Young Danish audiences and British screen content: A critical reflection on transnational consumption, geo-linguistic regions, and cultural proximity

Abstract

Drawing on survey and interview data from a pilot study undertaken online in Denmark (March-July 2020), this article provides exploratory insights about how young audiences in Denmark (aged 16-34, with a background in higher education) engage with British television and film as viewing shifts from broadcast television to online on-demand services. First, drawing on survey data, we concentrate on consumption habits and genre preferences regarding British content and compare it to Danish, Nordic, and American content. Second, drawing on interviews, we address the significance of cultural and particularly linguistic proximity in determining the consumption and reception of British content. Revealing that young Danes in the pilot study feel greater linguistic proximity to English than to other Scandinavian languages, the research suggests the need for more nuanced theorisations of cultural and linguistic proximity, along with the revision of cultural distance and geo-linguistic regions theory.