Norwegian Media Authority

The Norwegian Media Authority (Norwegian: Medietilsynet) is a Norwegian government agency subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Equality charged with various tasks relating to broadcasting, newspapers and films. It enforces rules on content, advertising and sponsorship for broadcast media, administers newspaper production grants and enforces rules on media ownership. Prior to 2023 the authority also classified movies.

Norwegian Media Authority

Company type	Government agency
Industry	Authority
Founded	1 January 2005
Headquarters	Fredrikstad, Norway
Area served	Norway
Key people	Mari Velsand (Director)
Number of employees	38
Parent	Ministry of Culture and Equality
Website	medietilsynet.no

Activities

The authority's tasks include

• enforcing rules on content, advertising and sponsorship for broadcast media; handling license applications for local broadcast media
• handling applications for newspaper production grants for non-leading newspapers, minority language newspapers and Sami newspapers
• overseeing and intervening against the acquisition of media ownership (either prohibiting the acquisition or merger, or allowing an acquisition on such conditions as the Authority sets, including ordering the divestment of other media ownership interests.

History

The agency was established 1 January 2005 by merging three government agencies:

• Norwegian Board of Film Classification (Statens filmtilsyn), which was in charge of rating movies.
• Norwegian Media Ownership Authority (Eierskapstilsynet), which oversaw media ownership.
• Mass Media Authority (Statens medieforvaltning, SMF), which had tasks related to broadcasting and newspapers.

The new authority was located in Fredrikstad from 20 March 2006, where the Mass Media Authority already was located, but in a new building.

In 2003, the agency was moved from Oslo to Fredrikstad from 20 March 2006, where the Mass Media Authority had been located. This was a program along with six other directorates and inspectorates which were moved out of Oslo, which had been initialized by Victor Norman, Minister of Government Administration and Reform of the Conservative Party. It cost 729 million Norwegian krone (NOK) to move the seven agencies. An official report from 2009 concluded that the agencies had lost 75 to 90% of their employees, mostly those with long seniority, and that for a while critical functions for society were dysfunctional. No costs reductions had been made, there was no significant impact on the target area, and there was little impact on the communication between the agencies and the ministries. In a 2010 report, Professor Jarle Trondal concluded that none of the agencies had become more independent after the move, despite this being one of the main arguments from the minister. Norman successor, Heidi Grande Røys of the Socialist Left Party, stated that the moving had had an important symbolic effect on the target areas, and that she did not see the lack of advantages as a reason to not move similar agencies later.

The first director of the agency was Tom Thoresen, who was succeeded in 2017 by Mari Velsand.

Classification system

Current certifications

Classification	Appropriate age	Description	Year implemented	Observations	Movies
	All ages	Allowed for all ages	1994	Replaces classification 5.	Fantasia 2000, Cars, The Wizard of Oz, Cars 3, Black Cat Detective (only in IMDb)
	6 years or older	Allowed for anyone 6 years of age or older. Children under 6 years old can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult	2015	Replaces classification 7	Incredibles 2, Cars 2, Despicable Me 3, The Good Dinosaur, Toy Story, Frozen, Cars 3, The Simpsons Movie, The Lego Movie, Rango, Zootopia
	9 years or older	Children under 9 years old can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult	2015	Replace the rating 11 along with the rating 12.	Ford v Ferrari, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Beauty and the Beast, Ghostbusters, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Casablanca
	12 years or older	Children under the age of 12 can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult.	1954	Abolished in 1994 and replaced by rating 11, but it was re-implemented in 2015 as a replacement for rating 11.	Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2012, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Mortal Kombat (Netflix), 10,000 BC, Spider-Man 2 (Re-classification), Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (re-classification), Oblivion, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Vacation
	15 years or older	Young people under the age of 15 can see it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult.	1988	Replaces classification 16.	1917, The Mechanical Orange (re-classification), Cars 2 (2020 re-classification in Bergen, Tromsø and Svalbard), The Godfather (only in iTunes), The Godfather II (re-classification), An American Werewolf in London, Final Destination, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, World War Z, Cold Prey 2, Fast Five
	18 years or older	Absolute lower limit. In cinemas, everyone who is present must be at least 18 years old.	1970	It also applies to films that must be presented in theaters, but that are not presented for classification by the NMA.

Obsolete certifications

Classification	Appropriate age	Description	Implemented.	Suppressed	Observations
5	5 years or more	Absolute lower limit	1970	1994	Replaced by A-rating
7	7 years or older	Children under the age of 7 can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult	1954	2015	Replaced by 6-rating
10	10 years or more	Children under the age of 10 can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult	1988	1994	Replaced by 11-rating
11	11 years or older	Children under the age of 11 can watch it in movie theaters if they are accompanied by an adult	1994	2015	Replaced by 9 and 12 classifications
16	16 years or older	Allowed for anyone 16 years of age or older.	1921	1988	Replaced by 15-rating
Forbidden		It is not allowed for its premiere in theaters	1913	2004	Only partially abolished. Classification is still mandatory for films to be presented to an audience under the age of 18. The NMA cannot register or classify films that it considers contrary to Norwegian criminal law.

Prohibited content

As of 2004, it was no longer necessary to classify the films that should be seen by people 18 years of age or older. If a distributor decides to register a film without classification, the distributor of the film will be criminally liable if the film has content prohibited by Norwegian law.

The prohibited contents in movies and other entertainment media in Norway are:

• Child pornography
• Pornography (with exceptions)
• Improper use of serious depictions of violence for entertainment purposes.

External links

• Official website
• Film ratings database
• Local television licenses
• Local radio licenses
• The Media Directory—who owns what in Norwegian media