The reappropriation of time in television: How traditional qualities of broadcast media are being adopted by their video-on-demand services

As on-demand media claim an increasing amount of the time we spend on digital media,traditional broadcasters have adopted video on-demand (VoD) services as a means ofpresenting their programmes. This article analyses two Danish VoD services offeredby legacy broadcasters – that is, BVoD services. It argues that the traditional featuresof broadcast television, to communicate liveness and immediacy, are reappropriatedin the publishing practices of the BVoD services. With an analytical focus on the useof temporal paratexts, the article finds that whereas both services emphasise livenessand immediacy in their publishing practices, they apply different means of expressingthe temporal qualities. These differences can be attributed to organisational differences.Finally, the article concludes that competitiveness, distinctiveness, and the publicservice identity of the broadcasters are explanatory factors for the reappropriation oftime-structured publishing in the two Danish BVoD services DRTV and TV 2 Play.