Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD

Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD reported a net surplus of DKK 450,000 (EUR 60,000) for the financial year ended 31 December 2025, significantly outperforming the management budget of negative DKK 500,000. Revenue held broadly flat at DKK 80.9 million (EUR 10.8 million; FY2024: DKK 80.7 million / EUR 10.8 million), while a sharp reduction in external production costs drove gross profit to DKK 57.6 million (EUR 7.7 million) and lifted the gross margin to 71.2 percent, the highest in the five-year comparative series disclosed in the annual report.

The result caps a year of substantial strategic re-orientation: the station launched a new editorial strategy on 6 January 2025 that repositioned tvsyd.dk as its primary publishing platform, closed its own streaming service TV Syd Play, and entered TikTok for the first time.

Key Financial Indicators

* EUR equivalents converted at ECB annual average 2025: EUR 1 = DKK 7.4634. Source: Deutsche Bundesbank Exchange Rate Statistics, 16 January 2026, Table II.3, based on ECB daily reference rates. Dashes in EUR columns indicate non-monetary indicators where conversion does not apply. FY2023 state subsidy not separately disclosed on a directly comparable basis in the filing.

Source: Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD Aarsrapport 2025 (Redmark, approved 25 March 2026). State subsidy from the public service cost table in the management report.

Media Asset Map

Source: Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD Aarsrapport 2025, management report and unaudited operational data therein. Audience figures from Kantar Media and AC Nielsen/TV2 Analyse. Social media engagement data from internal figures disclosed in the management report; unaudited.

TV-SYD operates through a two-tier structure common among Denmark’s eight TV 2 regional stations. The operating company, Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD, is wholly owned by Den Selvejende Institution TV-SYD’s Fond, a self-governing commercial foundation established in October 1999. The foundation’s stated purpose is to develop a South Jutland regional television station and make regional TV a natural part of regional life. It holds all shares in the operating company and functions as its sole general meeting. The fund board is accountable to a 100-member representative council (reprasentantskab) elected biannually from civil-society organisations across the region. Under this model, the station is institutionally independent of the national TV 2 company in Odense: the two entities cooperate on distribution and content placement but are separate legal and financial entities.

The operating company’s seven-member supervisory board (A/S bestyrelse) is chaired by Simon Vevest Lindblad-Madsen and includes Mads Sandemann as vice-chair. Managing director Betina Bendix has executive responsibility. The company is exempt from corporation tax under Danish tax law (Selskabsskatteloven), standard for this category of public media entity.

Signals

Revenue structure and state subsidy

The primary income line consists principally of the annual state grant channelled through Finansloven (the Danish Finance Act). For FY2025 the grant was DKK 76.6 million (EUR 10.3 million), identical to the prior year and in line with the public service contract target of DKK 75.7 million (EUR 10.1 million). The filing does not break down revenue between the state grant and commercial sales separately within the main income statement. Other operating income was DKK 4.5 million (EUR 0.6 million) in FY2025, against a budget of DKK 3.9 million. This line includes income recognised in line with amortisation of grants from TV SYD’s Stoetteforening (the station’s support association), which held DKK 10.4 million in cumulative deferred grants at year-end (FY2024: DKK 9.9 million), as well as wage refunds and other secondary receipts.

The net public service cost was DKK 76.2 million (EUR 10.2 million), leaving the station with a cumulative accumulated difference of DKK 2.0 million (EUR 0.3 million) versus the state subsidy since the beginning of the current media agreement period, representing approximately 2.6 percent of net costs.

Cost structure: personnel dominates

Personnel costs rose in 2025 to DKK 54.0 million (EUR 7.2 million; FY2024: DKK 52.0 million / EUR 7.0 million), representing 66.8 percent of total revenue. The increase reflects collective bargaining settlements and adjustments connected with the new strategy; the average FTE fell marginally from 87 to 86. Other external costs fell from DKK 28.8 million to DKK 25.8 million (EUR 3.5 million), a reduction of DKK 3.0 million (EUR 0.4 million). The management narrative attributes this partly to a redesigned debate format for the November municipal elections, saving approximately DKK 400,000 (EUR 54,000) relative to prior outside-broadcast productions, and partly to a more resilient shift rota that reduced freelance dependency.

These dynamics drove the swing from a DKK 398,000 operating loss in FY2024 to a DKK 524,000 (EUR 70,000) operating profit in FY2025. A second contributing factor was the resolution of a multi-year rights dispute among the TV 2 regional stations over income held by UBOD (the collecting organisation managing TV 2 Play streaming rights) since 2023; once an allocation key was agreed, accumulated proceeds were recognised in FY2025. The amount attributed to TV-SYD is not separately quantified in the filing.

Digital transition and platform strategy

The FY2025 annual report discloses unusually detailed digital performance data, consistent with the regulatory reporting framework for Danish regional TV 2 companies under BEK nr. 1530 of 05/12/2024. The strategy launched in January 2025 made tvsyd.dk the primary editorial output point. Average daily unique users reached approximately 69,000 (+4% y-o-y) and daily page views rose 24 percent to 191,018. App daily page views grew 184 percent to 91,669, partly reflecting the consolidation of streaming and news into a single app following the closure of TV Syd Play in October 2025.

Video on demand consumption grew 55 percent to 24,050 minutes per day, while live-stream consumption grew 14 percent to 78,601 minutes per day. The latter is dominated by a 24-hour webcam feed of a stork nest in Smedager: 3,993 of the 8,627 total broadcast hours on TV SYD+ consisted of this live transmission.

Content on TV 2 Play attracted over 30,000 views for 20 items in FY2025, narrowly missing the target of 25 items. Management attributes this to a distribution restriction: TV 2’s Copydan agreement excludes approximately one-third of TV 2 Play’s subscriber base (those who access via third-party operators). The 2026 target has been recalibrated to 15 items with 20,000 views. TikTok, launched in 2025, reached 20,121 followers by year-end with 336 posts and 25 million+ video views. The management report links TikTok’s presence to the 15-25 age cohort now showing the most favourable brand attitude toward TV-SYD of any demographic group for the first time.

Audience: linear decline, digital growth

The flagship 19:30 evening bulletin averaged 47,000 viewers in FY2025, a 5.5 percent rating and 31 percent share, falling short of the 50,000 management target. Across all eight TV 2 regional stations, 345,000 viewers on average watched the collective 19:30 bulletins each evening in 2025.

The Kantar Media annual survey (1,121 respondents, coverage area, aged 15+) recorded annual reach of 67 percent of the coverage population, approximately 497,000 people. The share expressing a positive attitude toward TV-SYD content rose to 86 percent, up four percentage points on 2024. Trust was reported at 70 percent, with 71 percent agreeing the station is a trustworthy source. These are unaudited self-reported figures from a proprietary survey commissioned by the station.

Public service contract compliance

Of approximately 15 strategic goals in the management report, the majority are reported as met, including election reach, digital user targets, TikTok follower targets, geographic coverage obligations, and coverage of the Danish-German borderland minority. Three goals are classified as not met: the 19:30 viewer target (47,000 vs. 50,000), a weekend programming quality score among 26-49-year-olds (3.92 vs. the 4.0 threshold), and the target for median unique users per video (4,470 vs. 5,000). Two further goals are classified as not measurable due to methodological changes in benchmarks.

Outlook

Management has budgeted a net surplus of DKK 99,000 (EUR 13,000) for FY2026, reflecting ongoing uncertainty around the next media agreement, due to be negotiated before the current agreement expires at end-2026. The budget includes DKK 700,000 (EUR 94,000) in additional contributions to FROP, the joint regional online platform, bringing the total FROP contribution to DKK 1.88 million (EUR 252,000). A general election expected during 2026 has been provisionally budgeted for. Plans to hire a lead photographer and a YouTube specialist are announced for 2026.

Primary source

Driftsselskabet A/S TV-SYD, Aarsrapport 1. januar — 31. december 2025 (Redmark Godkendt Revisionspartnerselskab, CVR 29 44 27 89; signed 25 February 2026; approved at AGM 25 March 2026). Auditors: Frank Norgaard and Malene Schroder Pedersen, registered public auditors.

Exchange rate

EUR equivalents use the ECB annual average rate for 2025: EUR 1 = DKK 7.4634. Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, Exchange Rate Statistics, Table II.3 (End-of-year rates and annual averages), edition of 16 January 2026; Bundesbank calculations based on daily ECB euro foreign exchange reference rates. The Danish krone is pegged to the euro within a band of +/-2.25% around a central rate of DKK 7.46038, so annual variation from the mid-rate is minimal.

Supplementary sources

Den Selvejende Institution TV-SYD’s Fond (CVR 11 70 71 30), Erhvervsstyrelsen register. TV-SYD organisational structure: tvsyd.dk/organisationen. Ownership description: 7Mountains/Mjoll press release (onemimir.com, March 2024).

Editorial notes

All financial data are from the audited statutory accounts. Operational data (viewer numbers, digital metrics, social media performance) are from the unaudited management report (ledelsesberetning), sourced by the company from Kantar Media, AC Nielsen/TV2 Analyse, and internal platform analytics.