The changing role of a video-on-demand service in the strategies of public service media: A production study of Danish TV 2 Play and its impact on the production culture of the schedulers, 2016–2022

Abstract

Abstract This article highlights and discusses the main findings from three different media production studies (2016, 2019, and 2022) investigating the changing production culture of the schedulers in public service media. The inclusion of a broadcaster video-on-demand (BVoD) service in the broadcaster's portfolio affected the production culture. First, the article argues that profound changes happened to the organisational framing of the BVoD service's status and its impact on the production practices. Second, the article shows the BVoD service's impact on the content priorities among the schedulers at TV 2 in Denmark and third, how the public service branding of TV 2 became more explicit in the production culture. However, across these three points of impact and the shifts in the strategic focus at TV 2, the business model at TV 2 and its interplay with the public service obligations runs as an undercurrent.