Prime Minister Erna Solberg has presented his new tripartite government. New Minister of Culture Trine Skei Grande (Venstre = Liberals), has previously shown that she has experience from radio and is skeptical about DAB. In the 2011 parliamentary debate on DAB radio report, she expressed skepticism before taking the decision. She hoped it was the last time the politicians in Stortinget decided on an information-sharing technology.
There has been a lot about technology, much has happened in terms of content, and much has happened in terms of the way we communicate news. And that development will go faster and faster. I think perhaps the most important thing today is that it's probably the last time we sit and adopt a technology. I really hope this is the last time Stortinget decides which technology to use to distribute information at all levels, she said.
In the 2011 debate, she also confessed a crime; that when she was a child, she broadcast radio programs on FM with her mother listening.
The new government formed by three parties (Høyre, Vänster and Framstegspartiet) is a minority government which will be successful in the parliament only with support from another party primarily KrF (the Christian Democrats). Erna Solberg (h) will continue as prime minister.
Analysis
Now Trine Skei Grande has the ultimate political responsibility for the Norwegian media sector, including the NRK and the DAB project. The government is now represented by three parties, two of which are opposed to or skeptical to the national FM switch-off. The Progress Party has a congress decision to retain FM. The government will now navigate through a nationwide discontent with the 2017 FM switch-off.
The former minister on this post Linda Helleland (Conservative) has never questioned the DAB project. She was considered to be in the tight hands of the DAB lobbyists being active in and outside the ministry during her two years. Now the key is in the objectivity of Grande’s departement boss State Secretary Jan-Christian Kolstø, who has to deal with, among other things, powerful DAB promoters including a senior departement official and the public broadcaster NRK together with its lobbying arm Digitalradio Norge AS .
Also read
Norwegian Parliament Rumbling Over FM Switch-Off
One Out of Two Norwegians Are Still Dissatisfied With DAB Radio
