Ladies and gentlemen, members of the European Broadcasting Union!
It is an honour for me to welcome you to this dinner!

This is the first time Norway is hosting the Assembly.
I am glad for this opportunity to show our support for the work by EBU to strengthen the position of public service broadcasters.

Norway is a country with high level of media consumption. We are only four and a half million people in Norway, but we have four national television broadcasters, five nationwide radio channels, more than two hundred and seventy local radio stations and about twenty five local TV stations. There are also about two hundred and twenty newspapers published all over the country.

More than 80 percent of the population watches television every day.
On average, a Norwegian will watch television for about 150 minutes a day.

Four of our broadcasters are public service broadcasters, on television or radio.

Of all Norwegian and foreign television stations, our two public service broadcasters NRK and TV2, have by far most viewers. This shows that our public service broadcasters are an important part of people’s everyday life.

At present, my ministry is preparing a licence for digital TV network (digital terrestrial television). This will greatly increase opportunities for new services and interactive television. One essential premise from our Parliament is that public service broadcasting is secured a central position in the network and must reach the greater public. In our work it has been helpful for us to draw on EBUs international experience and analysis.

Our population is spread throughout the whole country. Many people live in low-populated areas. National television therefore has a particular role to play as the nation’s largest scene.
This includes – concerts, theatre, art, literature – and TV is also our largest “cinema”. We see it as important that stories can be told on television in our own language and reflecting our own culture.

From this year on, our audiovisual production fund will have a specific program for supporting TV productions in the Norwegian language.

For many years Norwegian viewers have, thanks to EBU’s program exchanges and Eurovision’s network, enjoyed events taking place abroad. To most Norwegians the EBU banner and EBU intro music represents high quality events like, new year concert from Vienna and the ski jumping from Garmich-Partenkirchen.

The Norwegian government sees it as important that children are offered creative, stimulating and educational TV. We are overwhelmed by foreign commercial television channels that offer programmes of different quality, which puts pressure on the children as consumers.

In Norway it is forbidden to advertise directly at children in broadcasting. TV for children should not push them to buy various products, but instead give them a positive experience.
Our audiovisual support schemes are also set to ensure that children can have access to Norwegian audiovisual productions with a non-violent content.

I wish again to express my support for the work by EBU to strengthen and promote the essential position of the public service broadcaster within international fora.

I wish you all a pleasant evening and good luck with the rest of the conference.

Thank you for your attention, and may I suggest concluding by proposing a toast, Norwegian style called SKÅL!