to Lyons, created a certain fatigue in the garden 

show market (Lyons 2005). 

Hokus Krokus is a play on words regarding the expression “hokus pokus”, 

which is the Danish expression magicians make when they do their tricks. In 

the format’s title “pokus” is substituted by “krokus”, the Danish word for the 

crocus flower, and the title thus hints at gardening as well as magic. The 

original and Australian title Ground Force is military terminology and hence 

connotative of military troops, in this case the makeover team, being 

deployed to combat and remove evil and restore order in the battle zone, in 

this case the garden. As such, the two titles create fairly distinct associations 

even before the Danish and Australian viewers have turned on the television. 

As it turns out, these associations fit well with a number of other largely 

analytical differences, which make Hokus Krokus and Ground Force radically 

different. 

The differences occur in two areas that are both of fundamental importance 

for the viewer experience. First of all the two adaptations have two different 

ways of constructing the contact between the program and its audience. 

Secondly, the two adaptations differ considerably in their staging of the inbuilt 

emotional appeal of the format. As a matter of fact the two adaptations 

are so far apart that at first glance it is basically impossible to see that they 

originate in the same format. 

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Below, I will account for the most important results of the comparative 

analysis of the two adaptations. This is done by investigating four program 

elements that all exemplify the differences: 

• Narrative structure, 

• Audiovisual aesthetics, 

• The presenters, 

• And product placement. 

Narrative structure: Australian melodrama versus Danish coolness 

The basic plot of the two adaptations is the same: A deserving person in need 

is surprised with a complete garden transformation or makeover at the 

request of a family member or a friend. The makeover team has a tight 

budget and an equally tight time schedule to do the transformation. The 

Ground Force team has $3,500AUD/DKK 16,000 and two days. The Hokus 

Krokus team has DKK 25,000 and three days. 69 

In the Danish episode chosen for the analysis the Hokus Krokus team 

transforms a bleak roof terrace into a ‘yin and yang’-inspired herb garden. The 

Australian episode sees the Ground Force team transform a run down backyard 

into a beautiful, lush rose garden. 70 Both adaptations are found on DVD 1 of 

the appendices. In makeover formats such as Ground Force, and a lot of other 

69 That is, the Danish team has more money and an extra day for the transformation. However this may 

be nullified as, generally, speaking, garden transformations can be achieved for less money in 

Australia. As well, the Australian team gets a lot more help from tradespeople than the Danish team, 

who appear to do most of the work themselves. 

70 The reason for choosing these two specific episodes is simple. I received a recording of the Australian 

episode from friends in Australia and because this episode takes place in sub-tropical Queensland, 

which gives a definite summer feel and influences the way the presenters dress, I subsequently chose a 

summer episode of the Danish adaptation. This was done to make them as ‘similar’ as possible and to 

avoid having to compare a sunny Queensland atmosphere to, for instance, a bleak Danish garden in 

autumn. 

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lifestyle formats, the plot is most often centred on the ‘reveal’ of the 

transformation, be it a new garden, a new home, or a new look. The reveal 

and, even more importantly, the reactions of the ‘victim’ and his or her 

friends and family provide rich opportunity for melodrama and ‘how do you 

feel right now’ statements (Brunsdon et al 2001, also see Chapter 3). 

However, in the case of Ground Force an extra melodramatic layer exists 

because the makeover happens to somebody who really deserves or even 

needs to experience the happiness of a garden makeover. The Australian 

victim, a woman named Patricia, has personally fostered and taken care of no 

less than 200 children whose mothers were drug or alcohol dependent. The 

Danish victim Margaret has stood by her husband since he was paralysed as 

the result of a serious traffic accident. This extra melodramatic layer provides 

plenty of opportunities for the producers to turn up the sentimentality level 

of the show. The management of these melodramatic and sentimental 

opportunities happens in two very different ways in the two adaptations. The 

Australian version turns up the melodrama and sentimentality to a level where 

the tears flow freely on screen and, one imagines, off screen in the living 

rooms of its viewers. On the other hand the same elements are played down a 

lot more in the Danish version. One example of this is that Ground Force uses 

relatively more time on the reveal and the resulting reactions than Hokus 

Krokus. Seventeen per cent of the program length is used on the reveal in 

Ground Froce versus only 10 per cent in Hokus Krokus. The difference in how 

the two adaptations prioritise the melodramatic elements is also substantiated 

by the way the Danish and the Australian reveals are structured narratively 

(and also by the use of the audiovisual aesthetics, as will be the subject of the 

next subsection of this chapter). 

Firstly, Australian Patricia breaks down crying when she sees her new garden 

and the host Patrick puts his arm around her shoulder in a comforting 

manner. In addition Patricia’s friends and family enter the garden where they 

all kiss and hug her. The two female co-hosts also hug her and bring her a 

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large bouquet of flowers. Danish Margaret also gets very surprised. 

Nevertheless, she behaves in a much more composed manner and she does 

not cry. Nor is she embraced by anybody, be it the hosts, her husband or her 

sister who are all present at the reveal. Margaret does not receive flowers, 

instead, she shakes hands with the two gardeners who in a polite and almost 

shy manner congratulate her on the makeover. Secondly, the Australian 

producers have chosen to give Patricia an extra and even more touching 

surprise: A considerable part of her, now adult, foster children – together with 

their children and spouses – flock into the garden. They have all assisted in 

the makeover and the viewer thus gets concrete evidence that Patricia really 

has made a difference in the lives of a lot of people. At the end of the show 

two of the foster children are even interviewed about the impact Patricia has 

had on their lives, after which Patricia talks about how wonderful it was for 

her to see her foster children again. She concludes with the following 

statement, which acts as a kind of melodramatic program morale: 

It made fostering worthwhile to see that they’d made such a wonderful job 

of their lives. 

Audiovisual aesthetics: Direct emotional appeal versus limited 

emotional appeal 

There are also considerable differences in the audiovisual aesthetics between 

Hokus Krokus and Ground Force. The two adaptations are very different when it 

comes to their employment of editing style, camera work and music. The 

differences fit in perfectly with the section above, in that the Australian 

adaptation employs its audiovisual aesthetics in a manner that creates a much 

more direct emotional appeal than is the case in the Danish version. This 

direct emotional appeal is present during the entire episode and not just 

during the reveal. Contrary to Ground Force, Hokus Krokus hardly utilises any 

audiovisual effects to add to the narrative. 

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Editing 

The Australian editing seems significantly more ‘experimental’ and energetic 

than the Danish editing style, which on the other hand is marked by a much 

more traditional style featuring many crosscuts and a steady editing pace. The 

frequency of cuts is much higher in Ground Force. As an average Hokus Krokus 

has one cut for every eight seconds, while the average cut in Ground Force lasts 

only four seconds. That is, the Australian cutting rhythm is twice as fast as the 

Danish. Additionally, the editing of Ground Force is marked by an uneven pace 

and many little ‘breakers’ with an even higher editing pace (which are further 

underlined by quickly paced rock music). These breakers show the progress 

of the work in a fast-forward mode but at the same time constitute appetising 

little breaks for the viewers, and as such they can divide a content segment – 

such as the presentation of a DIY stained glass window – in two. 

In Hokus Krokus the editing pace is steadier and the editing style much more 

traditional. An example is the frequent use of the traditional crosscuts used on 

the news when the main presenter Puk Elgaard interviews gardeners, ‘victim’ 

and relatives. Another example is that breakers never interrupt the same 

content segment, as is the case in the Australian adaptation. The pace in the 

Danish version thus becomes more static and certainly a lot slower than in 

Ground Force. 

Camera work 

The same stylistic differences are at play in the camera work of the two 

adaptations. The camera work in the Australian adaptation is again more 

energetic than the Danish adaptation’s camera work. Examples of this are the 

many shifts in perspective in Ground Force, where the camera moves from a 

bird’s eye view or worm’s eye view to a normal perspective – or the other way 

round. Besides this, the camera is very agile. It makes many pans and zooms 

and the Australian producers have obviously aimed at creating a handheld, 

and thus more diverse, camera-driven aesthetic. Hokus Krokus has a more 

stationary and inactive camera. It rarely zooms and only uses pans on a few 

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occasions. Again this makes for a considerably slower and more static 

program compared to Ground Force. 

Music 

The two adaptations’ use of underlining music is basically diametrically 

opposed to one another. In Hokus Krokus the use of music is limited to 

different variations of the signature music. The signature music is used in the 

program intro, during the crawling titles, as an underscore during Puk 

Elgaard’s voice-over, and finally it is used to mark the beginning of a new 

narrative segment. Thus the music creates a certain degree of recognisability 

with the viewers. 

As a stark contrast to this, Ground Force constitutes a cornucopia of different 

music. The program primarily makes use of contemporary music in a variety 

of genres from hard rock, chilled lounge music, to a quiet Madonna ballad. 

The Primal Scream song Get Your Rocks Off is for instance used immediately 

after one of the three advertising breaks to underscore pictures from the busy 

construction site. This way it is used to recapture the attention of the viewers 

after the break and to underline the hard but efficient work that goes into the 

garden makeover. The Madonna ballad underscores the reveal, while harp 

music accompanies the concluding interviews with Patricia’s foster children. 

The music is thus used to underline the content and to trigger and enhance 

the ‘right feelings’ in the viewers. 

The presenters: Australian playfulness versus Danish working 

partnership 

The appeal of the presenters is also approached radically different in a 

number of important areas, which includes: 

• The professional background of the presenters, 

• The distribution of presenter ‘roles’ and presenter knowledge, 

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• Plus the degree of sexualisation of the presenters. 

Professional background 

A simplified examination of the professional backgrounds of the Danish and 

the Australian presenters leaves one to conclude that the Danish version 

prioritises a professional, skilled trade background of the presenters, whereas 

the Australian version puts larger emphasis on the presenters’ previous 

experience with television and acting. 

The Danish main host, Puk Elgaard, has a professional background in 

primarily children’s television. She has a very sweet, childish and almost elflike 

appeal and is, as such, fairly ‘desexualised’. Her two co-presenters Torben 

and Bettina are both trained landscape gardeners, who off-screen are 

employed by the large and well-established Danish landscape architect firm 

Hedeselskabet. As such they are not used to working in and appearing on 

television. 

Contrary to this, all four Australian presenters are well-known actors and/or 

television personalities. The main presenter Patrick Thompson did train as a 

carpenter; however he is also a famous and professionally trained Australian 

actor with an even more famous actor father, Jack Thompson. The male cohost 

Daniel Widdowson is also a trained actor – and award-winning theatre 

scriptwriter – and has besides this been the presenter of a children’s television 

show. Melanie Symons, one of two female co-hosts, has a television career 

behind her; among other things as the female ‘letter turner’ on the Australian 

Wheel of Fortune and the host on various lifestyle and children’s programs. The 

other female co-host, Fiona Bruyn, actually runs a landscape design firm and 

thus only works part-time with television. Nevertheless she used to be the 

host of another lifestyle show and made a living as a fashion model. 

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Roles and distribution of knowledge 

The two adaptations also differ fundamentally as to the different roles of the 

three Danish and the four Australian presenters and their mutual distribution 

of knowledge. Hokus Krokus has a clear division between the main presenter 

Puk Elgaard and her two ‘helpers’: the female landscape gardener Bettina and 

her male colleague, Torben. There is no doubt that Elgaard has the chief 

presenter role. She speaks directly to the camera, does the voice-over that 

accompanies the pictures, and generally guides the viewers through the 

program. She is also the one who interviews relatives and friends about the 

Margaret’s numerous virtues, and she also interviews the two gardeners, who 

as a consequence only speak when they are asked to by Elgaard. The two of 

them are clearly assistants, which is accentuated by the fact that they most 

often only speak to Elgaard and very rarely directly to the camera. In return 

they have the monopoly on the professional gardening expertise. That is, they 

have the expert knowledge, while Elgaard in this regard has the role to ask 

questions on behalf of an uninformed viewer. 

The four Australian hosts have a more equal distribution of roles and 

knowledge. Although Patrick is clearly the main presenter and the viewers’ 

guide around the garden makeover site, and although he is also the only 

presenter who does the voice-overs, the four of them are still fairly equal. For 

instance they all speak to the camera – without the intervention or mediation 

of Patrick – and they all do interviews. Each of them represents his or her 

special professional knowledge, which they communicate to the viewers 

without any interference from other experts. Patrick dispenses useful 

handyman tips on the various construction works; Daniel is in charge of the 

hard labour such as brick laying; Fiona is the floral expert; and Melanie 

demonstrates cheap DIY solutions, often with a feminine touch, such as how 

the viewers can do their own glass mosaics. 

As a result, Hokus Krokus distinguishes clearly between the presenter and the 

expert; between being famous and having professional skills. The presenter is 

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a pure television personality and as such a professional amateur, whilst the 

expert is part of the program on account only of his or her vocation and 

professionalism. Other than that the expert is just an ordinary person. If we 

assume that the majority of the viewers are also just ordinary people, it 

becomes plausible that the underlying premise of Hokus Krokus is to make the 

viewers into experts by watching the show. At the same time the emphasis is 

on ‘real’ experts’ communication of 100 per cent correct professional 

knowledge to the viewers. 

In Ground Force this approach to communication is very different and far more 

ambiguous than in Hokus Krokus. In the Australian adaptation the presenter 

and the expert is the same person. On one hand, the presenters are television 

personalities, and on the other, also the experts. The television personalities 

are hereby ‘lowered’ to the level of the ordinary viewers behind the screen. In 

other words, the television personalities are ordinary carpenters and gardeners 

just like the viewers. The role of the expert is thus devalued a little compared 

to the Danish adaptation because the presenters have not primarily earned 

their qualifications as skilled tradespeople or professional experts, but as 

celebrities. Hence, Ground Force does not emphasise or put as much 

importance on the expert role as Hokus Krokus does. 

Sexualisation of the presenters 

A third important difference between the Danish and the Australian 

presenters is that the Australians are remarkably sexualised. This sexualisation 

is primarily apparent in their clothing. The Australians wear clothes that are 

far more revealing than their ‘practically-oriented’ Danish colleagues. The 

provocative nature of Ground Force is particularly manifested in the style of 

clothing of the two female presenters. Fiona and Melanie – both of whom 

have beyond normal beauty and body shapes – wear tight and colourful strap 

tops and shorts that are equally tight and very, very short. However, the male 

presenters’ clothing also reveals a good deal of their physiques. Patrick’s T- 

shirt and Daniel’s tank top both have a tight fit that reveals their toned upper 

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bodies and biceps. This visual sexualisation is also present in the program 

intro, which has a large number of camera zooms on particular parts of the 

presenters’ bodies. For instance, Patrick’s biceps and Fiona’s legs are featured. 

Hokus Krokus does not focus on the physicality of the presenters. 

Nevertheless, Elgaard’s clothes stand out from the two gardeners’, which 

again stresses her special presenter status. She wears summer tops that do 

reveal her arms but the tops are loosely fitted and in no way as provocative as 

the Australian women’s tops. Also her khaki shorts are baggier, finishing just 

above the knees. The two gardeners are dressed alike in practical and loose 

blue T-shirts and green gardener shorts. As such they are wearing a kind of 

uniform, which takes away their personalities and instead focuses on their 

‘expert gardener’ function. The uniformity of the gardeners combined with 

Puk’s desexualised appeal, as mentioned above, is a stark contrast to the 

Australian presenters’ strong sexualisation and personalised appeal. 

Another example of the Australian version’s increased sexualisation is found 

in the by-play among the presenters. It is humorous, with a fair amount of 

sexual connotations. One particular example is when the two women and 

Daniel are standing on the back of a big truck that resembles an enclosure for 

animals. Patrick is standing next to them and asks Daniel: “Hey, how much 

for the sheep in the back?” after which he goes to Fiona and gives her bottom 

a hard slap as if she were a sheep, making the two women squeal with delight. 

In the Danish presenters’ jargon there is no sexualisation. Their exchanges are 

nothing but friendly and professional. The presenters talk ‘shop’ and that is it. 

The humour is pleasant, cosy and maybe a little childish and simple. Two 

examples of the type of humour used in the Danish version are: 1) The main 

presenter’s mascara runs when she dips her head in water to cool off in the 

summer heat; 2) Torben, the gardener, forgets to bring his shorts despite the 

soaring heat, after which the shorts appear and are hoisted to him on a big 

crane. 

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All of this goes well with the analytical points made in the section above 

about the presenters’ mutual roles and distribution of knowledge. The Danish 

presenters’ interaction and clothing again emphasise the professional aspects 

of the show. The presenters are obviously part of a working partnership. The 

Australian presenters’ appearance and interaction on the other hand 

emphasises the playful aspects of the garden work and the working 

partnership recedes to the background. In other words: the contact between 

the Danish viewer and the Danish program is framed through a largely 

professional working partnership, whereas the staging between the Australian 

viewer and the Australian version is done through sexualisation and play. 

Product placement 

Another area where the two adaptations differ considerably is in their use of 

product placement. Not surprisingly Ground Force has a much more excessive 

product placement as this adaptation is produced for the commercial 

network, Channel Seven. The episode in question is filled with indirect but in 

no way hidden advertisements for various flowers and plants and other 

garden products, and it also has plenty of references to the suppliers and 

tradespeople that are used in the program. It is also important to point out 

that the makeover team of the Australian adaptation receives assistance from 

a considerable number of suppliers and tradespeople throughout the entire 

episode. For instance, the host Patrick tells us that it is “the boys from Jim’s 

Fencing” that build the fences, after which there are a few close-ups of the 

boys’ T-shirts featuring prominent “Jim’s Fencing” logos. Also, co-host 

Daniel does an entire segment dedicated to how the viewers must make sure 

they get a certificate when they buy a certain brand of grass to avoid a copycat 

product. In this way the product placements are very much included in the 

program script, and similar product placements are found throughout the 

entire episode. 

Hokus Krokus also contains some product placement or indirect 

advertisement. However, it is done in a much more subtle and less extensive 

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way than in Ground Force. Naturally Hokus Krokus also refers to the products 

that are used in the makeover but they do not form part of the script in the 

same way as in Ground Force, and certain product brands such as, for instance, 

the Australian grass and “Jim’s Fencing” – are never mentioned. The only 

two direct references to suppliers or tradespeople are made to “Ikast 

Nursery” where the main presenter, Puk Elgaard, goes to purchase plants, 

and to the landscaping firm “Hedeselskabet”, whose logo is printed on the 

two gardeners’ T-shirts and safety helmets. 

Summary: Danish public service and Australian commercial television? 

The results of the analysis reveal that the Danish and the Australian 

adaptations are radically different in two basic areas. Firstly, they construct the 

contact between the program and its audience in different ways. Secondly 

they stage the in-built emotional appeal of the format differently. As for 

narrative structure and audiovisual aesthetics, Ground Force represents a very 

direct emotional appeal, whereas the emotional appeal of Hokus Krokus is 

subtle and indirect. In addition, the Australian presenters’ contact to the 

audience is constructed through sexualisation and playfulness, while this 

contact in the Danish version is staged as a working partnership with 

emphasis on the knowledge of the experts, in this case the two gardeners. 

Finally, the degree of product placement differs considerably between the two 

adaptations. There is a lot more product placement in Ground Force and the 

Australian producers have obviously included large segments of product 

placement in the actual script. The product placement in Hokus Krokus is less 

extensive and as such not included in the script. 

What could be the explanations for these significant differences? Here one 

could easily fall into what I would term the cultural mentality trap where one 

merely speculates about cultural divisions in the Danish and Australian 

national mentalities as possible explanations for the differences. In this case, 

the differences would fit perfectly with national stereotypes such as ‘hardworking 

and stick-in-the-mud Danes’ versus ‘easygoing Australians with an 

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inherent joie de vivre’. However, at best such explanations are oversimplified; 

at worst they are misleading. As already discussed in the first chapters, 

significant and influential issues related to genre and media system are likely 

to be at play. 

First of all, the analysis shows how the lifestyle genre – and hence the lifestyle 

formats – are extremely flexible and almost elastic. The most tangible proof 

of this is the different degrees of product placement that can be contained by 

the one format. The Ground Force format could in principle be stretched 

between two extremes: on the one, commercial hand, the format could 

become one program-long commercial; on the other, more public serviceoriented 

hand, it could become an exclusively didactic program with 

information aimed towards the viewers on how to make a garden. Neither the 

Danish nor the Australian version belongs to these extremes. However, they 

do represent two radically different approaches. 

Secondly, the analysis has shown that the format also contains a number of 

control knobs, which can be adjusted according to the desired level of various 

program elements. The analysis has shown how the two adaptations each 

apply a different focus on aspects of the program; the emotional appeal of the 

program on one hand and the actual DIY work on the other. Again, it is 

possible to imagine even more extreme adaptations that either become 

emotional ‘pornography’ or focus exclusively on the didactic DIY elements. 

The elasticity of the lifestyle genre and formats makes them easily adaptable 

to various media systemic conditions such as broadcaster type, funding, 

competitive situation, and target groups. Thus, they can be used on a transnational 

level as we have seen with the Australian and Danish versions. 

In Denmark the traditional public service broadcaster undertakes the 

adaptation whilst the Australian adaptation is done by a commercial network, 

which results in two radically different programs with hardly any common 

traits. The two programs are clearly targeting different age demographics. 

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Unfortunately, and as already mentioned, it was impossible for me to obtain 

exact ratings let alone detailed demographics on the Ground Force audience; 

however if we turn to the age demographics of the Hokus Krokus viewers, the 

majority of the viewers are older than 30 and the teenagers and 20- 

somethings are under represented. With this in mind and bearing the 

analytical differences discussed above, it becomes plausible that with Ground 

Force Channel Seven was trying to catch the attention of precisely the young – 

and commercially – attractive viewers that Hokus Krokus does not reach, 

without chasing away the 30 to 40 year-olds. On the other hand, DR1 has, as 

part of its public service remit, to communicate to all Danes regardless of age, 

gender or other demographic characteristics and not just aim for the 

commercially attractive audiences that advertisers usually prefer. 

Broadcaster and production perspectives 

The head of leisure programming at Endemol UK Productions, which 

developed Ground Force and now distributes the format rights, Linda Clifford, 

verifies that local producers are allowed to make fairly loose adaptations: 

We’ve always been a bit more easygoing with our formats, like for 

instance [Who Wants to be a] Millionaire. They’re pretty strict. […] 

Every country has a different way of making the show because they have 

different budgets so they have to adapt the format as best they can. At the 

BBC they have rules but in other places they have sponsorships so they 

have to make sure the brands are seen. Sometimes they have to use 

established faces. [...] Sometimes the length of the program has to be 

longer. Sometimes it has to have more factual entertainment (Clifford 

2005). 

At the same time she points to the fact that one of the most important factors 

in how the format is adapted is what kind of channel broadcasts the 

adaptation. Another important factor is budgets. As for differences in 

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budgets, Clifford also verifies that Australian producers usually have larger 

budgets than Scandinavian producers: 71 

There is a little bit less money to spend [in Scandinavia]. But 

[Australians] have all the English programs there so they want the 

adaptations to be of a very high standard in production values (Clifford 

2005). 

Hokus Krokus: non-elitist, feel-good and “responsible” public service television 

As already mentioned in the analysis summary above, Hokus Krokus carries an 

obvious public service impress. The public service impress is especially 

obvious in the mutual distribution of knowledge among the hosts and in the 

(non-existing) use of product placement. Nevertheless, the relatively slow 

pace and the less emotional narrative plot can also be argued to traditionally 

belong more to public service television than to commercial television. 

According to DR’s commissioning editor for entertainment, DR wants to be 

“responsible” when it comes to content in all genres, including (factual) 

entertainment (Therkelsen 2006, translated from Danish). DR wants to be a 

real alternative to commercial programming and as such create a more 

conscientious and, hence, public service-oriented content. This means that 

viewers preferably have to learn something as a result of watching a DR 

program. DR aims to make its viewers more “astute” (Ibid, translated from 

Danish), which is very much in line with the Danish public service ideology. 

DR has even developed ethical standards that are stricter than those required 

71 The Danish production team only has one cameraman. It is far too expensive to have another one on 

the set. British Ground Force, and most likely also the Australian version, has more than one. Most 

scenes in Hokus Krokus are therefore done more than once in order for the producers to have more 

angles to use in the cutting process (Hansen 2006). Price for format rights used to be DKK 15,000- 

20,000/$3,300-$4,500AUD but is now DKK 30,000/$6,600AUD per episode. For this price DR can 

run the program three times. Each episode costs approximately DKK 300,000/ $66,000AUD, which 

is a lot less than the British version but relatively expensive for a Danish 28’30” production on a week 

day (Hansen 2006). It has not been possible to obtain information on the exact budget price of 

Australian Ground Force but the higher production values combined with Clifford’s statements make it 

reasonable to assume that the Australian budget is higher than the Danish one. 

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by the media regulation (Ibid). In addition, DR programs, even those 

classified as entertainment, must make viewers talk to each other and “take up 

a significant place in their minds” instead of making the viewers “look into 

the screen in a more or less brain-dead manner”, which apparently is what 

commercial television does according to Therkelsen (2006, translated from 

Danish). For instance, DR’s stricter ethical standards do not allow for any 

type of product placement whatsoever. According to Hokus Krokus executive 

producer Søren Bo Hansen, the production budget pays for all expenses, 

although people are usually quite happy to give plants and other materials to 

the production. Even the wages of the two gardeners are covered by the 

budget (Hansen 2006). This is an important reason why the budget is 

relatively high. The segment on “Ikast Nursery” is therefore a dramaturgical 

trick employed to get away from the garden makeover, to divert the viewers, 

and hence make it possible for the producers to make a considerable narrative 

jump in time (Ibid.). As such, Hansen’s argument is that it is not a form of 

product placement as was suggested in the analysis. 

As the analysis has shown, the Danish main presenter, Puk Elgaard, does not 

know anything about gardening and garden designing and as such acts as a 

representative of the viewer. This is not only different to the Australian 

adaptation but also to the original British version and something that was 

deliberately changed by the Danish producers to create closeness to the 

viewers: 

In [the British] Ground Force all the hosts are somehow experts on 

gardens. Our host is not an expert and this is important for the 

psychological side. Our host is on the side of the ignorant viewers. [The 

British version] is more [about] expert knowledge. This was important 

for us to change because we think that it creates a distance to the viewer 

when all [hosts] are more knowledgeable than [the viewers] (Hansen 

2006, translated from Danish). 

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The introduction of a non-expert presenter is undertaken to make the 

adaptation less elitist and hence more appealing to all kinds of viewers, be 

they garden owners or not. In primetime DR1 aims for a share of at least 40 

per cent and therefore it is not enough to approach only garden owners 

(Hansen 2006). In the UK a smaller share and hence more elitist appeal may 

be satisfactory. The more populist appeal of Hokus Krokus also finds 

expression in various episode segments that are not necessarily related to the 

garden makeover, such as when, for example, the male gardener teases the 

two female hosts (Hansen 2006). Other examples from the analysis in this 

chapter include the humorous segments where the main presenter’s mascara 

runs and where the male gardener’s shorts are hoisted to him on a crane. 

To create this less elitist and more populist appeal it is also central to the 

Danish adaptation that the person who is receiving the garden makeover has 

deserved it in some way or another (Hansen 2006). This is far from always the 

case in the British version (Ibid.). If the makeover is done for somebody who 

is either rich, famous or somehow did not do anything to deserve it, Danish 

viewers complain. One example of this was when DR1 did a special Hokus 

Krokus edition, in which the makeover was done for a well-known Danish 

politician, Henrik Dam Christensen, after which a lot of viewers complained 

about the unfairness of giving the makeover to somebody famous and 

therefore, according to the viewers, also rich (Ibid). That the makeover is 

given to a deserving person adds a very important feel-good element to the 

format (Ibid.). 

In the Australian version the makeover also happens to a deserving person, 

but this is most likely primarily tied to the narrative structure and the 

increased melodramatic possibilities it creates, rather than to the viewers 

objecting if the person was not sufficiently deserving. As the analysis has 

shown, the fact that the garden owner in the episode reviewed, Patricia, really 

deserves the makeover because she has been extremely kind to others is 

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exploited melodramatically in Ground Force as opposed to Hokus Krokus’ 

downplaying of the exact same elements. 

Finally, the executive producer on Hokus Krokus also points to an important 

difference between the Danish version and the original British version, which 

has nothing to do with the media system but rather is tied to the traditional 

farming culture of Denmark. This farming culture plays a part in how the 

actual garden makeovers are done. The Danish focus is often on plants such 

as vegetables, fruit trees and herbs that provide a tangible – usually edible – 

produce. In Denmark, a garden is traditionally and historically something 

used to generate food. The British version is more about making the garden 

into a nice place to be because this is how the British view their garden 

(Hansen 2006). Without a wider survey it is difficult to note whether similar 

differences exist between the Danish and the Australian adaptations. This 

would require the study of a large number of episodes. Nevertheless, it is an 

interesting observation and a sign that there could be other and more 

culturally historic factors at play, which extend beyond the media systemic 

explanations. On the other hand, it could also be Hansen’s public service 

training talking in the sense that television programs within the public service 

tradition have to be of use; hence the garden makeover must provide a real 

produce and not just be ornamental. It may not necessarily be something 

required by the viewers. Having said that, the Australian climate and the 

traditional Australian notion of larger, traditionally quarter-acre suburban 

blocks, might also have underscored the show’s appeal with the Australian 

audience and, as such, offer a more culturally historic explanation in the 

Australian context. 

Ground Force: fast paced, commercialised and typical of its period 

For Channel Seven the adaptation of Ground Force was part of a lifestyle 

television trend in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Channel Seven’s head of 

production and development Brad Lyons sees it as a program typical of this 

period and as such regards it as a fashion fad closely related to societal trends. 

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At the time, Australians were benefiting from an extraordinary boom in the 

property market and as a result, had become what Lyons calls “house proud”: 

At this time lifestyle was huge here. Lifestyle ruled [television]. We had 

Better Homes and Gardens, Great Outdoors, Ground Force, Room for 

Improvement, Hot Auction, Hot Property etcetera […]. These shows 

were all in the top ten. […]. We just thought gardening was huge, people 

were thinking about their own; they were sort of insulating themselves. 

All the research said they were very ‘house proud’. They spent a lot of 

their money on their house (Lyons 2005). 

For Lyons this fad has clearly passed already, which together with the 

Australian free-to-air broadcasters’ collective overkill on the lifestyle genre is 

why the adaptation was taken off the air in 2004 (Lyons 2005). Here it is 

interesting that the Hokus Krokus adaptation still thrives on DR1 where it fits 

in perfectly with the traditional public service ideology of informing and 

educating the viewers. Contrary to this, Channel Seven used the format for as 

long as it was in fashion. This may also indicate that Channel Seven has a 

greater need for innovation and a constant flow of programming formats 

than DR1 because the broadcaster is in a constant competition for viewers 

with the other Australian commercial broadcasters. 

It was important for Channel Seven to make its adaptation a lot faster than 

the British original – and certainly also the Danish adaptation – which the 

analysis has also indicated. The Australian audience is used to a much more 

rapid pace than the British, and apparently also the Danish audience 

according to the program analysis 

234


That the Australian version is quite different to the British comes down 

to the style of presenters you put together. Our team was much more… 

just faster at it and more […] dynamic… [but] the pace had to be 

picked up, even down to their music – tuba all the time. So we needed it 

to be tricked up a bit (Lyons 2005). 

Here Lyons clearly hints to the less dynamic and less energetic feel of the 

British original, which like the Danish adaptation is broadcast on the primary, 

and only fully license fee-funded, public service broadcaster, the BBC. 

Apparently the pace on the British and the Danish public service broadcasters 

is similar, which suggests that a higher pace is not necessarily connected to 

higher budgets and higher production values, as both budgets and production 

values are definitely higher on BBC1 than on DR1 (see Hansen 2006 and 

Clifford 2005). 

Instead, the much faster pace in the Australian adaptation specifically, and on 

Australian television in general, seems connected to the historic 

commercialisation and Americanisation of the Australian media system. 

Australian commercial free-to-air broadcasters have traditionally had a large 

share of American programming and the Australian audience is therefore 

used to the much quicker pace of American television, which in addition has 

served as the primary model for Australian-produced television in the past as 

well as in the present. Also the sexualisation of the hosts does not occur on 

the British original. For many years it had a rather jovial and slightly 

overweight main presenter, Alan Titchmarsh, whose colleagues were equally 

plain and certainly not as attractive and fit as the Australian presenters. Again, 

this suggests that the actual channel that has adapted the format is a more 

useful explanation than the production budgets when it comes to explaining 

the differences between local adaptations of formats. 

235



“THE BLOCK” AND “HUSET” 

The Block is a format originally developed in Australia for Channel Nine by 

executive producers David Barbour and Julian Cress in 2003. The format 

rights have been sold into a number of countries and territories such as 

Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and Great Britain. 

The first Australian series ran in 2003, the second series a year later in 2004. 

The Danish adaptation is called Huset (which translates as The House) and was 

undertaken by Danish independent production company Metronome for TV 

2. There has also been two Danish series. Series one went to air in 2004 and 

series two the following year. In both countries the first series was extremely 

successful with record-breaking audience ratings, whereas the second series in 

both Australia and Denmark was a more moderate success. For the in-depth 

analysis carried out in this chapter I have chosen episode one of the second 

series in both countries. As was the case with the analysed episodes of Ground 

Force and Hokus Krokus, the reason for picking series two in both countries, as 

opposed to the more popular series one, was rather pragmatic. When I 

approached Channel Nine and David Barbour and asked for a copy of The 

Block, they gave me four episodes from the second series and, to avoid 

analytical bias and make my analytical points of departure as similar as 

possible, I therefore subsequently chose to analyse the second series of Huset, 

as well. After this I chose episode one for the in-depth analysis because in 

both adaptations this is where the narrative and competitive plot is struck and 

the competing couples are introduced. As such, episodes one are a lot easier 

to compare than later episodes, where the Danish and Australian narratives 

take different turns and do not necessarily follow the same narrative order. 

Nevertheless, I will also make references to other episodes where this will 

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shed further light on the analysis. Episode one of Australia’s The Block was 

broadcast on 28 April 2004 and episode one of Denmark’s Huset on 23 

August 2005. The episodes are found on DVD 2 and DVD 3 in the 

appendices. 

Reality meets lifestyle 

In the format four couples are chosen to each renovate an apartment in the 

same building, or block, hence the show’s title: The Block. The couples have a 

limited period of time and a limited budget to do so. The Australians have 14 

weeks and $70,000AUD/DKK 315,000 for each competing couple’s budget. 

The Danes have 12 weeks and $55,000AUD/DKK 250,000. To put further 

pressure on the couples, everybody must maintain their normal job during the 

renovation. As well, the apartments are in a fairly bad condition, which means 

that the work also includes a number of expensive, difficult, and timeconsuming 

tasks such as full bathroom and kitchen renovations. 

The overriding competition through the series is to make the best, most 

popular renovation. In the Australian series the ‘best and most popular’ 

means the apartment that in the last episode sells for the highest price at an 

auction. In the Danish series it means the apartment the viewers like the best. 

The Australian couples all get to keep any profits they may make at the final 

auction, but the couple that get the highest price will receive double their 

profit as a prize. This means that all four couples on one hand are potential 

winners of big cash prizes. On the other hand they also risk getting nothing at 

all if, for instance, they go over budget and/or subsequently cannot get a 

sufficiently high prize at the auction. The Danish couples compete for a cash 

prize of DKK 500,000/ $110,000AUD. That is, only one couple is rewarded 

with a fixed cash prize. Everybody else walks away empty-handed. 72 In 

72 In Denmark houses and apartments are not sold at auctions. Nevertheless, the first series of Huset 

tried the auction model but failed miserably. No bidders attended the auction, which was telecast live, 

and the company who had originally sold the apartments to TV 2 had to buy the apartments back 

without any competition from others. The result was a complete anti-climax and the auction model 

was subsequently abandoned in the second series (Nikolajsen 2006). 

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addition to the main competition, the format contains a number of subcompetitions. 

Every one or two weeks the couples must complete a room 

and the winners of these ‘best room’ sub-competitions receive a smaller 

amount of cash to add to their budget. Altogether the format contains equal 

shares of reality and lifestyle elements and therefore abundant possibilities to 

combine and play with the two genres. For example, this is achieved by 

putting a stronger emphasis on lifestyle elements than reality elements – or 

vice versa. 

The Block and Huset are radically different and this has a lot to do with how 

the two versions choose to combine the two genres. The Australian version 

makes maximum use of the reality elements contained in the format, with 

large emphasis on conflicts, scandal, emotional drama, and competitiveness 

and relatively little emphasis on the lifestyle elements. The Danish version is 

less reality-skewed and seems to play down conflicts and the built-in 

competitive elements. As a consequence Huset puts its emphasis on the ‘fun’ 

of renovating and on the creation of a communal feeling among the 

competing couples. Having said this, Huset still contains lots of reality 

elements and actually only a few lifestyle elements. It may therefore be 

classified as ‘reality light’ meets ‘lifestyle light’. Also, the two adaptations have 

very different narrative ‘guiding principles’ in the sense that Huset has an 

overriding narrative focus on egalitarian principles such as ‘ordinariness’, 

‘plainness’, and viewer recognition (‘I could achieve that look’), whereas The 

Block has its narrative focus on elitist principles such as ‘extraordinariness’, 

‘abnormality’, and ‘oddness’. All of this will be elaborated below by 

comparing a number of key constituents of the format including program 

introductions and finales, the state of the apartments, location, and casting. 

These are all vital areas in which the two adaptations differ considerably, and 

we look at how they differ with regards to viewer contact and appeal, the use 

of competitive elements, the use of DIY and other informative elements, and 

the use of the reality genre. 

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Casting – Australian extraordinariness versus Danish ordinariness 

There are considerable differences between the Australian and the Danish 

couples in four areas: age, looks, sexual observation, and competitiveness. 

The couples on The Block are all gorgeous and glamorous people in their 20s 

and 30s; most of them with well-paid careers and big city lives lived in the fast 

lane. They are certainly not your average, slightly overweight Australians and 

would no doubt all look spectacular scantily clad on the cover of a magazine – 

which, of course, is where they wound up as the result of a publishing deal 

with an Australian weekly magazine. Besides, one of the couples is gay, which 

is just another example of what one might call the ‘casting of the 

extraordinary’ strategy that has clearly been employed by the producers. In 

addition, all four couples are very competitive and emphasise that they are in 

The Block to win. Contrary to the Australians the Danish contestants are fairly 

average in terms of jobs, looks, sexual observation and age. The youngest 

contestant is 26 years old, the oldest 62. In the first episode none of the 

couples as much as mentions the competition and the possibility of winning 

half a million DKK. Instead they talk about the challenges that lie ahead for 

them as couples. Another characteristic of this ‘casting of the ordinary’ 

strategy is the large variety in ages contrary to the Australian version’s 

exclusive focus on the young. 

If we – quite reasonably – assume that the average Australian viewer is not 

nearly as gorgeous, glamorous and successful as the couples on The Block, but 

rather your typical heterosexual Australian with a normal and not very 

exciting job and a standard run of the mill partner, the casting is likely to have 

a high fascination potential with the viewers. The fascinating lifestyles, 

personalities, and looks of the couples are likely to provoke dreams and envy 

and perhaps even disgust and antipathy, as the viewers either wish they were 

like the contestants or dislike them for being so competitive, glamorous, and 

gorgeous and so different from the viewers. This becomes particularly evident 

in the decision to cast the gay couple, which is likely to cause some sort of 

controversy, scandal, amusement and/or offence with the average viewer, but 

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it is also characteristic of the casting in general. The Danish couples are much 

closer to the average viewer than is the case with the Australian couples. It is 

likely that Danish viewers will find some sort of identification in one or more 

of the contestants, either when it comes to occupation, age, geographical 

origin, vernacular, relationship, and/or looks. So even though the couples are 

actually fairly different, they are different in an ordinary and average way, and 

each couple thus personifies at least one standard Danish lifestyle among 

other standard lifestyles. 

In this sense both the Australian and Danish couples are very alike and very 

different at the same time. The Australians are all competitive, glamorous, and 

gorgeous but they are so in different ways and also differ from the average 

viewer. For example, one couple, Steven and Richard, is gay and made up of 

an artistic designer and successful sales and marketing manager. Another 

couple, Jane and Matt, own their own trendy seaside restaurant and a PR 

agency. The Danes are a lot closer to the average viewer but still embody four 

different standard lifestyles. For example, Ulla and Christian are a bit naïve, 

middle-aged and clearly ‘old hippies’ who both work as social workers; 

another couple, Kathja and Jannik, is made up of a secondary school teacher 

and an electrician, both in their 20s. Both adaptations in this sense portray 

different values, tastes, lifestyles, and social status and thus play on the 

viewer’s self-image and self-perception. 

Location – Manly and Mejlborg 

The Block is located in Manly, a young, ‘surfy’, and trendy beachside suburb of 

Sydney with a million dollar location. Huset is an old historic house called 

‘Mejlborg’. It has an equally expensive location in the thriving and trendy 

heart of Denmark’s second largest city Aarhus. However, the two locations 

are presented very differently. In the Australian program introduction Manly 

is filmed from the air to reinforce the impression of an ideal location by the 

sea. In addition, the introduction shows the bustling lifestyle on offer in 

Manly, with roller skaters, surfers and beachgoers having ‘fun in the sun’. This 

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again adds to the general glamour and extraordinariness of The Block. In 

contrast to this, the Danish program’s introduction is a lot more modest. It 

simply presents Mejlborg by using night and day and historic footage of the 

building. No footage of the lively, young and trendy café life of Aarhus is 

included. Although most Danes would be aware of its brilliant and expensive 

location, no real emphasis is put on this fact. Instead emphasis is put on the 

history of the building. These differences may also originate in the fact that 

the Australian apartments are to be sold for the highest possible price as part 

of the program’s competition and the location therefore has to ooze 

exclusivity and a vibrant atmosphere to attract the right bidders. In Huset the 

winners are chosen by the viewers and merely given a prize. 

The first day on The Block and Huset – conflict versus team building 

Both the Australian and Danish episode ones takes the viewers through the 

first day on The Block and Huset. That is, the plot and the four couples are 

introduced, the couples see the apartments and meet each other for the first 

time, get their first assignment, and start work on the renovation. Nonetheless 

the first day progresses very differently in the two versions. The first day on 

The Block is filled with drama, scandal, emotion and interpersonal conflict 

whereas the first day on Huset focuses on the fun of renovating, team building 

and interpersonal bonding. Again, the differences between the two 

adaptations centre very much on the Australian extraordinariness versus the 

Danish ordinariness, both when it comes to the state of the apartments, the 

competitive elements, and the different use of reality and lifestyle elements in 

the two adaptations. 

State of the apartments 

There are obvious differences in the state of the apartments of the two 

versions. The Australian apartments are in very bad shape. They are extremely 

dirty and have no intact floors or walls. There are too many room dividers 

and no plaster on the walls or ceiling. In addition, the floors have big holes to 

the downstairs neighbour and some of the toilets do not flush and the sewer 

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pipes are exposed. This means that Dani and Monique can hear Steven and 

Richard going to the toilet and Kerstin and Jason can hear Matt and Jane 

talking privately. This naturally enhances the potential for conflict. For 

example, dust is falling from the ceiling in Dani and Monique’s apartment 

when Richard and Steven are cleaning, and Kirsten and Jason can hear when 

Matt and Jane talk about the other couples – including Kirsten and Jason – 

behind their backs. The glamorous and sophisticated girls and boys are 

literally trapped in the dirt! Kirsten is cleaning the toilet trying to stay cheerful. 

However a little later she loses it over a running showerhead. Monique is 

having a breakdown. This is not what she expected. She does not want the 

camera to film her cleaning the toilet. Richard has chosen to wear his Armani 

jeans whilst cleaning. That the apartments are in such a bad state exposes the 

high social status and glamour of the Australian couples even more and their 

extraordinariness becomes even more obvious. In this sense, the viewers are 

given an opportunity to laugh at the contestants and perhaps gloat a little over 

the fact that these chic, classy, and sophisticated people are caught in a very 

unsophisticated situation. 

The Danish apartments are in bad shape as well, although they are nowhere 

near the poor condition of the Australian apartments. Cords are hanging from 

the ceiling, taps are dripping, and everywhere is filthy. However, the walls, 

ceiling and floors are fairly intact and the rooms are already laid out, contrary 

to the Australian apartments that have too many rooms. Even though the 

Danish couples are initially a bit horrified by the state of the apartments, they 

all manage to stay quite hopeful and positive throughout the episode and 

nobody breaks down. Contrary to The Block in the first episode of Huset there 

is no emphasis put on the conflict that may arise from the bad state of the 

apartments. Instead the similarities of the apartments – and therefore fairness 

of the competition – are emphasised. The host makes sure to inform the 

viewers that even though the apartments differ a little, the four apartments 

have the same size and are in “an equally bad shape”. Hence, the ordinariness 

can also be found in the apartments. Their state is actually not too bad; they 

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just need to be redecorated with some tender loving care. Additionally, and 

contrary to the Australian version, the Danish couples do not have to clean 

the apartments on the first day. Instead their first assignment is to build a 

communal workshop in collaboration with the other couples. 

Competitive elements 

This brings us to the competitive elements of the two adaptations. The above 

mentioned communal workshop assignment is a good example of how the 

Danish adaptation focuses on ‘lighter’ or ‘softer’ competitive elements that do 

not necessarily augment conflict between and within the couples but rather 

enhance the interpersonal bonding among the contestants: The couples have 

six hours to build a communal workshop. Everybody has changed into similar 

work clothes; grey pants and white T-shirts. The women have a little 

disagreement over the wall colour, and Christian cannot work out how to 

assemble one of the big power tools. However, the women quickly reach a 

civilised agreement, and Jørn helps Christian. As such, the workshop is 

generally built in a feel-good atmosphere. After the conclusion of this first 

assignment, the couples are even treated to a communal barbecue as a reward 

after a hard day’s work. Additionally, another feel-good surprise awaits the 

couples when they go to bed: The producers have had the couples’ private 

beds transported to Aarhus complete with doonas, pillows, bed spreads, etc. 

This makes everybody really happy and a couple of the women even show 

their emotions. 

In stark contrast to the downplaying of the competitive elements on Huset, 

from the very beginning The Block places a large emphasis on the competition 

between the couples. Before even entering the apartments, the four Australian 

couples have to compete against each other to decide which couple gets 

which apartment. The host tells them to rush to four differently coloured 

Toyota four-wheel drives. Inside each car is a key with number 1, 2, 3 or 4 

and this number decides who gets the first, second, third and fourth pick of 

the apartments. The four apartments differ considerably from one another. 

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Two of them have gardens, and another has an extra room. In the Danish 

version the distribution of the apartments takes place by way of the couples 

simply drawing lots. Furthermore, the Australian audience can enter a 

“people’s choice awards” competition where they have to vote for the most 

popular couple. At the end of the series, the most popular couple will be 

announced and among the people who voted for that couple there is a draw 

to win a car similar to the one the couples have just received. There is also 

another audience competition in which the viewers can enter to guess the 

right price at the auction. The winners receive furniture to fill a whole house. 

These audience competitions clearly draw the viewers into the program, as 

the prizes are quite substantial. Furthermore, the first competition especially 

adds to the general feeling of conflict in the Australian series. It is basically a 

popularity contest that asks the viewers to take an active stand in the conflicts 

brewing on The Block! 

The Danish viewers of Huset are also asked to vote for their favourites. 

Actually it is the Danish viewers who, by SMS or telephone, almost 

exclusively decide which couple wins both the main competition and the subcompetitions. 

However, contrary to the Australian audience, the Danish 

audience is asked to pick their favourite renovations and not their favourite 

couples. Even though one’s favourite renovation may very well belong to 

one’s favourite couple, it still focuses on the actual renovation and not on the 

personalities of the contestants. The Danish viewers are not asked to judge 

the personalities of the contestants, rather they are asked to judge the 

contestants’ DIY skills and creativity. 

Use of the reality genre – melodramatic versus docu-dramatic 

The two adaptations also differ when it comes to the use of elements from 

the reality subgenres. The Block has a melodramatic narrative resembling that 

of the soap genre and hence of the reality subgenres, whereas Huset’s narrative 

is much more docu-dramatic, realistic and, hence, ordinary. Reality focuses 

precisely on the extraordinary situations and events in ‘ordinary’ people’s lives 

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and often employs a melodramatic narrative (see Chapter 3), which again fits 

well with the analytical findings until now. This means that The Block creates 

its narrative progress using elements from fiction, whereas Huset plays on 

elements from the documentary genre and plays down the potential 

melodrama. This is best exemplified in the two episode finales. 

The Australian version’s episode finale consists of a teaser of what will 

happen within the next two weeks on The Block. The teaser hints that there 

will be lots of future conflicts in the form of contestants clashing with each 

other and creates a fantastic cliff-hanger that is sure to make the audience 

curious and titillated. The teaser hints at a growing conflict between Jason and 

Kirsten and the other couples, especially Richard and Steven and Matt and 

Jane. Apparently Jason and Kirsten have stayed in their private home for one 

night and the others do not like that. Richard thinks they should receive some 

sort of a punishment, and Steven is interviewed saying: “Jason you’re nothing 

but a liar”. After this Kirsten and Jason are filmed having a ‘private’ 

conversation from afar – with their backs to the camera – but through the 

microphone that all contestants carry we can hear Kirsten saying to Jason: “I 

will leave if you don’t do this”. At the end of the teaser a completely different 

and even more scandalous conflict is hinted at. The press has got wind of 

Dani’s criminal past. Dani has been in jail and one of the headlines reads 

“From Cell Block to The Block”. Dani is being interviewed saying that he has 

served his punishment already and that he only took the blame for somebody 

else. To make things worse, Monique’s grandfather dies the day after the 

reveal and they are filmed as they go to the funeral. There are lots of tears and 

emotion. You see Monique packing a suitcase and wonder if they will be 

leaving the show. 73 At the very end of the episode finale a black screen 

appears with big white letters saying: “That’s just the first 14 days on the 

Block. There’s another 88 days to go”. This last segment centred on Dani’s 

criminal past that was revealed in the press shows how The Block explicitly 

73 Dani and Monique actually end up leaving the show and another couple replaces them and takes over 

their apartment. 

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involves the contestants’ personal lives in creating a melodramatic narrative 

very similar to that of a real soap. His past catches up with him. His loving 

family façade cracks. And we the viewers are there to watch as it happens. It 

does not get more ‘soapie’ than that. Another example is Jane and Matt’s 

wedding. The wedding is a recurring narrative theme in the course of the 

series. In one episode we follow the bridesmaid’s party for Jane and in 

another we see Matt shopping for an expensive suit to match Jane’s equally 

expensive wedding dress. Finally, everything culminates in episode 14 when 

we see them being married in a fairytale ceremony – worthy of any soap – 

followed by an extravagant reception in their Melbourne restaurant. 

The episode finale of Huset employs a very different tactic, focusing instead 

on the creation of a feel-good atmosphere among the contestants. All four 

couples have had a great, fun-filled day, and everybody likes everybody. 

Everybody also seems quite hopeful about the renovation task ahead. After 

this the host gives them their first renovation assignment. The bedroom 

must be finished within a week. The couples subsequently go to their 

apartments where their own beds await them and lights are turned off in the 

apartments. However, at 3am Christian and Ulla still cannot sleep and decide 

to do something about the cooker hood above the stove instead. This results 

in Christian short-circuiting the electricity of the entire apartment. That is, 

there is not a trace of conflict in sight, only plenty of feel-good vibes through 

and through with a funny and silly ‘gag’ at the very end. Contrary to the 

Australian episode one there are no melodramatic cliff-hangers hinting at 

conflicts galore and revealing what will happen next. 74 Narratively the finale – 

like the rest of the episode – uses traditional journalistic methods similar to 

the news and documentary genres. An example of this more journalistic 

approach is when each couple is interviewed about the first day standing in 

74 In actual fact there is a pragmatic explanation for the Danish absence of cliff-hangers on what will 

happen next. Huset was broadcast ‘quasi live’ meaning that production is done very close to broadcast 

and consequently the renovation is happening as the series is broadcast. Obviously the producers 

therefore have no idea what will happen next week or the week after for that matter, and hence 

cannot make a cliff-hanger similar to the Australian version (Nikolajsen 2006). 

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front of the camera and obviously answering questions from an interviewer 

that has been cut out in the editing process. In the background we see 

Mejlborg and we can hear the other couples laughing and talking over the 

barbecue. Another example is the host who – similar to a journalist making an 

on-the-spot news report – ties together the different segments talking directly 

into the camera. 75 

DIY and other informative elements 

Neither the Danish nor the Australian first episode contains a lot of DIY or 

other informative elements. As already mentioned, the focus in both episodes 

is on the plot, the contestants and their initial reactions. Nevertheless, whilst 

the informative elements on The Block are practically absent, they play a 

slightly larger role on Huset. This becomes most evident in the Danish 

couples’ first communal assignment – the building of the workshop, and in 

the fact that the four apartment outlines or drawings are shown to the 

viewers. All of this focuses on the renovation aspect of the show. 

Also, the informative elements’ relative absence in episode one of Huset is 

clearly made up for in its sister program Huset Direkte (translates The House 

Live) that follows directly after the main program. As is evident from the title, 

Huset Direkte is a studio-based program broadcast live from within Mejlborg. 

It is filmed immediately after the conclusion of episode one and contains 

various informative segments on renovating in general and on episode one 

specifically: The show starts off with a story on shoddy construction work 

and gives advice to the viewers on what precautions to take to avoid shoddy 

tradespeople. There is also a story on the Danes’ relationship with the 

‘workshop’ seen from a historical and sociological perspective. A sociologist 

talks about what the workshop means to Danes. At the end, an historian is in 

the studio explaining the history of Mejlborg, and finally an interior designer 

75 Journalistic approaches like the ones explained here are also used in the Australian version. However, 

it is not done to the same extent as in the Danish adaptation and the Australian producers have clearly 

foregrounded the melodramatic narrative style, which seems absent from the Danish adaptation. 

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gives advice on how to decorate a bedroom. As the lifestyle genre is generally 

acknowledged as acceptable within public service circles and the reality genre 

refuted and condemned, Huset Direkte obviously serves a dual purpose. By 

giving the viewers lots of journalistic information it also serves as a political 

‘public service justification’. Because Huset has very little DIY and other 

informative elements, Huset Direkte is more or less the only reason why the 

executive producer (Rømer 2006) of Huset can justify calling it lifestyle rather 

than reality. Also, it is a way of ‘normalising’ what happens in Huset and 

making it relevant for the ordinary viewer. 

Summary: Armani versus Kansas 76 

There are a number of important differences between The Block and Huset, 

marking the two adaptations as radically dissimilar. The Block focuses on the 

extraordinary; on drama, scandal, and conflict and by doing this The Block 

bears closer resemblance to harder reality shows such as Big Brother than to the 

lifestyle genre. Additionally, it employs a melodramatic narrative similar to the 

soap genre. The contestants are glamorous and gorgeous and over the top in 

every way, which is likely to create a certain fascination with the average 

Australian viewer. Huset on the other hand downplays the competitive 

elements and the potential conflict among the couples. Instead, it focuses on 

the ordinary; on the fun of renovating, team building and on the creation of a 

general feel-good atmosphere, and it does so by using a much more 

documentary-like narrative style. The Danish contestants are as average and 

normal as the typical viewer and are therefore likely to spark viewer 

identification rather than fascination. It is also worth noting that via its sister 

program, Huset Direkte, the Danish adaptation also has a larger emphasis on 

information and DIY. It can therefore be characterised as reality-light meets 

lifestyle-light. In essence, to use a single comparison: the Australians renovate 

in Armani jeans and high heels and every couple gets their own tools. The 

Danes renovate wearing similar and practical work clothes and they have to 

76 Kansas is a popular Danish brand of work clothes similar to the Australian brand King Gee. 

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share the tools provided in the communal workshop. As such, the Australian 

adaptation has an elitist bias, which focuses on the narrative principles of 

extraordinariness, abnormality and oddness, whereas Huset has an egalitarian 

bias with narrative principles such as ordinariness, plainness and viewer 

recognisability at its core. 

Here, there is clear parallel to Bruun (2006) and her theories on egalitarian 

versus elitist television, and as explained in Chapter 3. The Australian version 

is exclusive and elitist at its core, exemplified best in the casting, whereas the 

Danish version – including its casting – is much more inclusive and 

egalitarian. These are also characteristic general differences at play in the local 

adaptations of Nerds FC and Idol, as will be pointed out in the next chapters. 

These radical points of difference also serve to leave the impression of two 

qualitatively different adaptations that go beyond the immediate narrative, 

generic and stylistic variation explained above. Whilst The Block has a clear 

narrative plot in its focus on melodrama, conflict, glamour and general 

extraordinariness to capture and retain the audience, Huset leaves behind a 

somewhat more confusing impression. It simply seems to lack a clear plot or 

premise. It is somehow stuck in the middle between reality and lifestyle and 

the result is a blander version with less narrative drive. A concrete example of 

this is the presentation of the couples. On The Block we see the couples with 

their families, at their jobs, in their homes, doing sports etc. We even see old 

private photos of some of the contestants and their families. On Huset we see 

very little of the contestants’ private lives. Instead, the contestants tell the 

viewers about themselves sitting in their lounge and the viewers must just take 

their word for it. This “tell it, don’t show it” approach leaves a blander 

impression and certainly does not create the same narrative drive as the 

Australian producers’ “show it, don’t tell it” approach. Also, Huset seems 

stuck in the dilemma of putting constant emphasis on the ordinariness of 

what is actually in many ways an extraordinary situation for the contestants. 

Had the adaptation focused a lot more in DIY and lifestyle, this ordinariness 

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approach may very well have succeeded (which it also did in series one, which 

had more actual DIY included in the main program). Instead it leaves a rather 

bland impression. 

The reasons for the almost exclusive focus on the normal and the ordinary in 

the Danish TV 2 version – as opposed to the original Channel Nine version’s 

extraordinariness – are likely to be found in explanations similar to the ones 

investigated in the last chapter on Hokus Krokus and Ground Force. Many of the 

same overriding differences seem to be at play between Huset and The Block: a 

more spectacular and in many ways extraordinary Australian version versus a 

more down-to-earth and plain Danish version. It is therefore likely that even 

though The Block almost certainly had a larger budget than Huset – and 

therefore better financial opportunities to create a more spectacular and 

extraordinary narrative – the main part of the explanation must be down to 

the fact that Huset is adapted by a broadcaster with a public service remit. 

Despite TV 2 being primarily funded by advertising, the network’s public 

service remit remains a strong factor, while a commercial broadcaster, 

Channel Nine, did the original version. 


Although it was about renovation, it was a soap opera. It was about the 

human drama. It was about watching those people having the struggle to 

get to a certain point […]. In fact, we never really focused on the type of 

styles they were doing or ‘I chose this colour because of this’ […]. That 

was what shows like that were about till that point. The difference being 

that if we were going to do [a] table on a lifestyle show, you’d learn how 

to make the table. But for ‘The Block’ we don’t care how to make the 

table; it’s how you react to having to build the table (Barbour 2006). 

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As is pointed to in the above quote from format developer David Barbour, 

The Block was originally thought of as a soap opera on the human drama that 

inevitably arises during renovation work. Barbour and co-developer Cress 

wanted to take the focus away from the DIY aspect of the lifestyle shows and 

instead focus exclusively on the hardship in, for instance, getting tradesmen to 

turn up on time, to organise a DIY renovation around one’s work schedule 

etc. This notion corresponds perfectly with the prior analysis of The Block. 

The above quote also illustrates my point about public versus commercial 

broadcasters. A Danish public service broadcaster could never say that they 

wanted to take the DIY – hence the informative level – out of a lifestyle 

program and make it into reality soap! This would in most ways go against 

everything that is considered acceptable in the Danish public service tradition 

for lifestyle programming, whose primary justification is that it contains 

information relevant to the viewers (see Carlsen & Frandsen 2005 for a 

detailed account of this tradition). On the other hand, the quote is perfectly 

legitimate for a commercial broadcaster, whose primary responsibility is to 

attract (the right kind and number of) viewers. 

Huset – “inspirational and aspirational everyday documentary” 

Commissioning editor for TV 2 Anette Rømer points precisely to TV 2’s 

more public service-oriented programming policy and basic programming 

values as to why the Danish adaptation looks different than its Australian 

predecessor. Rømer characterises TV 2’s core values as “inspirational” and 

“aspirational” and she prefers to call Huset “lifestyle or everyday 

documentary” rather than reality (Rømer 2006, my translation from Danish). 

The reason why she is opposed to the term reality is that the producers do 

not actively plant or cultivate conflict. Instead, they often play down conflicts 

just like the analysis has shown (Ibid.). Rømer knows from audience studies 

that TV 2 viewers would be opposed to this harder, conflict-ridden approach. 

This reflects TV 2’s competition with its closest commercial competitor, TV3, 

in which TV 2 endeavours to ensure it does not to look like TV3. Hence, 

internal conflicts regarding renovation issues are acceptable, whereas conflicts 

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between neighbours are not because these would bear too much similarity to 

the many reality game shows on TV3 (such as Survivor): “If our viewers feel 

our programs look like TV3 programs we have a problem. If the opposite is 

the case, TV3 are happy” (Rømer 2006). 

Rømer also briefly touches upon what she calls “Danish culture” as an 

explanation as to why the Danish adaptation is less competitive, conflictridden 

and sensationalistic. She believes that Danes are less competitive than 

the Australians, whom she sees as “highly competitive”. She sees the Danes 

and thus Danish media as having less taste for sensation and scandal. 

According to her, these cultural differences come to the fore in what Rømer 

(2006, my translation from Danish) terms the “specifically Danish casting” in 

shows like Huset and the Danish version of How Clean is Your House: 

Everybody with the slightest hint of mental imbalance is avoided […]. The 

[negative] feelings [that this would awaken] in the viewers stand in the way 

of the televisual experience [and] the positive journey [the contestants go 

through]. Instead the viewers would feel sorry for them (Rømer 2006, my 

translation from Danish). 

Contrary to what she suggests, this less extraordinary and more normal way 

of casting could however also be related to the Danish tradition for public 

service television rather than to inherent traits in the Danish national 

character and mentality. Public service television cannot offend the viewers; it 

must gather the nation – not divide it, as may have been the case if TV 2 had 

cast people with even the “slightest hint of mental imbalance” or 

extraordinarily gorgeous, glamorous, and competitive people, for that matter. 

The executive producer of Huset, Kent Nikolajsen from Metronome 

Productions, indirectly points to this as well, when he talks about why the 

second series of Huset was different to and, in his eyes, less successful than 

the Australian original or the first Danish series. While Nikolajsen and his 

team deliberately chose ‘relations over renovations’ and therefore had to 

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employ “a few reality tricks along the way”, the reality elements had to be 

“cosy and positive” and in line with TV 2’s programming policy and values as 

opposed to “nasty” and conflict-ridden (Ibid, my translation from Danish). 

An example of a “positive reality trick” is making the contestants believe they 

have to sleep in uncomfortable lounge beds, after which the producers have 

their private beds brought to Huset as a positive and pleasant surprise (Ibid, 

my translation from Danish). 

Viewer decider, documentary-like stylistic and a smaller budget 

On a more pragmatic and production specific level, Nikolajsen and his staff 

also had to change the format quite drastically due to the anticlimax of the 

first series finale; in which nobody turned up to the auction and the original 

owner of the apartments had to buy them back just to create a minimum level 

of credibility. The solution chosen was to let the viewers decide the main and 

sub-competitions via SMS and telephone voting, which logically required the 

episodes be produced very close to broadcast. However, this also meant that 

a comparatively large part of each episode was dedicated to the SMS 

competition and therefore left less time to develop the main storylines around 

the relations of the couples. In addition, the producers intentionally went for 

a grittier and documentary-like reporting stylistic “in the manner of The 

Osbournes” (Ibid, my translation from Danish) where a situation is filmed live 

as it occurs. This is also pointed to in the program analysis. This was opposed 

to the high production value of the first series where the contestants would sit 

down and talk about the situation afterwards in front of a beautifully staged 

background. This was again an attempt to prioritise human relations over 

DIY renovations (Ibid). 

However, Nikolajsen also points to a smaller budget as an important 

explanation for the differences between Huset and The Block and for why the 

‘relations over renovations’ approach may not have succeeded one hundred 

per cent. Even though the budget of Huset was relatively large for Denmark – 

especially for a week-day production – Nikolajsen did not have the possibility 

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to hire as much staff as would have been required to obtain a level of detail 

similar to the Australian original (Nikolajsen 2006). He points specifically to 

the fact that he only had one story-liner to keep track of and organise the 

many simultaneous storylines developing in the course of the series, whereas 

the Australians allegedly had several story-liners. The budget only allowed for 

the employment of staff with all-round skills to work on more functions, and 

Nikolajsen did not have the opportunity to hire specialised staff with high 

expertise in certain areas such as story-lining (Ibid.). However, as none of the 

executive producers involved in either adaptation wanted to disclose exact 

budgets, Nikolajsen’s statements cannot be verified. 

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“FC ZULU” AND “NERDS FC” 

Nerds FC is called FC Zulu in its original Danish version. The first series of 

FC Zulu was broadcast in 2004 on TV 2’s youth-skewed supplementary 

channel TV 2/Zulu (hence the title), where it quickly became a cult hit with 

an audience following above average for the small channel. TV 2/Zulu 

channel directors, Keld Reinicke and Palle Strøm, developed the format. It is 

therefore important to note that TV 2/Zulu is a 100 per cent commercially 

funded channel under TV 2 and also does not operate under any public 

service charter. 

The format’s basic idea and humour-laden plot is to turn a group of ‘nerds’ 

into (sports) men by teaching them how to play football and then ultimately 

have them play against a team of A-league professionals. Series two and series 

three followed in 2005 and 2006, and both featured further elaborations on 

the original format. In series two the ultimate challenge for the nerds was to 

play a match against the Nerds FC team from Denmark’s archrival nation, its 

neighbour, Sweden. Series three saw the nerds head off to Brazil to learn 

some additional ‘samba football’ skills and to ultimately take on a selected 

Spanish team to avenge Denmark’s humiliating 1-5 defeat at the hands of 

Spain in the 1986 Mexico World Cup quarter final. 77 All three series have 

been successful with the viewers and have subsequently been broadcast on 

TV 2/Zulu’s parent station, TV 2. The first series had an average rating of 

approximately 100,000, which equals a 5.4 per cent share, on TV 2/Zulu and 

an average rating of 500,000 and share of 22.5 per cent when it was re-run on 

TV 2 (Gallup TV-meter 2006). 

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The Australian adaptation of series one was produced by independent 

production company Grundy Productions and broadcast on SBS, Australia’s 

multi-cultural public service broadcaster, in the Southern winter of 2006, 

leading up to SBS’ coverage of the 2006 World Cup in Germany (Murphy 

2005). Series two is currently (as of May 2007) in production and set for 

broadcast later in the year. Series one was extremely successful for SBS. It had 

a share of 8-9 per cent in its Friday night slot and this is very high for SBS, 

which usually sits between 2-3 per cent in the same slot (Waterhouse 2006). 

Additionally, it is the only adaptation of an overseas format that SBS has ever 

undertaken (Murphy 2005). Nerds FC is also among the most expensive 

shows SBS has commissioned, although the budget is not big compared to 

budgets on the commercial Australian broadcasters (Waterhouse 2006; 

Murphy 2005). 

For the analysis carried out in this chapter I have chosen episode four of both 

adaptations, which sees the nerds take on a team of hardened prisoners. 

However, as was the case with the analysis of The Block, other episodes will be 

referred to when they shed further light on or elaborate on the argument. The 

specific choice of episode four relates to the fact that this is the episode, 

which most visibly illustrates the many similarities as well as the more subtle 

but important differences between the two versions. The two episodes are 

found on DVD 4 and DVD 5. 

77 This defeat is an extremely gloomy memory in the minds of most Danish football fans and is regarded 

as a significant stain on Denmark’s international footballing honour. 

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Positive and humorous reality 

What will happen when you take 14 nerds, who have never touched a 

football in their lives; coach them for three months with football 

professionals […] and then let them play a professional team in front of 

25,000 people? We’ll find out when we turn boys into men, mice into 

lions, nerds into athletes and proudly present the football team, Nerds 

FC. 

The above quote is the Australian program introduction that starts every 

episode of the series. It is an almost exact translation of the Danish program’s 

introduction and the words accurately describe the main plot of the format. 

Within the three months the nerds must endure hard physical and mental 

training in order to become capable of playing football to a tolerable standard. 

Additionally, each episode has its own mini-storyline or storylines with a 

smaller challenge such as recording a theme song or, as it is the case with the 

episode being analysed in this chapter, playing a match against a team of 

prison inmates. Thus the format clearly falls within the reality game show subgenre: 

A group of contestants are put in a staged and unfamiliar reality in 

which they must face a number of physical, social and mental challenges (see 

Chapter 3). However, it is important to note that it also differs from other 

reality game shows such as Big Brother, Survivor, and Idol in three important 

ways. 

First of all it is a light-hearted, irony-packed and actually very funny format 

that stands ready to poke fun at not only the participants but also the 

‘constructed reality’ of the format itself. It is not a serious reality show due to 

the fact that the main challenge in itself is essentially impossible. It is possible 

to get the nerds to play football in front of 25,000 people – just not well – and 

the nerds, and the viewers with them, realise that they will never become 

highly skilled football players that can match professional athletes. Most of 

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them simply do not have the basic motor skills required of a top athlete, and 

this makes the series funny to watch. In other reality formats the contestants 

usually have certain skills – like singing talent on Idol and mental and physical 

endurance skills on Survivor – that make themselves and the viewers believe 

they can rise to the challenge and win the competition. Secondly it is a 

positive reality format in the sense that we the viewers laugh with the nerds 

when they try the impossible. We do not laugh at them. The format does not 

humiliate the nerds by putting them in compromising situations. This is 

something that other reality formats thrive on by encouraging different types 

of less flattering human behaviour such as backstabbing, elbowing and slyness 

among the contestants. However this is not the case with Nerds FC. It seems 

that the nerds enjoy the challenge and laugh at themselves as much as the 

viewers do. Thirdly, there is no prize to win, which means that the nerds are 

there for the ‘fun’ of going through a different experience and therefore are 

probably not willing to humiliate themselves too much. This air of positivism, 

humour and light-heartedness recurs in both FC Zulu and Nerds FC and the 

two versions are generally ‘radically similar’, especially when it comes to 

dramaturgy, editing, production value, casting, and narrative ‘feel-goodness’. 

However there are also subtle but important differences between the two, 

which make Nerds FC slightly more serious, competitive, and melodramatic 

than FC Zulu, which in turn is more comical, satirical and ironic. 

Similarities between FC Zulu and Nerds FC 

The similarities between the Australian adaptation and its Danish original 

cover most areas from the program introductions, to editing style and 

production value, to the overall progression and general humoristic feel-good 

nature of the series. As such, the two adaptations both evolve around rather 

universal themes such as personal development and manhood (or what it 

means to be a ‘real’ man). Below are some examples of these similarities and 

themes divided into three main categories: 

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• Dramaturgy 

• Editing style and production value 

• Casting and conflicts 

Dramaturgy 

The eight episodes of the series progress in exactly the same way in the two 

adaptations: 

1. Episode one sees the nerds being introduced, their physical 

fitness levels measured, and at the end of the episode the nerds 

are severely defeated by a team of young girls. 

2. Episode two sees the nerds doing team building exercises and 

electing the team captain. 

3. In episode three the nerds record their own team song – just as 

real and ‘serious’ teams have a call to arms – and they learn how 

to dance for the accompanying music video. 

4. Episode four sees the nerds face fear in the match against the 

prisoners, which is the episode under close scrutiny in this 

chapter. 

5. In episode five the nerds must subject themselves to all sorts of 

male-bonding challenges in order to become real men instead of 

boys. 

6. In episode six everybody gets a personal makeover by two female 

stylists in order to look like other ‘real’ football professionals. 

7. Episode seven sees the nerds play a re-match to test their 

progress against the same team of teenage girls that beat them so 

badly in the first episode. 

259


8. Finally, the last episode sees both FC Zulu and Nerds FC take on 

an A-league professional team – FC Copenhagen and Melbourne 

Victory respectively – in a big stadium in front of 25,000 

spectators. 

That the two adaptations have similar storyline structures both in the overall 

course of the series and within each episode makes the overarching narrative 

plot exactly the same in the two versions. Each episode, as well as the entire 

series, demonstrates a classical, fairytale ‘home-away-home’ dramaturgy, in 

which the nerds conquer a challenge they did not think they were able to 

overcome. In the process they are enriched and end up better and stronger 

people than when they took off on their journey to – in the case of episode 

four – the match against the prisoners. In prison the nerds’ challenge is to 

face their worst fear as they battle it out against a team of hardened criminals. 

In other episodes there are different challenges – such as singing and dancing 

for their theme song – but the dramaturgy stays the same. The ‘home-awayhome’ 

dramaturgy – with a valuable lesson learnt – adds to both narrative 

progress and the general positive feeling of both adaptations and very much 

thematises positive personal development. 

Editing style and production value 

The two adaptations have chosen very similar editing styles, which in turn 

have an effect on the production value. Two examples will be mentioned 

here: the program introductions, as we have already touched upon briefly, and 

the presentation of the prisoners. Nevertheless, there are a lot of similar 

examples throughout this specific episode as well as throughout the other 

seven episodes. As for the program introductions, the wording of the 

Australian introduction is, as mentioned, an almost word-by-word translation 

of the Danish introduction. However, this is not the only similarity in the 

introductions. Generally, the two introductions have almost identical editing 

styles. During the introduction we see funny clips of the nerds trying in vain 

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to control the football – one shot shows a nerd getting hit in the groin by the 

ball, another nerd gets the ball straight in the face, etc. – while there are crosscuts 

to funny and ironic statements from coaches and nerds. For instance, 

one of the Australian nerds, who is slightly overweight, says that his “exercise 

regime usually consists in walking to and from the car”, after which we see 

him fumble with the football. And the coach says that he has never before 

come across people with “such a basic lack of general motor skills” while we 

see some of the ‘motor skills challenged’ nerds trying in vain to kick and 

intercept the ball. 78 Both introductions also show clips from the various 

episodes that came before and which will follow, such as the nerds being 

taught how to dance, the nerds singing their theme song with headsets on, the 

nerds rappelling off a tree, etc. In this way, the introductions create an ironic 

and humorous narrative tone from the very beginning. 

Another example of the radical similarity in editing styles is the way the prison 

inmates are presented before the match against the nerds in order to make 

them as scary and as different from the nerds as possible. We see the 

prisoners working out in the gym – with the visual focus on their big muscles 

– and some of the prisoners are later presented by first name, criminal 

offence and how many years they are serving as part of their imprisonment 

such as “Matt – murder – 20 years” (in Nerds FC) and “Lars – 9 years – 

“bicycle theft”’ (in FC Zulu). Again, this creates a strong ironic and humorous 

contrast to the more ‘delicate’, less muscular, and certainly less physical nerds, 

with a particular emphasis on their nervous reactions of having to play the 

criminals. These similarities in the editing process seem to make the 

production value – that is, the overall quality and look of the two versions – 

appear similar as well. Also, both versions employ a documentary-like, semiprofessional 

and on-the-spot reporting style, and neither adaptation looks 

more expensive or well-produced than the other, as was the case with the 

78 In the Danish version the coach is slightly less diplomatic, and certainly less politically correct. He calls 

the nerds “football mongoloids”, but the meaning is the same. 

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more visually appealing and expensive looking Australian versions of Ground 

Force and The Block. 79 

On a more thematic level, the program focuses on the concept of manhood 

or what it means to be a man. By contrasting the nerds to the prisoners, as is 

done in this episode, or making the nerds sing and dance and dressing them 

up as super stars, as is the case in other episodes, the program discusses 

masculinity: What does it mean to be a man? Do real men play sports – or is 

intelligence enough? Do they have muscles or must they necessarily be able to 

sing, dance and look good? These are all rather universal questions that men, 

at least in the Western world, ask themselves. It may also explain part of the 

format’s success and why the Australian producers have chosen to make an 

adaptation, which is narratively very close to the original. 

Casting and conflicts 

The Danish and Australian nerds are also similar. 80 They are not nerdy in the 

sense that you feel sorry for them or laugh at them because they, for instance, 

do not have any social skills, are unsophisticated, or say embarrassing things. 

They are funny, self-ironic young men with an above average intelligence and 

weird interests such as stargazing or inventing a new language. In this sense all 

of them are academic achievers and very passionate and knowledgeable about 

their particular fields of interest. Because they are intelligent young men they 

also do not kid themselves that they can actually become top athletes in three 

months, and they therefore stay at a self-ironic arm’s length to the main 

challenge during the entire ordeal. One example of this is when one of the 

Australian nerds comments on the fact that he is inside a prison: “I’m in a 

79 This probably also has something to do with the size of the budgets. TV 2/Zulu spent between two 

and three million DKK ($450,000-$650,000AUD) (Reinicke 2006). Neither the Australian broadcaster 

nor the producer wanted to disclose the exact budget of Nerds FC, which unfortunately means we 

cannot compare. However, it is most likely safe to say that as a small public broadcaster SBS’s budget 

would be considerably smaller than, for instance, a similar budget on one of the commercial 

broadcasters, and therefore closer to the Danish budget. 

80 Except for the fact that the Australian nerds – like Australian society in general – are ethnically more 

diverse than the Danish nerds of whom only one seems to be of another ethnic origin than Danish. 

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hostile environment with a bunch of people who want to kick my arse – it’s 

just like being back in primary school.” Another example is the Danish nerd 

who says that because he was practically blind without his glasses on, and 

therefore could not see how mean the prisoners looked, he was not really 

scared during the prison game. 

The nerds may not win even one game but at least they try, and they enjoy 

themselves doing it. In addition, we never see any negative and malicious 

sides to the nerds and conflicts are always of a positive nature. For example, 

the nerds may feel extremely frightened and threatened by the prison 

environment but they rise to the occasion and play a decent match and in the 

end impress their coaches and even the prisoners. Another reality show may 

have had a completely different set-up, in which the nerds were 

psychologically traumatised unnecessarily and the prisoners played even 

rougher. In reality shows such as Big Brother and Survivor, and even The Biggest 

Loser, the plot thrives on negative conflicts and the contestants submitting to 

the pressure and showing less flattering personality traits. This is not the case 

with either FC Zulu or Nerds FC. The casting and positive conflicts combined 

make the viewers laugh with the nerds and not at them, which again adds to 

the strong feel-good quality of the two adaptations. 81 

Subtle but important differences 

As mentioned above, despite the many similarities between the two 

adaptations there are also a number of more subtle but rather important 

differences. Together these differences make Nerds FC slightly more serious 

and competitive than FC Zulu, which in turn is more comical, satirical and 

‘meta-ironic’. In addition and as a consequence of this, Nerds FC has a 

broader, more melodramatic and universalistic appeal than FC Zulu, which 

81 The German adaptation of the format flopped, and co-developer Reinicke actually attributes its failure 

to the fact that the Germans misunderstood the format’s basic plot. The German producers did not 

emphasise the good feelings in the casting and in the conflicts and instead focused on laughing at the 

nerds and hence humiliating them (Reinicke 2006). 

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seems to target a narrower and culturally ‘initiated’ audience with its use of 

irony and inter-cultural references. 

Danish inter-cultural references and ironic comedy 

The Danish episode four has two inter-cultural references that are both of 

significant importance for an understanding of the humour and irony of FC 

Zulu. First, there is an inter-textual and inter-cultural reference to the Danish 

Olsen Banden comedy movies when the nerds leave the prison and their coach 

is outside to greet them waving Danish paper flags. This is an inter-textual 

and highly ironic take on a famous and recurring scene in the Olsen Banden 

(translates The Olsen Gang) movies and on the fact that the Danish national 

team is actually called Olsen Banden by the press because their coach’s surname 

is Olsen. Even the music played during the scene is the famous soundtrack 

from the movies. However, this is only funny in the local Danish context 

where these movies are part of most Danes’ cultural heritage. For outsiders 

the scene does not make any sense and therefore is not particularly funny. 

Secondly and even more importantly, a large part of the humour and irony of 

not only episode four but also the entire Danish series is derived from the fact 

that the Danish nerds have absolutely no knowledge of the game of football. 

One example is the nerds’ look of bewilderment when they are introduced to 

their famous assistant coach, Erik Rasmussen, from one of the Danish A- 

league clubs, FCM (FC Midtjylland). They obviously have no idea who he is 

and let alone what “FCM” means. Another example is when two of the nerds 

use a completely wrong terminology to describe the ‘wing’ and ‘centreforward’ 

positions, leaving the assistant coach in a state of shock and 

bafflement. Having no knowledge of basic rules, field positions, and famous 

Danish players and coaches is highly unusual in Denmark where football is 

the national sport and especially among the male part of the population. For a 

Danish (male) audience it is therefore funny and a true sign of ‘nerdy-ness’, 

whereas a lack of football knowledge is rather normal in Australia, where 

Australian Rules football, rugby league and rugby union are the primary 

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winter sports, and football, or soccer, is a developing code. Despite a recent 

popularity surge following the Australian participation in the 2006 World 

Cup, football remains a minor sport compared to the national sports listed 

above. As is hinted above, and because especially the male part of the Danish 

population is generally very interested in football, the inter-textual humour 

contrived from the nerds’ lack of football knowledge is particularly targeted 

towards Danish boys and men. Danish women would most likely be a little 

less football savvy and as such miss part of the humour and irony, making the 

Danish version more narrow and exclusive – also within the Danish cultural 

context. 

Another subtle yet important difference between the two adaptations is that 

FC Zulu seems slightly more comical, silly and ironic than Nerds FC. One 

example from episode four is the bouncing sounds that accompany one of 

the nerds as he jumps up and down to warm up before entering the field. The 

bouncing sounds put even more focus on his lack of basic motor skills and 

add a rather silly and cartoon-like touch to the humour. The same is the case 

when the assistant coach’s bewildered facial expression to the nerd’s 

unfamiliarity with basic field positions is replayed in slow motion. This 

comical silliness serves to ramp up the ironic volume of FC Zulu by saying ‘do 

not take this serious – we are taking the mickey out of other reality shows’ 

and thereby emphasises what could be considered the ‘meta-ironic’ layer of 

FC Zulu, which is practically non-existent in Nerds FC. This layer represents 

an ironic comment and perhaps even a criticism of the reality genre as such. 

In this respect Nerds FC seems to take the reality genre more seriously, which 

will be elaborated below. 

Australian melodrama and ‘serious’ fun 

Another noteworthy difference between the two adaptations is the Australian 

ending of episode four, which adds a melodramatic and rather serious layer to 

the episode. Contrary to the Danish ending, in which the nerds leave the 

prison immediately after the game, the Australian nerds stay for lunch and a 

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chat with the inmates. The nerds and the prisoners obviously enjoy each 

other’s company and the experience leaves the nerds contemplative. As one 

nerd, Philip, says after the meeting (accompanied by a melodramatic music 

score): 

After the match and after we sat down and started to have lunch together, 

I got more contemplative. Because here were these really young men – 

probably some of them our age – they’re animated, they can talk, and 

some of them were well-informed. I just began to reconsider the whole 

concept of ‘bad guy’-‘good guy’. So it was a really amazing and mindbending 

experience. 

The episode clearly has a moral. The meeting with the prisoners has taught 

the nerds an ethical and politically correct lesson about the many grey areas 

between good and bad, and together with a rather histrionic soundtrack this 

sequence contributes in part to the more serious and melodramatic appeal of 

Nerds FC. This ending is completely absent in the Danish version. The 

Danish nerds do not even speak about the prisoners but only talk about the 

lessons they have learnt as a team. Another contributing factor to the 

melodrama and seriousness of the Australian ending is the speech made by 

the Australian coach after the match, again accompanied by an (over-) 

emotional soundtrack: 

Congratulations to you all. You’ve made it inside the jail and happily 

you’ve made it outside the jail. You’ve mixed it with guys that have really 

pushed life’s envelope to the very edge, and you stood your ground. You 

conducted yourself with real aplomb and with real grace and in a number 

of cases with real athleticism. I cannot believe I’ve said it but there you go. 

Congratulations! 

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The Danish coach also says he is “proud” of his players but he does not give 

an emotional speech directly to the players like the Australian coach does. 

Instead he says it to the camera in an interview, in which he also mentions the 

many things that still need to be corrected. His statement is therefore 

nowhere near as overwrought, serious and melodramatic as the Australian 

coach’s speech cited above. Generally, the Australian adaptation seems to take 

the challenge more seriously and thus is slightly more focused on the 

competitive elements than its Danish counterpart. This is for instance 

reflected in the Australian coach’s more serious attitude and in the fact that 

Nerds FC does not have the same comical appeal, as is the case with FC Zulu. 

It seems that there is a much larger focus on getting the nerds to actually 

achieve something athletically. The Australian adaptation thereby treats the 

reality genre more seriously. Although Nerds FC is indeed very funny and 

humorous, it is ‘serious’ fun as opposed to the ironic comedy of FC Zulu. 

Summary: elitist ironic comedy versus egalitarian serious fun 

FC Zulu and Nerds FC are in many ways radically similar. The basic 

dramaturgy and episode storylines are the same, the editing style and 

production value are similar, and the casting and handling of conflict have 

been approached in the same way. All of this combines to make a positive, 

humorous, and ‘feel-good’ narrative plot about personal development. The 

adaptations are examples of an inclusive, warm, humorous and optimistic 

reality that does not thrive on negative conflicts and off-putting human 

behaviour and therefore differs from other nastier reality formats. 

Nevertheless, there are also a few subtle but important differences. First of all, 

the Danish original has more inter-cultural and inter-textual references. 82 This 

basically means that only people initiated in Danish culture will fully 

understand the humour in FC Zulu. Also, the Danish version is sillier, more 

comical and ironic in its humour, which ads a meta-ironic layer that 

82 Here, I may be opening up myself to the charge that because I am Danish I did not notice any similar 

references in the Australian version. Nevertheless, as has already been discussed in Chapter 4, I 

believe I have taken the necessary precautions to avoid being affected by my own cultural bias. 

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comments on – and partly makes fun of – the reality genre as such. On the 

other hand, the Australian adaptation is more melodramatic and moralising – 

especially towards the end of episode four – and seems to take the 

competitive elements and thereby the reality genre more seriously than its 

Danish equivalent. In this respect Nerds FC is serious fun. FC Zulu is ironic 

comedy. 

These differences combined with the fact that a large part of the ironic 

humour of FC Zulu is rather masculine and derived from the fact that the 

Danish nerds have absolutely no knowledge of the game of football (as 

opposed to ‘real’ Danish men), make the Danish original not only youthskewed 

but also targeted towards young males specifically. FC Zulu may 

therefore be characterised as a rather elitist program in the sense that it 

excludes a fair amount of the Danish population, including the older 

demographic and maybe even a large part of the Danish women, as well. This 

fits well with the fact that the format was originally developed for TV 

2/Zulu’s much narrower, and perhaps more male-oriented, and indeed 

younger audience segment. 83 In contrast to this, Nerds FC seems more 

egalitarian in the sense that the humour, together with a larger emphasis on 

the nerds’ personal development, is more widely appealing and most likely 

reflects the broadcaster’s demographically more dispersed target audience. 

Again, the same differences between elitist and egalitarian values are in play, 

as it was the case in the Australian and Danish adaptations of The Block. 

Nevertheless, in contrast to The Block, it is the Danish adaptation that is more 

elitist and the Australian that is more egalitarian. This fits well with Bruun’s 

(2006) main thesis that elitist values are more predominant in public service 

programming (in this case on SBS) than commercial programming (in this 

case on TV 2/Zulu, which does not operate under a public service remit). 

83 Reinicke partly confirms that FC Zulu was male-skewed. During series two’s live final football match 

between the Danish and the Swedish nerds, the spectators were for a large part fathers and sons 

(Reinicke 2006). 

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However, it also shows that reality is not necessarily elitist entertainment, as 

Bruun suggests. Reality can be produced with a fairly egalitarian mode of 

address as well, which is pointed out in this chapter’s analysis of Nerds FC. 

That this is the case will also be confirmed in the next chapter’s analysis of the 

reality format Idol, which demonstrates similar differences in its Australian 

and Danish adaptations. 


It is important that the participation in the series is a positive experience 

for the players. […] The viewer must be pro the nerds – laugh with them 

and not at them – in respect of the young men throwing themselves into 

something completely unknown. It is feel-good television with a humorous 

and optimistic tone. Conflicts are only shown if they are of a positive 

nature (Zodiak Television World 2005). 

The above quote is from the Nerds FC ‘format bible’ and very much 

confirms what the analysis has already shown. This is feel-good television 

with a humorous and optimistic tone and conflicts are of a positive nature. 

From the very beginning developers Reinicke and Strøm did not want to 

make a program on “social losers” and always meant for the format to be 

“inclusive” in the sense that nobody is voted out (Reinicke 2006, my 

translation from Danish). The feel-good effect and positive inclusiveness were 

also the main qualities that the Australians saw in the format and therefore 

what they wanted to include in their adaptation. Grundy Productions 

executive producer Paul Waterhouse and SBS commissioning editor Margaret 

Murphy put it like this: 

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It’s a unique format because it’s a “reality” format – using double 

handed signals there – but most reality television has had a nasty side in 

it, where […] the contestants are competing against each other in 

sometimes quite nasty and degrading ways. […] It’s [one of] very few 

programs that give you a mixture of humour and comedy plus warmth 

and feel good towards the public (Waterhouse 2006). 

We do very much think about our audience and that’s why [Nerds FC] 

in particular – rather than being a sporting program – it’s a much more 

human relationship program. It’s a show about young kids having a go. 

We’re not laughing at them (Murphy 2005). 

As the analysis has shown the Australian producers have indeed succeeded in 

capturing the “basic humoristic and optimistic tone” that is manifest in the 

original program and described in the format bible. 

Multicultural universalism versus national and demographic parochialism 

Nonetheless, there are also a number of important differences between the 

Danish and the Australian versions, whose end result is that Nerds FC has a 

somewhat wider, more universal audience appeal than FC Zulu. Everybody 

regardless of age, gender, nationality or ethnic origin would most likely 

understand the humour and the plot of Nerds FC. Melodrama and big 

emotions are more universal and therefore translate easier than FC Zulu’s 

cliquish intercultural references and irony. The Australian adaptation in this 

sense is more transparent than the Danish original (Olson 1999; see Chapter 

2 and 3). This is very likely to be a reflection of the Australian broadcaster’s 

multicultural charter on the one hand and to Australia’s multi-cultural reality 

(and general national football ignorance) on the other. SBS specifically and 

Australian broadcasters generally must appeal to a heterogenous audience and 

therefore probably often choose a universalistic and less constricted audience 

approach. 

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That SBS’ multicultural charter affected the production of the format is partly 

confirmed in the interview with Grundy executive producer Paul Waterhouse, 

who talked loosely about the impact that the charter had on the casting of the 

nerds and their ethnic origin: 

We had to learn to understand the thinking of SBS […] and what their 

requirements were about the charter. Because SBS is a government owned 

station they work via government charters so they have lots of regulations. 

SBS is established as a multicultural channel so a part of their charter is 

that a certain percentage of their programming has to be from other 

cultures. So we had to make sure we had a good multicultural mix of the 

nerds and everything (Waterhouse 2006). 

Waterhouse also confirms that it was a deliberate strategy to tone down the 

irony of the Danish original and instead opt for melodramatic ingredients or 

what he calls “the emotional roller-coaster” in order for the audience to 

“bond to the nerds and the program better”: 

Probably the other big change we made was that we not only followed the 

boys through the experience, but we also tended to summarise each episode 

with the emotional roller coaster. And the boys got quite emotional about 

what they’d achieved in an episode and we used music to enhance and 

enforce it. […] I think we actually have got more of that emotion in the 

program than the Danes do […] I think that the emotional thing makes 

people bond to the nerds and the program better. That’s what we’re 

aiming at: to get the public to feel they know these boys (Waterhouse 

2006). 

As for the increased focus on the format’s competitive elements, 

commissioning editor from the SBS, Margaret Murphy, states that part of the 

attraction of the show was to see how high achievers in the field of academia 

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will do in another discipline, that of sports. Hereby she indirectly pointed to 

the importance of the competition: 

We want to see a difference in their fitness levels from the beginning to the 

end. And the kids that we’re choosing are all really bright university 

students; they’ve all got really good qualities but they’re just not related to 

sport. So we’re taking people who are keen to achieve – they are high 

achievers – and just putting them into a foreign situation to see how they 

go. And I think some of them will rise to the challenge (Murphy 2005). 

Danish broadcasters on the other hand communicate to a homogenous 

audience and can therefore make more frequent use of inter-cultural 

references and a cliquish kind of humour. In addition, FC Zulu was first made 

for and broadcast on TV 2’s supplementary channel TV 2/Zulu, which is not 

operated under a public service charter, and whose programs are targeted 

towards young people and often exhibit a great deal of youthful and cliquish 

irony. This means that the differences between FC Zulu and Nerds FC are 

actually best explained using a combination of media systemic explanations to 

do with target groups and channel charters on one hand and less tangible 

cultural explanations to do with Australia’s multi-culture as opposed to 

Denmark’s mono-culture on the other. 

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C h a p t e r 1 0 

“IDOLS” AND “AUSTRALIAN IDOL” 

The Idol format, of which Idols and Australian Idol are adaptations, is indeed a 

truly global format. It was originally broadcast as Pop Idol in 2001 on British 

ITV1, which later did a second series, and has since been sold into more than 

30 national markets including countries as diverse as Denmark and Australia, 

of course, and Bulgaria, Singapore, Malaysia, India, USA, Kazakhstan, Brazil, 

Turkey and Vietnam (Flint 2005). 84 In addition, there has also been a number 

of trans-national adaptations including pan-Arabic, Latin American, and West 

African versions – and the one-off World Idol that was held in 2003 and which 

saw 11 of the national idols battle it out against each other. The various 

adaptations have resulted in a number of international and national super 

stars including American Kelly Clarkson and Australian Guy Sebastian. 

Developer Simon Fuller and his production company 19TV own the format 

rights together with international production and distributing giant Fremantle 

Media. An important part of the attraction of the format is the SMS viewer 

voting. The SMS voting not only decides the competition and makes the 

format highly interactive but also generates a great deal of revenue for the 

broadcaster because the viewers pay an extra fee on top of the normal SMS 

rate. 85 Another important feature of the format is the fact that it is very much 

a joint venture between the broadcaster and the recording industry (Flint 

84 Here is the complete list of Idol adaptations: United Kingdom (original), Armenia, Australia, Belgium, 

Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, 

Iceland, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, 

Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia Montenegro & Macedonia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, 

Sweden, Turkey, USA, and Vietnam (Flint 2005). 

85 In Australia the viewers are free to vote as many times as they want; in Denmark the viewers are only 

allowed three votes. The Australian adaptation is therefore likely to have generated considerably 

higher revenue from the SMS voting than its Danish counterpart, which also had a significantly 

smaller audience. 

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2005). The format sets out to find a superstar that will sell lots of records and 

thus generate revenue for the record company signing the idol. Thus, the 

format needs a maximum degree of exposure to the (right) television audience 

– that is, the potential record buyers – for it to be worthwhile for the 

participating record label. 86 

In Denmark TV3 has made two series of Idols; the first series in 2003 and the 

second in 2004. In Australia Channel Ten has so far produced four Australian 

Idol series in the last four consecutive years – 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 - 

and currently (May 2007) has the production of series five well under way. 

The analysis in this chapter is based on series two in both countries, both of 

which were broadcast in 2004. The reason for choosing series two is both 

pragmatic and coincidental. I conducted my interview with the Australian 

producers of the format in the southern spring of 2005 during the broadcast 

of the third series, and the executive producer provided me with their latest 

series, series two. I therefore subsequently asked for series two of the Danish 

adaptation in order to obtain a certain degree of similarity in the analytical 

objects. The ratings for the two adaptations are very different. The first two 

years Australian Idol was the number one show on Australian television. Series 

three slipped considerably – partly due to the broadcast of three other talent 

shows on Australian TV in that same year (Tate 2005) – but series four picked 

up again after a revamping of the format to attract more interesting talent. 

Thus, all Australian Idol series have had a considerable audience, which in 

most weeks has put the show in the top 20 program ratings of Australian 

free-to-air television. 87 Often the show can also be found at the very top of 

86 Another point worth noting is that the format is a spin-off on the Pop Stars format and that the 

producers of Pop Stars actually sued Simon Fuller and 19TV for plagiarism, which resulted in the 

removal of “pop” from the original British title Pop Idol in the international launch of the format. This 

may explain why the format is relatively rigid and made to be easily recognisable from one country to 

the other, as will be demonstrated in the comparative analysis. 19TV must make sure that the Idol 

format is distinguishable from other similar formats in order to avoid plagiarism accusations on one 

hand and being plagiarised on the other. 

87 OzTAM (Australian Television Audience Measurement) viewing reports 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006; 

www.oztam.com.au. 

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these ratings (especially during the audition episodes and the Grand Finale), 

which equals around 2 million viewers in the five metropolitan markets of 

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Idols certainly has more 

modest ratings in comparison. Idols series two had an average share of 6 per 

cent, which equals audience sizes between 80,000 and 240,000. 88 

Nevertheless, this is just above average for TV3 and as such constitutes a 

moderately successful program in the TV3 universe. Series one however was 

a much larger success with an average share of 9 per cent and ratings that 

often passed 200,000 viewers. 

Classic reality 

The basic plot of the format is simple: Idol sets out to find the most talented 

popular music singer in the country or territory. He or she will be rewarded 

with a recording deal with a leading record label and we follow this person’s 

and the other contestants’ often troublesome and always emotional journey 

from unknown talents to fully-fledged artists and celebrities. The Idol format 

can therefore quite easily be classified as a classic reality game show, as it was 

described in Chapter 3, and in which a group of contestants compete for a 

prize in a reality that has been staged by the producers. 

Contrary to the other comparative analyses, this analysis takes its point of 

departure in the entire series structure of the two adaptations, as this structure 

on one hand differs considerably from one adaptation to the other. Having 

acknowledged that, it is also important to note that the structure also displays 

important similarities pointing to a fairly strict and confined format. Still, 

specific episodes are also singled out and analysed more closely. These 

episodes are episodes one of both adaptations, which in both the Australian 

and Danish adaptation takes the viewers through the first day of the initial 

auditions, in which the judges select the 100 most promising contestants. 

Furthermore I have chosen episode 10 of Idols and episodes 19 and 19a of 

88 Gallup TV Meter database 2006. 

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Australian Idol for closer analysis. The Danish episodes are found on DVD 6 

and DVD 7 and the Australian episodes on DVD 8, DVD 9 and DVD 10. In 

both adaptations these episodes are the live performances of the top four 

contestants and subsequent live elimination of one contestant. In Idols the 

elimination happens immediately after the live performance and is therefore 

part of the same program episode. In Australian Idol the elimination (in this 

case episode 19a) is separated from the live performance and broadcast the 

day after the live performance (episode 19). The reason for splitting the live 

performances and the following live eliminations up into two episodes – the 

live show on Sundays and the live elimination on Mondays – is rather 

pragmatic. Due to major time zone differences within Australia this is simply 

necessary in order for all Australians, regardless of locality, to get the chance 

to vote for their favourite contestants. 

The initial auditions and the live performances (and subsequent eliminations) 

are the two most important pillars of the Idol format. The initial auditions are 

important because this is what differentiates the Idol format from other talent 

shows like Star Search and Star for a Night that mainly focus on the talented 

contestants. In the auditions Idol actually focuses more on the untalented 

singers than on the true talent, which adds a funny but also humiliating and 

often nasty touch, when untalented contestants are being dismissed by 

sarcastic judges. They are the ‘funny’ episodes, in which young people from 

all over the country try their luck and test their singing talent in often very 

embarrassing ways, and in which the three judges are free to speak the awful 

truth about the auditionees’ (lack of) talent. As well, the most memorable of 

these ‘awful auditions’ are later featured as small segments in the subsequent 

episodes. In Australian Idol the four most memorable of the audition rejects 

even get to do a live performance in a program special with the rather 

sarcastic title Live & Forgettable (episode 12b). Thus the auditions also 

contribute to making Idol more reality-skewed than the before-mentioned 

talent shows. The fact that they have a ‘nasty’ side to them makes them 

similar to Big Brother and Survivor and dissimilar to Star Search and Star for a 

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Night (see Chapter 3). As for the live performances and subsequent 

eliminations they are of course also absolutely vital to the format, as this is 

where the final twelve Australians and nine Danes battle it out against each 

other to win the record deal, and the viewers get to vote for their favourites. 

Besides, the live performances and eliminations take up the majority of the 

series episodes, which is another indication of their importance and another 

reason why they should be included in an in-depth analysis. 

Similarities 

The Danish and Australian adaptations are radically different in some ways, 

and radically similar in others. Initially, we will explore the program’s 

similarities, which all centre on the recognisability, branding and, thus, the 

rigidity of the Idol format. 

Similar looks and sounds 

It is obvious that the British format holders, Fremantle Media, are fairly strict 

about protecting the Idol brand. Both the Australian and the Danish 

adaptation use the same logo, music and setting. This becomes particularly 

evident in the episode ‘intros’ and ‘outros’ that are exactly the same in the two 

versions; both when it comes to the signature music and audiovisual design: 

An Oscar-like statuette of a man with a microphone in his hand is on a stage 

where he stands bathed in spotlights and eventually transforms into a woman. 

The colours are blue and the stage is the famous round and blue Idol logo. 

However, it is also evident in the setting of the two studios. Both stages have 

the same gigantic Idol logos in the background and both studios are kept in 

the same blue colours of this logo. Even the couch, in which the contestants 

wait for the elimination results, is very similar in both adaptations. The 

background music during the reading of the elimination results is also the 

same. This means that both adaptations, despite other substantial differences, 

are easily recognised as adaptations of the Idol format. Both have the same 

look, much the same as game show formats like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 

that also look the same all over the world. 

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Similar series dramaturgy 

The overall dramaturgy of the two series is similar, although there are some 

minor differences that are mainly related to the fact that the Australian 

adaptation holds many more episodes than its Danish counterpart. These 

differences will be explained in more detail below. Nevertheless, both 

adaptations are made up of the six main, and consecutive, format elements 

below: 

1. AUDITIONS – hopeful singers from around the country are given 

the chance to perform in front of a jury of music professionals in 

a number of regional auditions; if they do well, the jury lets them 

advance to the next round. 

2. THEATRE ROUND – the selected auditionees from the regional 

auditions converge to perform in three stages, each of which sees 

the elimination of a number of contestants by the jury. 

3. SEMI-FINAL – the remaining contestants from the theatre round 

perform either live or pre-recorded, after which the viewers 

decide who remains in the competition. 

4. WILD CARDS – after the semi-final a number of wild cards are 

given to some of the eliminated contestants; the jury usually gives 

the wild cards. 

5. LIVE PERFORMANCES AND SUBSEQUENT ELIMINATIONS – these 

are elaborate versions of the semi-finals in which the final 

contestants battle it out in live studio performances against each 

other week after week; each week viewers vote for their favourites 

and the contestant with the least votes is eliminated. 

6. GRAND FINALE – the two most popular contestants perform live 

and the winner walks away with a recording deal. 

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Anecdotal evidence suggests these six elements are also the main components 

of most other local adaptations of Idol. Together with the use of the same 

logo, sounds and setting, these six components make the Australian and 

Danish adaptations – and most likely most other local adaptations – easily 

recognisable as part of the Idol brand. 

Similar episode dramaturgy 

As for the basic dramaturgy of the individual episodes, it is also similar in the 

two adaptations. In both Australian Idol and Idols, the auditions are made up of 

a combination of the segment types below. These segment types are not 

necessarily chronological. Instead, both the Danish and the Australian 

producers alternate between the different segment types throughout the 

episode: 

• CONTESTANTS IN AUDITIONING QUEUE: These segments show 

the many contestants as they wait in line for the audition. Some of 

the contestants are interviewed by the hosts about their 

expectations. 

• PRESENTATION OF JUDGES: These segments introduce the three 

judges. In both versions the judges are asked what kind of talent 

they are looking for. In addition, the Danish version also 

introduces their professional backgrounds as musicians and music 

industry professionals because two of the judges are new. All 

three Australian judges are the same as in the first series. 

• CONTESTANTS AUDITIONING: Here we see some of the 

contestants during their auditions. Focus in both adaptations is 

centred on the less talented of the potential idols. 

• JUDGES’ COMMENTS AND REACTIONS: Here we see and hear the 

judges’ comments on the auditions. The judges are often callous 

and rather brutal towards the less talented contestants. 

Nevertheless many of the comments and reactions are also very 

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funny in an embarrassing and nasty way: You laugh with the 

judges but very much at the auditionees. 

• CONTESTANTS ‘LIVE’ INTERVIEWS: In these segments contestants 

are being interviewed just before and/or immediately after their 

auditions. Focus is on their nervousness and expectations before 

the audition and on their anger or joy after they have received the 

judges’ verdict. 

Although the Australian live performance, and subsequent elimination, 

consists of two episodes, as has already been explained, both Australian Idol 

and Idols structure the live performance and elimination in similar ways. 

Contrary to the segment types of the audition episodes, the segments below 

are more or less chronological and they are therefore marked by numbers: 

1. PRESENTATION BY THE HOSTS: The hosts present the theme of 

the live performance – big band music, rock, rhythm and blues, 

1980s, etc. – and the final contestants take to the stage where they 

are interviewed briefly. 

2. CONTESTANTS PERFORM THEIR SONGS: Each contestant performs 

his or her song(s). 

3. JUDGES COMMENT ON PERFORMANCES: After each performance 

the judges give their comments. 

4. VIEWERS VOTE: The viewers give their votes via SMS or 

telephone. In the Danish version the voting is done during an 

advertising break; in the Australian version the voting is done in 

the course of a day. 

5. ELIMINATION OF ONE CONTESTANT: The voting results decide 

which contestant must leave the show. However, of course the 

elimination process is deliberately dragged out to increase the 

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jeopardy, prolong the suspense and consequently make it more 

exhilarating for the audience. 

Again the dramaturgic similarities on the episode level clearly make the two 

adaptations recognisable as part of the Idol brand. At the same time they 

create a very similar narrative progress and drive. 

Differences 

There are also radical differences between the two adaptations and it is to 

these we now turn. The major differences centre on the quantity of episodes, 

production value, and external program hype. However, there are also more 

subtle, but important differences between the Australian and Danish hosts 

and judges that together make Idols more youth-skewed, ironic, slightly nastier 

and hence more reality-like. Australian Idol on the other hand is large-scale 

entertainment and no less than a national event and, probably as a 

consequence, the main program episodes have a somewhat more familyoriented 

and clinical and mainstream appeal. 

Different program quantity 

Below is a table showing the distribution of episodes in the Australian and 

Danish adaptations. As is evident, Australian Idol consists of no less than triple 

the amount of programs compared to Idols. It has a total of 39 episodes 

showing the main competition (plus an additional circa 15 episodes of its 

complementary sister show Inside Idol). 

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Table 11.1 > Distribution of episodes in Australian Idol and Idols 

AUSTRALIAN IDOL 

Episode 1: audition day one 

Episode 2: audition day two 

Episode 3: audition day three 

Episode 4: audition day four 

Episode 5: theatre round I 

Episode 6: theatre round II 

Episode 7: semi-final I 

Episode 7a: live verdict 

Episode 8: semi-final II 


Episode 9: semi-final III 


Episode 10: wild cards live performance 

Episode 10a: wild cards live verdict 

Episode 10b: final 12 house party + recap 

Episode 11: live performance I 

Episode 11a: live verdict – Angie out 

Episode 12: live performance II 

Episode 12a: live verdict – Dan out 

Episode 12b: live & forgettable, rejects perform 

Episode 13: live performance III 

Episode 13a: live verdict – Amali out 

Episode 14: live performance IV 

Episode 14a: live verdict – Emelia out 

Episode 15: live performance V 

Episode 15a: live verdict – Daniel out 

Episode 16: live performance VI 

Episode 16a: live verdict – Ricki Lee out 

Episode 17: live performance VII 

Episode 17a: live verdict – Marty out 

Episode 17b: up close & personal 

Episode 18: live performance VIII 

Episode 18a: live verdict – Chanel out 

Episode 19: live performance IX 

Episode 19a: live verdict – Hayley out 

Episode 20: live performance X 

Episode 20a: live verdict – Courtney out 

Episode 21: Grand Finale live performance 

Episode 22: Grand Finale live verdict – 

Casey wins 

Episode 23: winner’s special 

IDOLS 

Episode 1: audition day one 

Episode 2: audition day two 

Episode 3: theatre round 

Episode 4: semi-final I (girls) 

Episode 5: semi-final II (boys) 

Episode 6: wild cards chosen by judges + recap 

Episode 7: live performance & verdict I 

Nadia and Jacob out 

Episode 8: live performance & verdict II 

Theis out 

Episode 9: live performance & verdict III 

Julia out 

Episode 10: live performance & verdict IV 

Louise out 

Episode 11: live performance & verdict V 

Søren out 

Episode 12: Grand Finale – Rikke wins 

Episode 13: winner’s special 

This means that the program takes up a massive part of Network Ten’s 

primetime during the months it is broadcast: In some weeks it is on Sunday, 

Monday and Tuesday, and then again on Thursday as Inside Idol. It is 

practically unavoidable for the viewers. On the other hand Danish Idols has a 

total of only 13 episodes and no sister show, meaning that the adaptation 

takes up a lot less of TV3’s primetime. Combined with the fact that the 

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Danish adaptation is broadcast on a smaller channel, this means that the 

program is a lot less notable and therefore easier to avoid for the Danish 

audience. 

The difference in quantity means that Australian Idol has between one and 

three shows a week and runs for approximately five months as opposed to 

Idols’ one show a week and three months’ duration. Australian Idol has four 

audition episodes; Idols only two. Australian Idol has two theatre rounds, Idols 

only one. Australian Idol has three semi-finals; Idols only two. Finally, Australian 

Idol has 11 live performances and subsequent eliminations; Idols has six. In 

addition, the Australian adaptation has its own sister show called Inside Idol, 

which does not figure in the above table. Inside Idol is on for half an hour 

every Thursday from week 10 and onwards, following the main shows on 

Sunday and Monday (and sometimes Tuesday). Inside Idol pursues the 

contestants’ day-to-day lives during the competition and is as such a Big 

Brother-style reality docu-soap, in which the viewers get all the gossip on the 

contestants. Nonetheless, it is not directly related to the main competition and 

most of the events happening in Inside Idol are recapped in either the live 

performances or the live verdicts on Sunday and Monday. As such the sister 

show is clearly an attempt from the broadcaster and producers to extract even 

more audience mileage out of the massively popular format. On top of this, 

Australian Idol has a second sister show on pay television’s youth-skewed 

music channel, Channel [V]. This show is called Idol Extra and, in an 

irreverent and humorous way, portrays the two hosts’ experiences as they 

move into Australian primetime free-to-air television. Both Australian hosts, 

Andrew G and James Mathison, are former presenters on Channel [V] and 

free-to-air television therefore represents a different experience for them. 

The quantity of Australian Idol also makes it possible for the Australian 

producers to include three extra episodes – 10b, 12b and 17b – that are 

independent from the six main format elements. Episode 10b is the Final 12 

House Party after the semi-finals. Episode 12b is called Live & Forgettable and 

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sees four of the most spectacular, funny and untalented of the audition rejects 

take the stage to perform in front of a live studio audience. Episode 17b is 

entitled Up Close & Personal and sees the remaining six contestants being 

interviewed on stage whilst a studio audience is given the opportunity to ask 

them questions. The interviews are garnished with segments on the 

contestants’ personal lives and interviews with family and friends. On the 

individual episode level, Australian Idol of course also has more time during 

the live performance and subsequent elimination because this has been split 

up into two episodes. This means that these episodes contain more ‘filling’. 

During the elimination episodes this filling mainly consists in prolonging the 

suspense before the elimination. During the live performance episodes, it 

consists in allocating more time to external events that have happened to the 

contestants during the week and is something that will be explored more 

thoroughly below. 

Different production values 

The production value of Australian Idol is considerably higher than the 

production value of Idols. Australian Idol has a more expensive ‘feel’ compared 

to Idols, and obviously the two adaptations must have had very different 

budgets. One example of the differences in production values is the setting of 

the auditions. During the Australian auditions the judges are put in front of a 

background that tells the viewers where they are: In Darwin the background 

is the beautiful turquoise tropical sea, in Melbourne the background is the 

gigantic Telstra Dome stadium, in rural Tamworth it is a field with farming 

machines, and so on. This adds a nicer and more expensive feel to the 

Australian auditions and, one may argue, makes it more enjoyable, interesting 

and satisfying for the viewers to watch. In Denmark the judges are seen in 

front of the Idols logo and that is it. Generally, the Australian adaptation is 

also more visually appealing – primarily due to a camera filter, which ads an 

expensive and more glamorous visual feel to the programs. Finally, the 

Australian production seems technically a little superior to the Danish 

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production, which has a few technical problems during the first live 

performance. 

Another example of the higher production value of Australian Idol is the fact 

that the Australian contestants perform a song together at the beginning of 

every live performance. In the Danish version this only happens once. Also, 

as the theme song choice of episode 19 of Australian Idol is big band music, 

the beginning of the episode employs a 1920s stylistic by keeping the pictures 

black and white and rather grainy and the hosts start off the show by speaking 

in an old-fashioned manner reminiscent of the jargon of the 1920s. Again 

these are examples of the Australian version’s more sophisticated attention to 

detail. This level of sophistication is not present in the Danish version. The 

Danish episode 10 also has a theme – rock songs – but this is not followed 

through with the same level of detail. The only reminder – except for the 

music – is the contestants’ ‘trashy’, rock-like outfits and the hosts wearing 

rock and roll T-shirts under their casual jackets. A further example of the 

difference in production value between the two adaptations is the Grand 

Finales. The Australian finale takes place in the most iconic of all Australian 

buildings, the Sydney Opera House. It is staged as a gigantic event with a 

massive audience inside and screaming fans outside, red carpet arrivals and 

the participation of a number of other Australian celebrities and live 

performances by international superstars. 89 The Danish finale takes place in 

the same studio as the other live performances, the only difference being that 

the hosts and the contestants are dressed in more festive and gala-like clothes. 

External program hype in Australian Idol 

Another important difference between the two adaptations is the external 

hype apparently surrounding Australian Idol, which to a large extent is included 

in the various episodes. It is obvious from the beginning that the format is 

immensely popular with the Australians. No less than 50,000 hopeful 

89 During the series three Grand Finale I was outside the Opera House to see the spectacle for myself. 

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Australians audition and the viewers are presented with one massive queue 

after the other during the auditions in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, 

Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart and Tamworth. In Idols the hosts 

tell us that “hundreds” of young hopefuls have turned up for the Danish 

auditions, which is certainly a much less impressive number (also when we 

take into account Denmark’s smaller population) and the queues outside the 

Copenhagen and Aarhus auditions are certainly a lot smaller. During the 

Australian live performance and elimination episodes, ordinary Australians on 

the streets are asked who their favourite contestants are, and everybody – 

from pre-school kids and businessmen in suits to elderly ladies in shopping 

centres – seems to have an opinion and know the contestants. The Danish 

producers do not employ these ‘vox populi’ segments, which most likely is 

because the Danish adaptation has a more limited audience and therefore 

does not enjoy the same wide popularity and hype amongst the Danish 

population. Also, the Australian final contestants are treated and behave like 

celebrities. They are invited to the ARIA awards, the Australian equivalent of 

the Grammy Awards, and we see them walk up the red carpet with other 

Australian celebrities who actually seem to know who they are. They do 

various fundraising events and visit hospitalised children with leukaemia. 

They also appear on one of Australia’s legendary morning television shows 

(on Channel Ten of course), Good Morning Australia, and we see them being 

photographed for the cover of a magazine. Finally, we follow them as they 

sign autographs in shopping centres surrounded by hundreds of screaming 

fans. All of these events that take place outside the program itself are virtually 

non-existent in Idols. 

Hosts – youthful in different ways 

Both the Australian and the Danish hosts are men and rather youthful in the 

way they address the audience. They also have similar backgrounds in 

youthful areas such as music television, stand-up comedy and cult movies. 

The two Australian hosts, Andrew G and James Mathison, have been the 

hosts on all four Australian Idol series and have consequently become 

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household names in Australian television. Nevertheless, before Australian Idol 

they were hosts on the minor subscription television music station Channel 

[V] and therefore mainly known within certain circles of Australian teenagers 

(Tate 2005). The two Danish hosts, Uffe Holm and Thomas Villum Jensen, 

have also been hosts on both Idols series one and two. Holm is especially 

primarily known among a younger Danish audience as a stand-up comedian 

known for his boyishness and childish humour. Villum Jensen is a movie 

director and actor and has played a number of comic roles in ironic and 

youthful movie successes such as They Eat Dogs in China Don’t They and Old 

Men in New Cars. 

However there are differences in the youthfulness of the Danish and 

Australian hosts. The Australian hosts appear slightly more serious and play a 

more low-key and discreet role in the programs than the Danish hosts, who in 

turn seem sillier, more dominant and at times even obtrusive. An example of 

this is that the Danish hosts do a sketch in every episode. These sketches 

mainly consist in the hosts dressing up in costumes and wigs while 

performing the sketch and as such act similarly to the British original’s 

presenter couple Ant & Dec in some episodes. In episode 10 we see them 

dressing up as various rock stars because the theme is rock. In episode one 

Holm dresses up in women’s clothes and a wig and pretends he wants to 

cheat his way through to the auditions but is found out by Villum Jensen who 

wants the producers to find a more serious replacement for Holm. In general, 

Holm and Villum Jensen do a fairly meta-ironic and irreverent take on their 

host roles, in which they make fun of the traditional television host. The best 

example of this is the so-called Idols News segments during the Wild Card 

episode (episode 6). Here they dress up as ‘serious’ news anchormen – in suits 

and with heavy glasses – that report on the progress of the judges’ wild card 

nominations as if they were serious political negotiations. Their meta-ironic 

take on the host role is also evident in their dialogue, which in the quote 

below clearly makes fun of how traditional hosts sometimes have a habit of 

stating the obvious: 

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Villum Jensen (whispers in a very serious manner): “Once the 

contestants leave the queue they are led into the so-called ‘waiting room’. 

And what do they do here, Uffe [Holm]?” 

Holm (whispers back in an equally serious manner): “They 

wait…” 

The Australian hosts do not do sketches and theirs is more the classic, less 

dominant host role of cracking a few jokes whilst leading the audience 

through the program. Although they do often make fun of themselves in a 

fairly ironic way, they do not take the Mickey out of their host roles in the 

same way as their Danish colleagues and, as a result, the television medium as 

such. Andrew G and James Mathison instead keep their irreverence to 

Channel [V] where they do a program about their experience with moving 

into mainstream television (Tate 2005). Nevertheless, focusing on the main 

shows, Australian Idol and Idols, the hosts appear to represent two different 

ways of addressing the audience: The Danish hosts are youthfully ‘silly’, ironic 

and irreverent towards their host roles and, as a consequence, towards the 

television medium as such. The Australian hosts only make fun of 

themselves, and they are generally less dominant and more serious and 

mainstream. 

Nastier Danish jury 

Both the Australian and the Danish juries are made up of one woman and 

two men from the local music industry, of which one of the men is 

particularly nasty, sarcastic and disparaging. In the Australian adaptation this 

judge is Ian Dickinson. His Danish equivalent is Thomas Blachman. Below 

are examples of their comments during episode one; comments which should 

be more or less self-explanatory: 

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It was ridiculous. If I had to sit through more than three songs with that 

voice I would slit my wrist. It was horrible (Ian Dickinson). 

It’s an insanely difficult song to sing, especially because you can’t sing. So 

I believe it’s best that you quit singing altogether. I don’t think it’s good 

for you (Thomas Blachman, translated from Danish). 

The other male judge – Danish Anders Hansen and Australian Mark Holden, 

respectively – is also similar in the two adaptations. They are both a little less 

nasty than Blachman and Dickinson but still fairly blunt about the 

contestants’ (lack of) musical skills. However the female judges – Susanne 

Kier of Idols and Marcia Hines of Australian Idol – differ considerably in 

‘nastiness’. Hines is always kind, supportive and even motherly towards the 

contestants, even when she is critical about their performances. In addition, 

she always opposes the male judges if either has been too malevolent in their 

critique. Kier on the other hand is not particularly supportive or kind in her 

critique and her style very much resembles that of Anders Hansen 

particularly. In this regard she is certainly neither motherly, nor is she 

supportive towards the contestants. Generally the non-existence of a good 

judge makes the Danish jury slightly nastier than the Australian, in which 

Hines acts as the good judge and hence counterbalances the nastiness of the 

bad male judges. 

Summary: irreverent reality versus large-scale family entertainment 

It is obvious that the two adaptations are from the same format. They look 

and sound the same and the basic dramaturgic elements and narrative drive 

are also more or less the same. Nevertheless, within this rigidity of the Idol 

format the two adaptations represent two fairly different approaches. Danish 

Idols has what can be termed a middle range production value and an audience 

appeal that is clearly skewed towards the younger audiences. Australian Idol on 

the other hand has a higher production value and is obviously of a much 

broader audience appeal. Australian Idol is a gigantic national event with a 

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significant audience following. As a consequence, Australian Idol is the subject 

of a lot of water cooler talk among Australians. I know from my stay in 

Australia during Australian Idol series 3 that most Australians know about the 

show and have an opinion about the contestants, and this is used in the 

adaptation, most evidently in the vox populi segments but also in the many 

segments showing the contestants doing fundraising, signing autographs and 

participating in celebrity events. 

Idols is much less of a national event due to a much smaller and narrower 

audience as a result of its broadcast on TV3 and its narrower audience appeal, 

which in return makes irony and nastiness deliberate programming strategies. 

Australian Idol is a full-scale, and basically fairly traditional and old-fashioned, 

family entertainment show with a youthful reality twist, mainly due to the bad 

judges, the youthful hosts, and the emotional rollercoaster we see the 

contestants go through. The Australian idol, and even a few of the runners-up 

as well, are likely to become an instant celebrity and, after a period of time, a 

multi-millionaire, top-selling recording artist due to the large degree of public 

exposure obtained on the popular show. Idols is less traditional and can better 

be characterised as youth-skewed reality entertainment due to its lack of a 

good judge and the ironic and silly appeal of the hosts who engage in a rather 

meta-ironic play with the traditional role of the television presenter. At the 

same time, the Danish winner does not reach the same instant celebrity status 

and his or her chances of becoming a successful artist are more limited, 

primarily due to less public exposure. This is underlined by the fact that none 

of the two Danish idols has had any commercial success, whereas, the first 

Australian idol especially, Guy Sebastian, and the series two runner-up, 

Anthony Callea, have both been commercially very successful. 

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Fremantle Media’s UK-based Brand Manager, Stephen Flint, confirms the 

rigidity of the Idol format (Flint 2005). Fremantle Media has to approve every 

significant aspect of the adaptation and the appearance must be the same 

around the world. Both the Danish and the Australian executive producers 

also talk about Fremantle Media’s zealousness and how everything – from 

flyers and website to minor changes in the format itself – has to go through 

Fremantle (Tate 2005; Brandstrup 2006). The set has to look the same; and so 

have the branding, the colouring and the shapes of the set. The stages are also 

the same in all countries and territories (Flint 2005). When it comes to 

choosing the hosts, Fremantle Media even “encourage people to go down the 

same road as Ant and Dec [the original British hosts] [who were] two men 

that could be boys together” (Ibid.). This is obviously what both the Danish 

and the Australian producers have done, albeit in slightly different ways. 

In addition, and as touched upon briefly in the chapter introduction, 

Fremantle Media aims to sell the adaptation licence to the biggest commercial 

broadcaster in any territory, that is, a broadcaster that can “really launch the 

winning idol” (Flint 2005). According to Flint, the integrity of the Idol format 

is very much based around the winner becoming a commercial success 

afterwards (Ibid). The logical question is therefore to ask why in Denmark the 

format was bought and adapted by TV3 and not the by far biggest 

commercial broadcaster TV 2. The explanation for this is to be found in two 

media systemic factors: 

• Firstly, TV 2 (and DR as well) had already had a few talent shows 

at the time – Pop Stars and Star for a Night on DR1 – and therefore 

did not want to buy the Idol format in fear of talent show overkill 

(Rømer 2006). 

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• Secondly, the nasty side of the format is likely to have gone 

against TV 2’s values – and DR’s for that matter – of ‘nonconflict’ 

and ‘feel-goodness’ (Rømer 2006; Hansen 2006). 

Idols: “the cheeky boy in class” 

Thus, the Idol format fell into the lap of TV3. For TV3 Idols was part of a 

branding strategy meant to distinguish the channel from the other Danish 

channels, especially the main competitor TV 2 (Spodsberg 2006). Because of 

a majority of foreign (especially American) programs, format adaptations 

together with the few locally produced programs must have a certain TV3 

touch (Spodsberg 2006). As such a format like Idol is not necessarily acquired 

only to create high ratings. According to program manager and 

commissioning editor Karoline Spodsberg, this TV3 profile equals values 

such as “female”, “young”, “on the edge” and “askew” (Spodsberg 2006, 

translated from Danish). Also, TV3 must be “more daring than TV2”, “think 

out of the box” and make sure to be the first mover on new genres to be able 

to stand out in the competition for viewers (Ibid.). Producer Pil Brandstrup 

describes Idols as “the cheeky boy in class” compared to the many other talent 

competitions that had been broadcast on the competing channels at the time 

(Brandstrup 2006): Pop Stars (TV 2) and Star for a Night (DR1). Two important 

pillars in this “cheeky” TV3 branding of the Idol format were the hosts on the 

one hand and the judging – especially in the audition episodes – on the other 

(Brandstrup 2006). Consequently, the producers intentionally strived for Idols 

to have more edge than the TV 2 and DR1 talent shows: 

You should think that it could have been difficult for Danish producers 

to create the somewhat nastier tone of the original format but we did that 

anyway and it worked. The young people liked it (Brandstrup 2006, 

translated from Danish). 

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To create this nastier tone the producers primarily used the judges, and the 

very bad judge, Thomas Blachman, was from the beginning meant as a 

Danish equivalent to the infamous and extremely malicious Pop Idol judge 

Simon Cowell (Ibid.), who was later successfully imported to the jury of the 

American adaptation, American Idol. The other pillar in the branding of Idols 

was the presenter team, Holm and Villum Jensen, who were chosen because 

of their appeal to TV3’s younger target audience (Ibid.). The pair was new to 

television and as such inexperienced television presenters. Their experience 

within other areas such as comedy, acting and stand-up was utilised to create a 

younger and, as the analysis shows, more irreverent appeal to suit TV3 

(Brandstrup 2006). Had the adaptation been produced for TV 2 or DR1, it is 

likely that the presenters had taken on a more traditional role similar to the 

Australian presenters. 

Australian Idol: broad appeal and Americanised production values 

As the analysis has already indicated, Australian Idol holds a much broader 

appeal than Idols. In fact, it is one of the broadest formats on Channel Ten 

and as such must appeal to the majority of Australians (Tate 2005). To reach 

as many viewers as possible they chose to “embellish the format much more 

than other markets”, which led to the development of the two sister shows 

Inside Idol and Idol Extra (Tate 2005). 

The analysis also identifies the high production value of Australian Idol, and as 

it turns out, the Grand Finale of the first series was voted the best at a 

convention of Idol executive producers from around the world (Tate 2005). 

This would most likely indicate a comparatively large budget and certainly a 

budget that is larger than the equivalent budget of Idols. As both Channel 

Ten’s executive producer, Stephen Tate, and head of production and 

development at Channel Ten, Tim Clucas, point to in the quotes below, the 

high production value is partially faked and certainly a result of the many 

British and American programs on Australian TV. That is, because 

Australians watch a lot of American and British shows with high budgets, 

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they expect the same of the Australian productions. 90 As such it is not enough 

that a television production is Australian-made. The quality must be similar to 

that of the many British and American shows. 

Our situation here in Australia – by comparison to Europe and 

America – audiences are very small and therefore so are our budgets, but 

everybody expects the same production values of us. So we have to use a 

lot of ingenuity and hard work to achieve the same results (Tate 2005). 

When we set out to make a program, we have to be very sure that we can 

make the program as well as it can be made – for less money. We don’t 

have the budgets of Britain or America or Germany or Italy or France. 

We do our shows for significantly less money. But […] because those 

other shows from other countries are seen in Australia, our quality has to 

match those […] We are good at faking that expensive feel (Clucas 

2005). 

As both the Australian and Danish producers and broadcasters have been 

unwilling to disclose their budgets, it is difficult to know whether the high 

production value of the Australian version is faked or not. However, it is 

obvious that the cultural and, perhaps more importantly, linguistic proximity 

of Australia to the UK and the USA plays a significant part in how television 

is produced and what demands Australians producers have to meet. As we 

have seen in Chapter 5, Australian television was from the very beginning 

quite Americanised and the history of Australian television has thus made 

Australians accustomed to the comparatively high production values of 

90 Linda Clifford from Endemol UK Productions also points to the fact that Australian productions 

have to meet very high standards, similar to the American and British standards. In her capacity as the 

head of leisure programming she has overseen various local adaptations of particularly lifestyle 

formats such as Ready Steady Cook and Changing Rooms. She does, however, also point out that 

Australian producers have more money to spend than for instance Scandinavian producers, albeit 

Australian budgets are of course nowhere near the budgets of British and American productions 

(Clifford 2005). 

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British and American television. Danish viewers have historically been 

accustomed to a large degree of Danish television. This, combined with a 

larger cultural and especially linguistic distance from the UK and USA, would 

in most cases make a Danish television program achieve higher ratings than a 

foreign one just for the fact that it is Danish, although it most likely has lower 

production values due to lower budgets. 91 

91 TV3’s program manager points out that this preference for Danish productions may be changing 

amongst especially the younger Danish viewers as they watch more American programming 

(Spodsberg 2006). On TV3 the Danish adaptation of Top Model rated similar to the American original, 

which Spodsberg explains by the higher production values of the American original. The American 

originals are in many cases simply so much better, both narratively and production-wise, that the 

Danish viewers may not care about the linguistic and cultural distance. 

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C h a p t e r 1 1 

CONCLUSIONS 

The results of the various analyses of the thesis have in different ways 

demonstrated how a country’s television system has substantial explanatory 

power when it comes to understanding the processes of television format 

adaptation. The television system – defined as the various positions and 

relations of the main national broadcasters and their interplay with media 

systemic agents such as citizens, businesses and politicians in a historical as 

well as contemporary perspective – puts forward a number of convincing 

reasons as to why formats are dealt with, produced and maybe even regarded 

differently in Australia and Denmark. 

Nevertheless, the analyses have also indicated a number of social and cultural 

‘mores’, which cannot be explained solely by way of the media system, and 

which will be discussed in more detail below. 

Investigating the different genres and their impact on the format adaptation 

process has also given important nuances to the results. For example, it has 

pointed to substantial genre variations across broadcasters and sectors both 

between the two countries and within each country, which in turn offer 

significant explanations to the differences in format adaptation processes. The 

genre perspective has also pointed to the appeal of the new format genres, 

reality and lifestyle, as far as their media systemic and cultural elasticity and 

overarching post-modern super themes are concerned. 

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A brief summary 

The comparative media system analysis of Australia and Denmark in Chapter 

5 revealed two fairly distinct television systems despite the fact that both 

belong to the same geo-linguistic region. The public service sector dominates 

the private sector in Denmark, whereas the private sector dominates the 

public service sector in Australia. Australian television was commercialised 

and Americanised from the beginning, whereas Danish television has always 

relied on large shares of locally-produced content and was run as a public 

service monopoly until its recent and turbulent transition into a fully-fledged 

mixed multi-channel system. Australian television, on the other hand, has 

been remarkably stable and has not changed considerably since the 1960s. 

Nevertheless, in both systems, television has some degree of social 

responsibility. Australian content regulation in both the public and private 

sectors is aimed primarily at promoting a cultural citizenship among viewers, 

whereas Danish public service television is regulated more carefully and seen 

as a tool to promote a cultural as well as a political citizenship. 

Chapter 6’s analysis of Australian and Danish primetime schedules pointed to 

important differences in the use of formats and format genres between the 

two countries. Presently, Danish broadcasters have a much more frequent use 

of formats than Australian broadcasters; and in Denmark there are also 

clearer connections between a rise in formats and a rise in local content and 

the reality and lifestyle genres. Generally, Denmark has a larger polarisation 

between the public service sector and the private sector than Australia, 

making the Danish private channels much more commercial and populist 

than their Australian counterparts and the Danish public service channels 

slightly more public service-oriented than the Australian equivalents. These 

differences are a result of various media systemic factors to do with different 

market sizes, different notions of public service and a more mature mixed 

television system, early commercialisation and Americanisation and a 

traditional reliance on (foreign) fictional content in Australia as opposed to 

Denmark’s recent and turbulent transition into a mixed multi-channel system 

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with a traditional reliance on locally-produced content and a pervasive public 

service ideology. 

Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10 demonstrated how differently the same four formats 

have been adapted in Australia and Denmark. The lifestyle format Ground 

Force and the lifestyle-meets-reality format The Block were both radically 

different in the two countries. The Australian adaptations had larger emphasis 

on melodramatic elements and – particularly in the case of The Block – on 

scandal, conflict and the extraordinary and hence displayed much more reality 

skewing than the Danish adaptations. The Danish adaptations on the other 

hand tended to emphasise DIY elements, downplay conflict and melodrama 

and focus on the ordinary, making them more purely lifestyle-skewed and 

more in line with public service television’s tradition of informing and 

bringing together its viewers in a feel-good atmosphere. All of this fits in well 

with the fact that the Australian adaptations were broadcast on commercial 

channels, Channel Seven and Channel Nine respectively, and the Danish 

adaptations were broadcast on the public service channels DR1 and TV 2. 

The Australian and Danish adaptations of the reality format Idol were also 

radically different. This is despite the fact that the original format was clearly 

very rigid, which made the two adaptations’ appearance, sound and narrative 

composition more or less the same. Generally, the Australian version had 

higher production values and a much more quantitatively prominent position 

in Channel Ten’s schedules leading to a greater extent of external program 

hype and, as a consequence, was a perfect example of family-oriented event 

television with a youthful reality twist. As such, the Australian version was 

fairly egalitarian compared to the Danish version. The Danish version on the 

other hand was much more low-key and with its meta-ironic hosts and 

slightly nastier jury was tailored to a narrower and younger audience segment 

and was, as such, less egalitarian and more elitist in its mode of address. 

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These differences between an egalitarian and elitist mode of address were also 

at play in the Australian and Danish versions of the reality format Nerds FC; 

and this was the case despite the fact that the two adaptations displayed 

radical similarities on the surface. The narrative structure, casting and even the 

editing were almost identical. Nonetheless, beneath the surface were a 

number of subtle but important differences, which primarily had to do with 

different modes of address. The Danish version had a meta-ironical layer, 

which caricatured and made fun of the reality genre. This layer was not 

present in the Australian adaptation, which compared to the Danish version’s 

ironic comedy was ‘serious’ fun with a larger emphasis on competitive 

elements, melodrama and morals. In addition, the Danish version had more 

inter-textual and inter-cultural references, making it a lot less transparent and 

more parochial, opaque and elitist than the Australian adaptation, which had a 

universal and egalitarian appeal. These differences also fit in well with the fact 

that the Danish original was produced for the youth-skewed and commercial 

supplementary channel TV 2/Zulu, whereas the Australian adaptation was 

broadcast on the multi-culturally oriented public service channel SBS. 

Media system holds significant explanatory power 

The above results indicate that differences are not necessarily explained in the 

national origin of the adaptations. The four Danish adaptations, for example, 

display mutual and fairly large differences. Danish FC Zulu and Idols were 

quite elitist in their modes of address, whereas Hokus Krokus and Huset were 

egalitarian. As such, they seem to reflect the Danish media system’s 

substantial polarisation between the private and the public service sector on 

one hand and the differences between broad and narrow target audiences on 

the other. 

The Australian versions of the four formats did not differ to the same extent, 

which may very likely reflect the fact that the polarisation between public and 

private is less extensive in the Australian system and that all four formats were 

produced for large, mainstream audiences. This was most clearly 

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demonstrated in the two reality formats, Australian Idol and Nerds FC, which 

were produced for a commercial and a public service channel, respectively, 

but which both had a fairly broad and egalitarian mode of address compared 

to their Danish counterparts Idols and FC Zulu. 

One therefore has to dig deeper into the positions and relations of the 

national media systems and look at the specific channel adapting the format, 

its competing channels, target audiences, budgets, responsibilities, legislation 

and historical developments to fully understand the differences between the 

adaptations. In addition, a number of more pragmatic explanations exist, such 

as the fact that Danish property is not sold at auctions, which in turn made it 

necessary for the Danish producers of The Block to make considerable 

changes to the format. Another example is the fact that football is not a wellknown 

sport in Australia, which in the Australian adaptation of Nerds FC 

results in a less inter-textual and more universal kind of humour not directly 

derived from the nerds’ lack of football knowledge. In this sense, it was of 

crucial importance that the producers and broadcasters be interviewed. Many 

of these deeper layers and more pragmatic explanations would not have 

surfaced otherwise. 

Consequently, explaining differences is not so much a question of whether an 

adaptation is Australian or Danish; it is a question of understanding the 

particular adapting channel’s particular situation and role within the particular 

television system. Thus, media system in many ways holds a larger 

explanatory power than national origin. 92 

92 In relation to this, it is interesting that it seems like a historical coincidence that the Australian 

conservative government at the time introduced a mixed television system in the first place instead of 

a system modelled on the British BBC, as the previous socialist government had decided (see Chapter 

5). Consequently, the mixed television system was not a reflection of any particular Australian national 

mentality but merely a more or less coincidental reflection of who was in political power at the time. 

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Genre perspective gives important nuances 

Throughout the thesis, looking more thoroughly at differing genres has given 

important nuances to the results. In the program analyses of Chapters 7, 8, 9 

and 10 we saw exactly how flexible and almost elastic the lifestyle and reality 

genres actually are and how they can be made to fit into different media 

systemic conditions. This makes them perfect format genres. In the schedule 

analyses we also learnt how different the general genre composition was in 

Australia and in Denmark, both when it came to the composition between 

the two countries and between the public service and private sectors within 

the two countries. Subsequently, this composition had a lot of explanatory 

power as to the differences in the use of format adaptations of the various 

Australian and Danish channels and sectors. For example, the comparatively 

and historically larger share of factual genres in Denmark – as opposed to 

Australia’s larger share of fictional genres – was likely to provide an important 

part of the explanation why Danish broadcasters seem more prone to using 

(especially lifestyle but also reality) format adaptations than their Australian 

counterparts. Another example was the limited and narrow use of genres by 

the Danish private, commercial broadcasters, which partially explains why the 

format adaptation share of their locally produced content was very high, as 

opposed to the Danish public service broadcasters’ much more varied genre 

composition. 

Cultural and social mores 

The different analyses have also pointed to various social and cultural ‘mores’, 

which cannot be explained solely by way of the media system and which may 

have more to do with particular national tastes, mentalities and social norms. 

For example, the Australian adaptations seem to generally contain a larger 

degree of melodrama than the Danish adaptations, whereas at least two of the 

Danish adaptations, FC Zulu and Idols, contain a substantial amount of metairony, 

which does not seem to be present to the same extent in the Australian 

adaptations. 

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A significant part of the explanation for the Australian melodramatic 

tendencies is most likely found in Australian television’s long-running 

tradition of soaps, a genre characterised by melodrama and emotional overdramatisation. 

Australian television has for several decades had daily episodes 

of soaps such as Neighbours and Home & Away and has even made these soaps 

into profitable programming exports. Danish broadcasters have also tried 

their luck producing soaps – such as Landsbyen (The Village) and TAXA 

during the 1990s (Agger 2006) – but soaps have never become an intrinsic 

part of Danish viewers’ daily lives. In Australia, on the other hand, soaps 

constitute an important part of the content cycles of both television and the 

popular press. Consequently, and as pointed to by Turner (2005), series such 

as The Block and Australian Idol (and to a lesser degree also Ground Force and 

Nerds FC) easily fit into the same melodramatic content cycles and the 

contestants, the narrative composition and modes of address are treated – 

both in the programs themselves and in the popular press – similarly to the 

characters, narrative composition and modes of address of the daily soaps. 

However, this still does not explain precisely why the Australian television 

industry and audience have developed a preference for soaps and why the 

same preference is not present in Denmark. Here, there may be less tangible 

cultural and social values at play, which may not be directly related to the 

media system. 

The same may very well be the case with the presence of meta-irony in the 

Danish versions of FC Zulu and Idols. In both adaptations, meta-irony is 

clearly a strategy employed by the producers to catch the attention of the 

younger audiences. In my opinion, this could very well be traced back to a 

particular Danish tradition of media-critical and ironic children’s and youth 

television originating in the 1980s (Christensen 2006). Danish television has a 

long tradition of children’s and youth programs made at eye-level with the 

young viewers without any educational purposes and in opposition to the 

world of the adults. During the 1980s this tradition took a meta-ironic turn 

and started to challenge young viewers’ ability to undertake “media-critical 

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reflection” (Christensen 2006:85, my translation from Danish). This mediacritical 

and ironic approach set a fashion for the decades to come and this 

may very well be what is reflected in the adaptations of FC Zulu and Idol. 

However, as it was the case with the Australian preference for melodrama, 

this still does not explain why the media-critical and meta-ironic form of 

children’s and youth programs appeared precisely in Danish television and 

why it does not seem to be present to the same extent in the Australian 

adaptations. Again, a significant part of the explanation may be found in less 

tangible and maybe specifically Danish socio-cultural perceptions of children 

and young people, which is also pointed to by Christensen (2006). 

Pervasive industry ideologies? 

Nevertheless, having pointed to possible socio-cultural explanations outside the 

media system, the relative absence of melodrama and the presence of metaironic 

media reflection in the Danish adaptations may also very well have a lot 

to do with a pervasive public service ideology within the Danish television 

industry rather than be merely a reflection of Danish viewers’ cultural taste 

and national mentality. 

With the history of Danish public service television in mind, it makes sense 

that Danish youth television has contained media-critical reflections, as 

television according to this ideology is considered essentially ‘bad’ and of no 

use if it is not controlled by the public service system. As a result, young 

people must learn to be media critically astute. 

Also, the reason why the soap genre does not appear to have enjoyed 

widespread popularity within Danish public service television may be related 

to the genre’s emotional over-dramatisation and roots in lowbrow cultural 

phenomena such as medical romance novels, serials in women’s weekly 

magazines and the like. Contrary to soaps, Danish television’s drama 

production has its roots in highbrow classical theatre and literature and this 

may still partially be felt in today’s schedules. This is despite the fact that in 

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Denmark the lowbrow medical romance novels and serials discussed above 

enjoy widespread popularity within large segments of the population and 

therefore would probably also be popular on television. Again, there may be 

no reason why Danes should not like melodrama, as they seem to like it when 

it is produced in other media types and genres. 

In a traditionally commercialised mixed system such as the Australian model, 

television is not essentially ‘bad’ and does not need to be controlled to the 

same degree as in Denmark. It is therefore acceptable to give viewers 

melodrama and soaps, which may be regarded as lowbrow within the Danish 

system. As for media-critical reflection, this of course also exists on Australian 

television. Nonetheless, and according to my experience, on national free-toair 

television it is usually limited to special satirical programs and for the most 

part does not form part of normal entertainment programs. 

Room for methodological improvement 

In most ways, the methodological approach employed in the research design 

of the thesis has proved successful in analysing both media system and genre 

impacts on the format adaptation processes in the two countries. 

Nevertheless, the approach also has limitations and still leaves unanswered 

questions about local format adaptation processes in the air. For example, the 

approach has pointed to possible pervasive ideologies – public service in 

Denmark and, for lack of a better description, commercialisation in Australia 

– which may somehow affect the mentality of industry professionals in both 

sectors, and hence production processes in the two countries. But the 

approach has not proved sensitive enough to fully establish whether or even 

if this ideological colouring takes place in the organisational levels of the 

production processes. 

In this case, an ethnographic and participatory production studies approach, 

in which the researcher follows the adaptation process of the same formats in 

the two countries, may provide more satisfying answers. Via a participatory 

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methodological approach, the researcher would be better equipped to 

determine possible pervasive ideologies within national television production, 

as well as other less tangible cultural factors with explanatory power. In this 

case, it may be worth studying production practices in a third country with a 

different television system to Denmark and Australia’s systems. Additionally, 

the approach would also take the structuration theories a step further and 

investigate the actual media systemic practices instead of just talking to the 

system’s agents about these practices. This is likely to bring even more 

credibility to the results. 

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ENGLISH SUMMARY 

Television format adaptation is the primary analytical object of the PhD thesis 

TELEVISION FORMAT ADAPTATION IN A TRANS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE – 

AN AUSTRALIAN & DANISH CASE STUDY. Format adaptation takes place 

when a broadcaster in one local television market buys a television program 

concept – the format – developed in another market and adapts it into a local 

version. Local adaptation of international formats plays an increasingly 

important part in international television and television formats such as Big 

Brother, Survivor, Idol, Dancing with the Stars and Who Wants to be a Millionaire can 

be found on television screens in large parts of the world. Despite the fact 

that trans-national format exchange has experienced an exponential increase 

in recent years, and despite the phenomenon’s close links to the complex 

processes of globalisation, television formats have remained fairly unnoticed 

in international media research. 

Nevertheless, format adaptation is particularly interesting in a globalisation 

perspective. Theoretically format adaptations are interesting because they 

embodiments of the global-versus-local paradox: on one hand they are 

products of globalisation but, on the other, they remain very localised 

Methodologically, they are equally interesting because the actual format from 

which local adaptations are produced is the same no matter what national 

broadcaster adapts it. This presents an outstanding opportunity to investigate 

television’s globalisation and localisation processes on analytical objects, 

whose basic idea is identical in the start-up phase of any national production 

process but often ends up being adapted in nationally very diverse ways. 

Hypothesis, key problems and methodology 

The governing hypothesis of the thesis is that specific national media systemic 

conditions have vital explanatory power when it comes to these differences – 

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and similarities – in format adaptation processes between countries. That is, 

specific format adaptation processes are more dependent on the competitive 

conditions, funding, content regulation, media policies, audience 

demographics, history and ownership of the players on a national television 

market than on vaguer cultural concepts such as for example national 

mentalities and cultural tastes. In this sense, the thesis looks for explanations 

in the specific part of a nation’s culture that constitutes the media system. As 

a consequence, the thesis pursues the hypothesis by investigating and 

comparing format adaptation processes in two different countries, namely 

Australia and Denmark, and hence is a comparative, trans-national study. 

Anther important aspect of format adaptation is related to genre. The 

majority of formats sold for local adaptation can be placed within either the 

traditional entertainment genre of quiz & game shows or within the new 

factual entertainment genres of reality and lifestyle. The two genres are 

interesting, particularly in relation to the media system hypothesis, because 

they – contrary to quiz & game shows – are less constricted and, hence, more 

manoeuvrable for local producers and more open for local interpretation 

according to media systemic as well as other cultural conditions. 

The thesis explores the following two key problems: 



adaptations of international formats in the two countries? 




format adaptation in the two countries and when it comes to the 

actual Danish and Australian adaptations of four specific reality 

and lifestyle formats? 

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The thesis is an in-depth comparative, trans-national case study where media 

systemic influences are explored all the way through the format adaptation 

processes. This is done through a combination of four analytical methods: 

• A comparative analysis of Australia’s and Denmark’s media 

systems, 

• Comparative schedule analyses of Australian and Danish 

primetime over a 10-year period, 

• Interviews with relevant television professionals in the two 

countries, and 

• Comparative textual analyses of the Australian and Danish 

adaptations of the four formats: Ground Force, The Block, Nerds FC 

and Idol. 

This approach is meant to remove the thesis from the generalised level, on 

which many globalisation theories operate. They tend to view the media in a 

rigid and undiscriminating fashion, ignoring the diversity of the different 

media types, genres, organisational structures, financial and legislative 

conditions and historical backgrounds. Contrary to this, the thesis takes its 

point of departure in precisely this diverse media culture and hence attempts 

to cover one of the blind spots of current media and globalisation research by 

way of its specific theoretical, methodological and analytical positioning. By 

combining a media system perspective with a genre perspective the thesis 

takes a middle-of-the-range theoretical as well as methodological approach, which 

will hopefully achieve insights into format adaptation and globalisation on a 

fairly concrete level. 

Main findings 

Australia and Denmark represent two distinct television systems despite the 

fact that both pertain to the Anglo-Saxon-dominated Western geo-linguistic 

region. The public service sector dominates the private sector in Denmark, 

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whereas the private sector dominates the public service sector in Australia. 

Australian television was commercialised and Americanised from the 

beginning, whereas Danish television has always relied on large shares of 

locally-produced content and was run as a public service monopoly until its 

recent and turbulent transition into a fully-fledged mixed multi-channel 

system. Australian television, on the other hand, has been remarkably stable 

and not changed considerably since the 1960s. Nevertheless, in both systems, 

television has a certain degree of social responsibility. Australian content 

regulation in both the public and private sectors is aimed primarily at 

promoting a cultural citizenship, whereas Danish public service television is 

regulated more carefully and seen as a tool to promote a cultural as well as a 

political citizenship. 

Australian and Danish primetime schedules display important differences 

when it comes to the use of format adaptations and format genres. Danish 

broadcasters have a more frequent use of format adaptations than Australian 

broadcasters; and in Denmark there are also clearer connections between a 

rise in formats and a rise in local content and the reality and lifestyle genres. 

Generally, Denmark has a larger polarisation between the public service 

sector and the private sector than Australia, making Denmark’s private 

channels more commercial and populist than their Australian counterparts 

and the public service channels slightly more public service-oriented than the 

Australian equivalents. These differences are the result of different market 

sizes, different notions of public service and a more mature mixed television 

system, early commercialisation and Americanisation and a traditional reliance 

on (foreign) fictional content in Australia as opposed to Denmark’s recent 

transition into a mixed multi-channel system with a traditional reliance on 

locally-produced content and a pervasive public service ideology. 

The local Australian and Danish adaptations of the four formats Ground Force, 

The Block, Nerds FC and Idol also demonstrate considerable differences. 

309


The lifestyle format Ground Force and the lifestyle-meets-reality format The 

Block are both radically different in the two countries. The Australian 

adaptations have larger emphasis on melodramatic elements and – particularly 

in the case of The Block – on scandal, conflict and the extraordinary and hence 

display much more reality skewing than the Danish adaptations. The Danish 

adaptations on the other hand tends to emphasise DIY elements, downplay 

conflict and melodrama and focus on the ordinary, making them more 

lifestyle-skewed and more in line with public service television’s tradition of 

informing and bringing together its viewers in a feel-good atmosphere. All of 

this fits in well with the fact that the Australian adaptations were broadcast on 

commercial channels, Channel Seven and Channel Nine respectively, and the 

Danish adaptations were broadcast on the public service channels DR1 and 

TV 2. 

The Australian and Danish adaptations of the reality format Idol are also 

radically different. This is despite the fact that the two adaptations’ look, 

sound and narrative composition are very similar because the original format 

is fairly rigid. Generally, the Australian version has much higher production 

values and a quantitatively much more prominent position in Channel Ten’s 

schedules leading to a greater extent of external program hype. As such, it is a 

perfect example of family-oriented event television with a youthful reality 

twist and has a fairly egalitarian mode of address compared to the Danish 

version. The Danish version on the other hand is much more low-key and 

with its meta-ironic hosts and slightly nastier jury clearly tailored a narrower 

and younger audience segment and as such less egalitarian and more elitist in 

its mode of address. 

These differences between an egalitarian and elitist mode of address are also 

at play in the Australian and Danish versions of the reality format Nerds FC 

despite the fact that they display radical similarities on the surface. The 

narrative structure, casting and even the editing are almost identical. 

Nonetheless, beneath the surface are a number of subtle but important 

310


differences, which primarily have to do with different modes of address. The 

Danish version has a meta-ironical layer, which caricatures and makes fun of 

the reality genre. This layer is not present in the Australian adaptation, which 

compared to the Danish version’s ironic comedy is ‘serious’ fun with a larger 

emphasis on competitive elements, melodrama and morals. In addition, the 

Danish version has more inter-textual and inter-cultural references, making it 

a lot less transparent and more parochial and elitist than the Australian 

adaptation’s more universal and egalitarian appeal. These differences also fit 

in well with the fact that the Danish original was produced for the youthskewed 

and commercial supplementary channel TV 2/Zulu, whereas the 

Australian adaptation was broadcast on the multi-culturally oriented public 

service channel SBS. 

Media system holds significant explanatory power 

The above results indicate that differences cannot automatically be explained 

in the national origin of the adaptations. The four Danish adaptations for 

example display mutual and fairly large differences. Danish FC Zulu and Idols 

are quite elitist in their modes of address, whereas Hokus Krokus and Huset are 

egalitarian. As such, they seem to reflect the Danish media system’s large 

polarisation between the private and the public service sector on one hand 

and the differences between broad and narrow target audiences at the other 

hand. The Australian versions of the four formats do not differ to the same 

extent, which may very likely reflect the fact that the polarisation between the 

public and private sectors is less extensive in the Australian system and that all 

four formats are produced for large, mainstream audiences. 

One therefore has to dig deeper in the positions and relations of the national 

media systems and look at the specific channel adapting the format, its 

competing channels, target audiences, budgets, responsibilities, legislation and 

historical developments to fully understand the differences between the 

adaptations. Explaining differences is not so much a question of whether an 

adaptation is Australian or Danish; it is a question of understanding the 

311


particular channel’s particular situation and role in the particular television 

system. Thus, media system in many ways holds a larger explanatory power 

than national origin. 

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DANSK RESUME 

Tv-formatversionering er det primære analyseobjekt i ph.d.-afhandlingen TV- 

FORMATVERSIONERING I ET TRANSNATIONALT PERSPEKTIV – ET AUSTRALSK 

OG DANSK CASE STUDIE. Formatversionering finder sted, når en broadcaster i 

et nationalt tv-marked køber et programkoncept – formatet – på et andet 

marked og versionerer det til en lokal udgave. Lokal versionering af 

internationale formater spiller en stadig større rolle, og tv-formater som 

eksempelvis Big Brother, Robinson Ekspeditionen, Vild med dans og Hvem vil være 

millionær findes i dag på tv-skærme over hele verden. På trods af at den 

transnationale udveksling af formater for nylig har oplevet en eksponentiel 

vækst, og på trods af fænomenets tætte sammenhæng med den komplekse 

globalisering, har tv-formater indtil for nylig været forholdsvist ubemærkede i 

dansk såvel som international medieforskning. 

Format-versioneringerne er dog særdeles interessante i et globaliserings 

perspektiv. Teoretisk er de interessante, fordi så at sige personificerer globalversus-lokal 

paradokset: På en side er de produkter af globaliseringen. På den 

anden side er de lokale. Metodisk er de lige så interessante, idet det konkrete 

format, som de lokale versioneringer er baseret på, er det samme uanset 

hvilken national broadcaster, der versionerer det. Det repræsenterer en 

enestående metodisk mulighed for at undersøge tv-mediets globaliserings- og 

lokaliseringsprocesser på analyseobjekter, hvis idé i udgangspunktet af den 

nationale produktion er den samme, men som ofte bliver eksekveret og 

versioneret på endda meget forskellige måder i de forskellige lande. 

Hypotese, problemformuleringer og metode 

Den overordnede hypotese er, at konkrete nationale mediesystemiske forhold 

har en vigtig forklaringskraft, når det kommer til disse forskelle og ligheder 

imellem de lokale versioneringer. Det vil sige, at specifikke lokale 

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formatversioneringsprocesser er mere afhængige af tv-markedets 

konkurrenceforhold, finansiering, indholdsregulering, mediepolitik, 

publikumsdemografi, historie og ejerskab end af vagere kulturelle koncepter 

som kulturel smag og national mentalitet. Således leder afhandlingen efter 

forklaringer i den konkrete del af en national kultur, der består af 

mediesystemet, og afhandlingen forfølger hypotesen ved at undersøge og 

sammenligne formatversionering i to forskellige lande, Danmark og 

Australien. 

Et andet vigtigt aspekt, når vi taler formatversionering, er genre. Størstedelen 

af de formater, der bliver solgt til versionering, falder inden for enten den 

traditionelle underholdningsgenre quiz & game shows eller de nye faktuelle 

underholdningsgenrer livsstil og reality. Disse to genrer er specielt interessante 

i relation til mediesystemhypotesen, idet de er mere manøvrerbare for lokale 

producerer og derfor mere åbne for lokale fortolkninger end de mere 

rammesatte quiz & game shows. 

Afhandlingen udforsker de følgende to problemstillinger: 

7. FORMATER OG MEDIESYSTEM. Hvilken rolle spiller det nationale 

mediesystem i formatversioneringernes udbredelse og i den 

konkrete produktion af lokale versioneringer i de to lande? 

8. FORMATER OG GENRE. Hvilken rolle spiller genre (specielt livsstil 

og reality) i en formatversioneringssammenhæng; både hvad angår 

udbredelsen af formatversionering og de konkrete australske og 

danske versioneringer af fire tv-formater? 

Afhandlingen er således et sammenlignende, transnationalt case studie, i 

hvilket mediesystemets indflydelse udforskes hele vejen igennem 

formatversioneringsprocessen. Dette gøres gennem fire analytiske metoder: 

314


• En sammenlignende analyse af Australiens og Danmarks 

mediesystemer, 

• Sammenlignende sendefladeanalyser af australsk og dansk 

primetime over en 10-årig periode, 

• Interview med relevante branchefolk i de to lande og 

• Sammenlignende tekstanalyser af de australske og danske 

versioneringer af de fire formater: Ground Force, The Block, FC Zulu 

og Idol. 

Denne metodiske tilgang skulle gerne fjerne afhandlingen fra det generelle 

niveau, hvorpå meget globaliseringsteori findes. Globaliseringsteori har en 

tendens til at anskue medierne på en firkantet og unuanceret måde, hvor 

mediernes diversitet i form af forskellige medietyper, genrer, organisatoriske 

strukturer samt økonomiske og lovgivningsmæssige forhold ignoreres. I 

modsætning hertil tager denne afhandling sit udgangspunkt i netop denne 

diverse mediekultur og forsøger på denne måde at dække et blindt punkt på 

medievidenskabens kort igennem dens specifikke teoretiske, metodiske og 

analytiske positionering. Ved at kombinere et mediesystemperspektiv med et 

genreperspektiv har afhandlingen en middle-of-the-range tilgang både metodisk 

og teoretisk, som forhåbentlig kan opnå mere konkrete og håndgribelige 

indsigter i tv, formatversionering og globalisering. 

Hovedresultater 

Australien og Danmark udgør to distinkte tv-systemer, på trods af at de begge 

tilhører den angelsaksisk dominerede vestlige geo-lingvistiske region. Public 

service sektoren dominerer den private sektor i Danmark, og den private 

sektor dominerer public service sektoren i Australien. Australsk tv var 

kommercialiseret og amerikaniseret fra begyndelsen, mens dansk tv altid har 

været afhængig af store dele lokalt produceret indhold og var i mange år et 

public service monopol indtil dets nylige og turbulente overgang til et blandet 

multikanal-system. Australsk tv har derimod haft en bemærkelsesværdig stabil 

315


historie og har ikke ændret sig nævneværdigt siden 1960erne. Ikke desto 

mindre har begge systemer en eller anden form for socialt ansvar. Australiens 

inholdsregulering af både den private og public service sektor har som formål 

at fremme et kulturelt borgerskab hos seeren, mens dansk public service tv 

reguleres meget mere detaljeret og ses som et værktøj til at fremme et 

kulturelt såvel som et politisk borgerskab hos seerne. 

Australske og danske primetime sendeflader er forskellige på en række vigtige 

områder, både når det kommer til brugen af formatversionering og til 

formatgenrer. Danske broadcastere bruger formatversionering mere end 

australske broadcastere, og i Danmark er der også klarere forbindelser mellem 

en vækst i formatversioneringer og lokalt indhold samt reality og 

livsstilsgenrerne. Generelt har Danmark en større polarisering mellem public 

service sektoren og den private sektor end Australien. Det bevirker, at 

Danmarks private kanaler er mere kommercielle og populistiske end deres 

australske modstykker, og at public service kanalerne er en anelse mere public 

service orienterede end Australiens public service kanaler. Disse forskelle 

bunder i forskellige markedsstørrelser, forskellige opfattelser af public service 

samt i Australiens mere modne blandede tv-system, tidlige kommercialisering 

og amerikanisering samt landets historiske afhængighed af (udenlandsk) tvfiktion, 

hvilket står i modsætning til Danmarks nylige overgang til et blandet 

multikanal-system med en historisk afhængighed af lokalt produceret indhold 

og en dominerende public service ideologi. 

De lokale australske og danske versioneringer af de fire formater Ground Force, 

The Block, FC Zulu og Idol er også meget forskellige. 

Livsstilsformatet Ground Force og livsstil/reality formatet The Block er begge 

radikalt anderledes i de to lande. De australske versioneringer har en større 

vægt på melodrama og specielt i The Block på skandale, konflikt og det 

ekstraordinære, og de er således mere reality orienterede end de danske. På 

den anden side har de danske versioneringer en tendens til at lægge større 

316


vægt på gør-det-selv elementer, underspille konflikt og melodrama samt 

fokusere på det ordinære. Det gør dem mere livsstilsorienterede og mere i 

tråd med public service tv’s tradition for at informere og bringe seerne 

sammen i en feel-good atmosfære. At dette passer godt med, at de australske 

versioneringer blev sendt på de private netværk Channel Seven og Channel 

Nine, mens de danske versioneringer blev sendt på henholdsvis DR1 og TV2. 

Den australske og den danske versionering af reality formatet Idol er også 

radikalt anderledes, til trods for at de to versioneringer umiddelbart ligner 

hinanden, både hvad angår udseende, lyd og narrativ opbygning pga. det 

britiske formats stramme rammer. Den australske version har imidlertid en 

meget højere produktionsværdi og en meget mere prominent plads i 

sendefladen, og dermed er der tilknyttet meget mere ekstern hype end til den 

danske versionering. Hermed er den et godt eksempel på familieorienteret 

event tv med et ungdommeligt reality twist og har en forholdsvis egalitær 

henvendelsesform sammenlignet med den danske. Den danske version har 

derimod – i kraft af sine metaironiske værter og lidt mere modbydelige jury – 

en mere elitær henvendelsesform, der klart er henvendt et smallere og yngre 

publikum. 

Forskellene mellem egalitære og elitære henvendelsesformer er også på spil i 

den australske og den danske version af reality formatet FC Zulu, på trods af 

at de på overfladen er meget ens. Den narrative struktur, castingen og selv 

redigeringen er næsten ens, men under overfladen er der en række små men 

betydelige forskelle, der hovedsageligt knytter sig til henvendelsesform. Den 

danske version har et metaironisk lag, der karikerer og gør nar ad reality 

genren. Dette lag er ikke tilstede i den australske versionering, som i 

sammenligning med den danske versions ironiske komedie er ’alvorligt’ sjov 

med et større fokus på konkurrence, melodrama og moral. Hertil kommer, at 

den danske version har flere intertekstuelle referencer, hvilket gør den mere 

provinsiel og elitær end den australske versions mere universelle og egalitære 

appel. Forskellene passer godt med, at den danske original blev produceret til 

317


den unge, kommercielle kanal TV 2/Zulu, mens den australske versionering 

blev sendt på den multikulturelle public service kanal SBS. 

Mediesystemet har stor forklaringsværdi 

Resultaterne tyder på, at forskelle i nationale verisoneringsprocesser ikke 

automatisk kan forklares med national herkomst. De fire danske 

versioneringer er for eksempel gensides meget forskellige: FC Zulu og Idols har 

en elitær henvendelsesform, hvorimod Hokus Krokus og Huset er ganske 

egalitære. Hermed reflekterer de det danske mediesystems polarisering mellem 

public service og private broadcastere på den ene side samt forskellen mellem 

smalle og brede publikumssegmenter på den anden. De australske 

versioneringer er ikke så forskellige, hvilket meget vel kan være et udtryk for, 

at polariseringen i det australske system er mindre, og at alle fire 

versioneringer er produceret til et stort mainstream publikum. 

Man må derfor grave et spadestik dybere og dykke ned i det nationale 

mediesystems positioner og relationer og se nærmere på den kanal, der 

versionerer formatet, samt på konkurrencesituationen, målgrupper, budgetter, 

ansvar, lovgivning, mediepolitik og historiske udviklinger for fuldt ud at forstå 

forskellene. At forklare forskellene er altså ikke så meget et spørgsmål, om en 

versionering er dansk eller australsk. Det er mere et spørgsmål om at forstå 

den specifikke kanals konkrete situation og rolle i tv-systemet. På den måde 

har mediesystemet en større forklaringsværdi end national herkomst. 

318


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