Danish cabler setting channels

TeleDanmark, subscribers dwindle choices with vote

By MARLENE EDMUNDS

AMSTERDAM -- CNN is in. So is SBS Broadcasting's TvDanmark and all of Modern Times Group's three Danish channels. But Fox Kids is definitely out, and Discovery and National Geographic will follow suit if they don't pony up enough dough.

That's the upshot of the highly publicized vote by Danish subscribers to TeleDanmark Cable TV that was held last month and announced Wednesday.

The vote was to help TeleDanmark decide which of 150 mainly international channels will be among the 20 or so, aside from state broadcaster Danmarks Radio and state commercial channel TV2 Danmark, that will be offered to viewers by the country's largest cable company.

Also among those that will definitely be on the cable are TV4 Sweden, BBC Prime, TV2 Norway, TNT/Cartoon Network, MTV and Germany's RTL.

But TeleDanmark officials are in discussions with Discovery, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Hallmark and a new channel, TV Bio, to see if they will continue on the cable or be dropped. "The chief consideration in the negotiations is money," admitted TeleDanmark communications officer Peter Djurup, who added that even though these five channels were among the top choices of Danish viewers, "we have been given some discretion by the Danish Ministry of Research and Telecommunications on which channels will make it in the end." The upshot of the negotiations is expected to be out in 10 days.