Stöð 2 marks 40 years since challenging the state TV monopoly
Friday 9th October 2026 on 11:31 in
Iceland
Icelandic television station Stöð 2 turns 40 today. In a contributed article from Morgunblaðið published on mbl.is, Jón Óttar Ragnarsson recalls the station’s early effort to break the state broadcaster’s monopoly.
Ragnarsson writes that changes to broadcasting laws created an opportunity to challenge the monopoly. He and business partner Hans Kristján believed viewers wanted more television, including better access to programmes and films, more children’s content and a longer schedule. At the time, there were also days and a month in summer when television was not broadcast.
The pair were initially seen as “dreamers without money,” Ragnarsson writes. Their main rival, Ísfilm, had backing from major media and business interests, including the newspapers Morgunblaðið and DV, Reykjavík City and Sambandið.
But, according to Ragnarsson, Ísfilm’s reliance on cable systems left room for a different approach: broadcasting through the airwaves using special decoders. The technology was new in Europe, and the French company installing it, with help from Icelandic company Heimilistæki, struggled to meet demand for the decoders.
Ragnarsson and Hans Kristján also travelled to London and secured agreements to distribute programmes from satellite television channels Sky Channel and Music Box. He says international broadcasting-rights rules later limited the value of those deals, and that much of the content, including pop music videos, served mainly as filler.
Banker Höskuldur Ólafsson of Verslunarbanki agreed to finance the company. The team grew to include accountant Eyjólfur K. Sigurjónsson and interior architect Valgerður Matthíasdóttir, known as Vala Matt, who was responsible for the station’s design.
Despite strong objections from the bank, the company’s first major move was to establish a newsroom. Reporters Páll Magnússon, Sigurveig Jónsdóttir and Ómar Ragnarsson joined the team. The station later launched the news magazine 1919, presented by Vala Matt and Helgi Pétursson, which quickly became a hit. Ragnarsson writes that competition strengthened both stations.