Producing the on

This article presents results from a production study on how the on-air schedule is changing in the digital era at the Danish public service broadcaster, TV 2. TV 2’s multichannel and increasingly non-linear television portfolio has a profound impact on the production practices involved in order to meet the public service obligations. The analysis shows that the producers develop new ways to secure an audience of scale under these conditions. So far three lessons are learned: First, the workflow of promoting content and the demands on the qualities of the promotional material have changed. Second, an understanding of the interplay between flow and subscribtion-video-on-demand (SVOD) scheduling is emerging. And third, a renewed focus is put on branding the viewer–provider relationship. The article concludes that the production of on-air scheduling makes the contours of what can be termed ‘a third television paradigm’ visible in which a distinction between linear and non-linear television does not apply