Norwegian Radio Broadcasting: From Public Monopoly to Competitive Homogeneity?

The present article discusses whether competition in radio broadcasting creates diversity. We start out by giving a brief overview of the development of competition within the European broadcasting markets. However, our main focus will be the market for commercial radio in Norway, partly because this represents a very interesting case from a regulatory point of view. We argue that the claimed lack of diversity in Norwegian radio broadcasting is a consequence of both the regulatory policy and of market forces. In prolongation of this argument, we also provide a short discussion of whether horizontal mergers in media markets may increase rather than reduce diversity