[2] Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterprise.

[6] During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, radio broadcasts were censored – under particularly harsh conditions from August 1943 – leading many Danes to turn to Danish-language broadcasts from the BBC or the illegal press,[7] as well as Swedish radio in 1944–1945.

With the switch to over-the-air digital signals on 1 November 2009, DR added three new channels to its lineup[18] In 2013, a new logo in which the letters "DR" featured in a white sans-serif font on a black background was introduced, and the line-up of television channels was changed once again.

[19] All of DR's stations plus the privately owned, public service channel - Radio24Syv, moved to the second national DAB+ multiplex (DAB-blok 2).

The principal means of funding DR is through the media licence, costing 2,492 DKK ($356 USD) per year per household since 2017.

[20] Traditionally it was the owners of radio and television receiving sets who were obliged to pay the licence fee.

This licence is mandatory not just for those with television sets but also for all those who own a computer, smartphone, or any other device enabling access to the internet.

[23][24] Some notable DR productions include Better Times, Borgen, Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (the Danish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest), Follow the Money, Gift ved første blik (remade in other countries as Married at First Sight), Matador, The Bridge, The Legacy and The Killing.

DR moved in 2006–07 all its activities from Radiohuset in Frederiksberg and TV-Byen in Søborg to a new complex in the Ørestad area of Copenhagen.

[36] As the major recipient of license funds, DR operates under a public service contract with the government which it was unable to fulfil in the wake of the budget crisis related to the move.

[37][38][39] The budget overspends caused a major scandal which saw senior management of DR replaced, and was followed by a heated political debate over whether the service should receive additional emergency funding.

The first large-scale scientific content analysis of political news coverage on DR published by the Centre for Journalism at the University of Southern Denmark, studying election news coverage in the years 1994–2007, documented no persistent political bias towards either the left or the right.

In 2008, Mikael Rothstein, Jewish author and professor of religious history at the University of Copenhagen, was highly critical of DR when it issued a Christian values policy, declaring that Muslims would feel excluded.