Netherlands

Like Belgium, the Netherlands are densely cabled with a penetration rate as to 95 %. The Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) is a body for co-operation and coordination of the national broadcasting corporations, including public TV-channels Nederland 1-3. However, the arrival of the commercial channels RTL4 and RTL5 and the official departure of the Veronica channel from the NOS to the commercial sector has dealt a blow to public broadcasting and will lead towards deregulation of the Dutch broadcasting system.

Meanwhile RTL4, RTL5 and Veronica formed the Holland Media Group (HMG) consortium. Finally, they have been given the green light by the European Commission which originally ordered the sale of three-year-old RTL5 last September in order to prevent a stranglehold on the television-viewing audience and a 70 % monopoly of the TV advertising market through HMG. However, the Commission changed its mind after HMG decided to turn RTL5 to a Dutch-language CNN-style news and information niche channel by October this year with a smaller market share (which HMG believes to be about 1.5 to 2 %). RTL5’s entertainment programming will be transferred to Veronica.

Dutch producer Endemol Entertainment was forced by the Commission to leave HMG in order to prevent over-concentration in the private sector. Endemol was set up in 1994 by a merger of the former competitors Joop van den Ende and John de Mol and is by now Europe’s biggest TV producer for entertainment programming, being the major provider for RTL (in the Benelux and in Germany) and Veronica. It holds a 10 % stake in the new Sport7 channel (alongside Royal Dutch Football Association, Royal Dutch Postal Services, Philips and the ING bank as the channel’s shareholders) and will supply sports news, sports talkshows and sports gameshows besides the usual sports events like games in the Dutch national football competition. However, there have been voices claiming that Sport7 would establish a monopoly and is therefore currently subject to investigation by the Commission’s competition division. In order to finance international expansion Endemol plans its listing on the stock exchange within this year, also targeting at the American TV-market.

© June 1996 by Jens Barkemeyer