TV 2 is a Danish government-owned broadcast and subscription television station, based in Odense, Funen. The station was founded in 1986, and made its first official broadcast in 1988. It makes daily broadcasts of regional and national news, as well as its morning talk show, Go'morgen Danmark.

Since 1949, Danmarks Radio had been the sole provider of television in Denmark. Wanting to end the monopoly, the Danish Parliament voted on 30 May 1986, to create TV2, as a second choice for public service television. Upon its establishment, it had first begun its experimental test transmissions, and then, two years later, it had therefore commenced its official broadcast on 1 October 1988, with its first program being Danish Symphony which is broadcast at 17:00, followed by the news at 19:30. The station had taken over the former Kvægtorv in Odense to use as its facilities. The new network employed sixteen UHF transmitters, while the first legal commercial television channel, TV Syd (established in 1983 and later made independent from DR) became a part of the new network's regional structure.

To prevent competition with TV Avisen on DR, the 7:30pm bulletin moved to 7pm on 2 January 1989, with the regional programming starting at 7:28pm. TV Syd was followed by TV Fyn on 10 January that year, followed by TV Nord in April. The five remaining stations of the network opened in 1990 (the TV2 transmitter network was completed in November 1989). 1989 was also marked by the premiere of Eleva2ren, the first interactive game show on Danish television, initially featuring OsWALD. This was followed in 1990 by Hugo, which eventually spawned a series of international adaptations. By 1991, it surpassed DR in ratings. That same year, it aired its first Christmas calendar series, Trollerik og pisserne, the first of its kind to be made for adults. 1992 saw TV 2 adopt the Dolby Surround stereo system for some programmes (mainly imports). An estimated 2,632,000 viewers saw the UEFA Euro 1992 final on the channel, which ended with Denmark winning over Germany 2-0.

The channel rebranded on 3 January 1994, also adopting a permanent on-screen graphic during shows, when, up until then, it would only appear in 15-minute intervals. On 1 January 1995, it broke a new record, with 2,658,000 viewers watching the Danish film The Last Exploits of the Olsen Gang. From 3 April, regional commercials were added to its eight regions. Breakfast television (Go'morgen Danmark started on 2 December 1996. Its website launched on 14 October 1998, two weeks after its tenth anniversary. Beginning in 2000, it branched out into subscription television, with the first of these channels being TV2 Zulu. That year's Christmas calendar, Pyrus in Alletiders Eventyr, came with anaglyphic 3D glasses.

The KV government, alongside the People's Party, decided in 2002 that TV 2 should be privatized. Aiming for such a reconversion, TV 2 Danmark A/S is created and the public service contract is replaced by a public service license. The existing license was set to expire on 30 June 2004. With the start of digital terrestrial television on 31 March 2006, TV 2 started broadcasting in widescreen, leaving the 4:3 format to analogue television. That same year, its channels stopped airing the test card while off-air.

High definition broadcasts started in 2012, even though some of the programmes were in enhanced quality (expanded SD) at first. In 2015, Natholdet held an unexpected event on TV 2's teletext service, which was on the verge of being shut down. Viewers sent the most creative use of the page on any TV 2 channel that was still enabled to use teletext and send it to the producers. Due to the mass exodus of children from linear television to online platforms, its children's block Bavian ended in 2016. That same year, Badehotellet reached a record high for an original production, where the first season's finale was viewed by 1,623,000 viewers.

From 1 November 2009, all Danish television broadcasting became digital with DVB-T and MPEG4 standard. At the time, TV 2 did not encrypt their main channel, but TV 2 Echo, TV 2 Charlie, TV 2 Fri, TV 2 News, TV 2 Sport and TV 2 Sport X are subscription-only channels.

TV 2 Zulu who no longer broadcasts and aired between 15 October 2000 - 27 March 2023