What is NTB?
NTB, Norsk Telegrambyrå AS, is Norway's national news agency. It was founded in 1867 and formally incorporated as a limited company in 1918. Its shares may be held only by Norwegian media companies; the owners include Schibsted, Amedia and NRK. It supplies editorial text, photography, video and graphics to around 200 media outlets as well as to businesses, and employed 138 full-time staff in 2024.[1] [2]
The agency describes itself as a total supplier of news, images and video, communication services and technology.[2] Sport is one of its editorial departments, published as a distinct service line with three components — sports news, sports data and sports photography — under ntb.no/sport, a path on the agency's parent domain.[3] NTB also runs a press-release distribution service, NTB Kommunikasjon, through which Norwegian broadcasters and federations issue their own announcements.[2]
What does NTB cover in sport?
NTB states that sport is an important part of its news production and that it follows sport nationally and internationally in its full breadth, around the clock and throughout the year.[3] Its sports data arm describes itself as a total supplier of sports data in Norway, producing statistics in house and enriching and redistributing data received from external sports data providers to clients' own systems.[4] Store norske leksikon records that the agency delivers sports results alongside its editorial output.[1]
The photographic service covers summer and winter sports and, by NTB's own account, is present at every match in Eliteserien, the Norwegian men's top football division.[3] Associated products include an automated match-report generator and a weekly team-of-the-week and player-rating feature.[3] [4] What NTB does not do is publish a consumer sports destination of its own or hold broadcast rights; its output reaches readers under its customers' mastheads.[2]
What are NTB's reach and standing?
NTB has no measured consumer audience of its own; its reach is the reach of its customers. The agency reports supplying around 200 media outlets, which in a market where Medietilsynet recorded Amedia, Schibsted and Polaris Media as jointly accounting for 74.5 per cent of Norwegian newspaper circulation means that the great majority of Norwegian newsrooms are subscribers.[1] [5]
Its standing rests on two structural facts rather than on circulation. First, it is owned by the media companies it serves, including the state broadcaster, so it is not a competitor to them. Second, it is the common source of record for routine sports results in Norwegian media: the same NTB report of a competition appears across local and national titles, which is why NTB copy carries the byline of the agency rather than of the publishing paper.[1] [3] Its press-release channel is also the route by which NRK, TV 2 and Schibsted issue rights announcements.[6]
Since when?
NTB dates from 1867 and was incorporated as a limited company in 1918. Its photographic operation merged with Scan-foto in 1999 to form Scanpix Norge AS; NTB bought out Schibsted's stake in 2011, making Scanpix a division of the agency under the name NTB Scanpix, and the Scanpix brand was discontinued in 2020. Tina Mari Flem has been chief executive since 2021.[1]
The agency's sports data business is the more recent addition, built around redistribution of external feeds and in-house statistics production for client systems, and its automated football reporting product sits within that line.[4] The named contact for sports data is the agency's sports data manager.[4] Its owners have changed with the Norwegian newspaper market itself, but the rule restricting shareholding to Norwegian media companies has been retained.[1]
Why does NTB matter in Norway's sport?
NTB is where most Norwegian sports results enter the public record. A result reported by the agency is carried by local papers, national titles and broadcasters alike, which makes it the common denominator of Norwegian sports coverage: the item that appears everywhere, without a single masthead's editorial selection standing behind it.[1] [3]
That gives it a particular use as evidence. Where a Norwegian athlete's performance has been reported by NTB, the coverage was made by the agency owned jointly by the country's main publishers and its public broadcaster, rather than by one paper acting alone, and its sports data service supplies the statistics on which other outlets' tables and match reports are built.[2] [4] The agency's photographers are also the source of much of the Eliteserien imagery published in Norway, since NTB states that it is present at every match in the division.[3] Because the agency is owned by its customers rather than competing with them, its sports file is carried without the editorial rivalry that separates the Oslo dailies from one another.[1]
References
- Store norske leksikon — NTB. Accessed September 2026.
- NTB — corporate site. Accessed September 2026.
- NTB — Sport service pages. Accessed September 2026.
- NTB — Sportsdata service page. Accessed September 2026.
- Medietilsynet — Mediemangfoldsregnskapet 2025, January 2026. Accessed September 2026.
- NRK — press release, Olympics back on NRK from 2026, via NTB Kommunikasjon, 16 January 2023. Accessed September 2026.