Culture Round-Up: Disney+ creeping up on Netflix’s shoulder, but neither can compete with YouTube

Ben Hamilton    August 18th, 2022

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By no means competing with one another, CPH Musical Theater, Assemble Theatre Collective and Rabbit Hole International Theatre ensure there’s a great line-up of Anglophone performances this coming month

The battle is beginning to intensify in Denmark (photo: Dominic Smith/Flickr)

The average TV viewer in Denmark streams over an hour of content every day, with the breakdown confirming the huge popularity of the video-sharing platform YouTube among most youngsters.

They spend so much time on the platform that it is enough to push YouTube, with an average of 20 minutes per person per day, well above the nation’s most popular streaming platform, Netflix, which averages 11.7 minutes, according to figures from Nielsen Viewer Survey. 

As might be expected, perhaps, three platforms with primarily Danish content fill the next three spots: TV2 Play (10.4 minutes), DRTV (9.5) and Viaplay (6.3).

So in reality, Netflix’s main rivals are a long way off the prizes, completing the top ten accordingly: Disney+ (4.5), HBO Max (2.5), Discovery+ (1.7), Amazon Prime Video (0.5) and Apple TV+ (0.5). 

New boys Disney+ will be happy
Nevertheless, Disney+ will be happy with its performance, given that it only entered the Danish market in 2019.

It got the ball rolling by offering cheap subscriptions, and now it intends to continue in that vein with similarly affordable packages that compel the viewers to watch ads. 

“Many Danes will keep it and say: ‘We’ll live with just watching an advertisement or two – just like you do on YouTube’,” media expert Keld Reinicke told DR. 

“When there is a recession, when we don’t want to have so many subscriptions, who are we going to drop? Who do we not drop? Ultimately, the fight is about good content, because that is what is decisive.”

Queen’s art showcased in royal retrospective in France
In honour of her golden jubilee this year, an exhibition dedicated to the works of Queen Margrethe has opened at Musée Henri-Martin in the French city of Cahors. ‘Margrethe II de Danemark, artiste-Reine’ features drawings, paintings, watercolours and decoupage by the monarch. It includes an image painted by the queen in 1947 when she was just seven years old. The exhibition will continue until March.

Nyborg Castle project back on track following the return of key backer
The AP Møller Foundation has reconsidered its position regarding the redevelopment of Nyborg Castle – a project it abandoned in December due to its tardiness, taking 60 million kroner of funding away in the process. But now it has returned, breathing new life into the process of restoring the Funen castle to its former glory – a possibility made into a reality by the generosity of the foundation along with the Palace and Culture Agency, Nyborg Municipality and Realdania. Most of the work is completed, but there is the small matter of reopening to the public after four years of closures. Given the pandemic, some would say the renovation is excellent timing. 

They found a big key; now they’re looking for a big treasure trove!
Is there a large treasure trove somewhere subterranean in Denmark because an archaeologist has just unearthed an enormous key in the centre of Helsingør, which she estimates was forged between the 14th and 16th centuries. It measures 9 by 17 cm. Liv Appel from Nordsjællands Museum made the discovery under Rådhustorvet in front of Helsingør Town Hall, an area that has always been at the forefront of the town’s activity. “A big key fits a big lock. Something valuable is often hidden behind a large lock. Occasionally large keys come in from people walking with metal detectors. But we archaeologists find incredibly few when it comes down to it,” Appel told TV2.

Odense’s Atlantis discovered in an evaporating lake
The recent lack of rain has caused water levels to plummet all over Denmark. In the centre of the country, just off the shore of the lake of Odense Å, they have revealed this country’s answer to Atlantis. Stones laid 800 years ago, some two metres in diameter, can now be sighted just below the water level, Mogens Bo Henriksen, the head of Odense Bys Museer, tells TV2. Back then they formed the foundation of a crossing – it explains why there are so many significant farms on the other side of the lake, as otherwise the ‘walk to civilization’ would be a long one. “In adventure books you occasionally read about large temples that appear in the South American jungle. It’s not on that scale here, but by Funen standards it’s up there with that order of magnitude. It’s like Atlantis, the drowned universe, lies right at our feet,” he said. 

Nordic-set, English-language action thrillers on the bookshelves!
One of the benefits of the ever-growing international community is the inevitability that more and more Anglophone works of literature will be produced that place Denmark at the centre of their universe. Patrick Halford, a businessman with over two decades’ worth of experience in the Nordics, has just released two works of fiction. The first, ‘Tilda & Lærke’, is predominantly set in Jutland, Funen and Zealand – a thriller that sounds like the Danish answer to ‘Kill Bill’. Some 25 years after a Danish-led assassination in the Med, ‘she’ wants answers, but will ‘they’ get to her “before she finishes them off”. The second, ‘North to Akureyri’, which is set in Iceland in 2028, is again an action/revenge story, with a shade of love thrown in, set in a world in which technology is threatening to take over. To find out more, visit here.

CPH Musical Theater announces dinner theatre concert series
The recently launched CPH Musical Theater, which staged its first ever performance back in May, has announced plans to perform a concert on September 8 at Stalden, a stage adjacent to the main theatre at Krudttønden in Østerbro. In collaboration with Lamfuz Madklub, the  date is the first of a planned dinner theatre concert series that will include performances on November 10 and December 8. Featuring songs from “the biggest Broadway and West End shows”, dinner (vegan so all can enjoy) costs 75 kroner and attendance a further 95 kroner. Find out more via cphmusicals.com.

Assemble for another couple of rounds of Anglophone theatre
Assemble Theatre Collective have a couple of dates coming up in their diary. Firstly, on August 28 from 13:00-17:30 at Orientkaj in Nordhavn as part of the Kulturhavn Festival in Copenhagen Harbour, ‘Out of the Blue – Share YOUR story’ invites local residents to share their recollections about the waterfront. Activities include guided group meditation, creative mapping, visual storytelling and live devised soundscapes. No registration is necessary. And then from September 10-11, head to Åben Festival in Østerbro for four performances of ‘Quality Cattle’, an immersive theatre production set in a near-future dystopia. Tickets cost 100-140kr. Check åben.com for more details. 

Back to Bøssehuset for another bout of ‘Berghain’
Rabbit Hole International Theatre is taking its show ‘Berghain’ to Aarhus Festuge from September 1-3, but not before it has fitted in a five-show run at Bøssehuset in Christiania from August 25-27. As our CPH POST reviewer wrote last August after the worldwide premiere of Magnus Iuel Bergs’ play: “Berghain is brave, honest and above all a huge amount of fun. Embrace it. Go in your leather, bring a collar and a leash, wear a strap-on! Or whatever. Berghain doesn’t hold back and neither should you.”