Digital media
As much as 96 percent of the population (age group 9-79 years) have access to the Internet in their homes, 75 percent a tablet and 85 percent a smartphone. This means that the whole population has access to the digital world.
The press, radio and television have adapted to this new situation and have services on the Internet.
Regarding printed newspapers, 95 percent have some kind of electronic services, usually a news service. The first newspapers to offer news on the net did not charge the customers for this service. Later on the newspapers discovered that they do not get much revenue from online advertising and that the free distribution of news on the web reduced the sales of the paper editions. The newspapers now experiment with different forms of payment systems for their online services. More than 50 percent of the newspapers have content that is available for paying customers only.
It is possible to subscribe to electronic versions of most newspapers in pdf or other formats.
In 2013 one fifth of the advertising revenues for newspapers came from the digital editions, but only a few percent of the revenues from sales to customers. From 2014 to 2015 the number of electronic subscribers increased by more than 50 percent, but it is still much lower than the number of paper subscribers.
National radio and television channels also use Internet in the dissemination of information. All of them use it to promote the channel and specific programmes. The radio channels can be accessed online, along with playlists etc. NRK and P4 also have news services.
The NRK’s news service on the Internet includes international, national and regional news free of charge. There have been complaints from the newspaper owner’s organisation that NRK’s news service makes it difficult for the newspapers to compete on this market. NRK and its supporters replied that the public service obligations necessitate an extensive news service on all platforms and that this service is important for the dissemination of information and thereby for democracy.
The television channels have services where programmes that have already been transmitted, can be downloaded for watching. This service is free of charge for the NRK, while it is part of a subscription system for the commercial channels.