TV Home Forum

SBS and RTL will launch new channels in the Netherlands

SBS9 for films and series and RTLZ for rolling news (September 2014)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MA
Maarten1
The two main commercial broadcasters in the Netherlands, RTL and SBS, announced last week they will launch new channels.

SBS is struggling for viewers and advertisers. Their best watched show yesterday was Hart van Nederland, a current affairs show (audience share: 7.7%, ranked 7th). The company, owned by Sanoma (67%) and Talpa Media (33%). The target market of SBS6 is working class or below working class, their channel is sometimes pejoratively called 'the camping channel'. Other channels of SBS Nederland include NET5 (target: mainly high-educated women) and Veronica (targetting men with action movies). The new channel, SBS9 (the fourth channel of the group), is to broadcast films and foreign series. No new shows were announced. We'll see if an audience is attracted by the move....

RTL already has four channels and is to introduce the first 24/7 news channel in the Netherlands. Their news shows during the afternoon (mainly business news) are now broadcast on RTL7 (slogan: Meer voor Mannen, More for Men). RTL wants the channel to have its own profile 24/7. After the stock exchange closes at 18:00, an old episode of The A-Team is to be aired. So, the news moves to a separate channel and is extended to 24 hours a day, instead of 12.

This leaves us with the question: don't we -- in a country of 17m people -- have enough national tv channels?

A list of tv (current) tv channels in the Netherlands broadcasting all over the country:
1. NPO 1 (public broadcasting)
2. NPO 2 (public broadcasting)
3. NPO 3 (public broadcasting)
4. RTL 4 (RTL Nederland)
5. RTL 5 (RTL Nederland)
6. SBS 6 (SBS Nederland)
7. RTL 7 (RTL Nederland
8. NET 5 (SBS Nederland)
9. Veronica (SBS Nederland)
10. RTL 8 (RTL Nederland)
11. Fox (Fox Entertainment Group)
NG
noggin Founding member
I guess it depends what you mean by national TV channels?

For comparison - here are the UK terrestrial channels currently broadcasting in the UK : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_terrestrial_television_channels_(UK) (Only a very small number of them are PayTV)

The main ones are :

BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, BBC Parliament
ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV (and +1 versions)
Channel 4, Film 4, E4, More 4, 4Seven (and +1 versions)
Channel 5, 5USA, 5* (and +1 versions)

Then we have CNN, RT, Al Jazeera and Sky News, shopping channels (QVC, Ideal World etc.), some UKTV commercial channels (Yesterday, Dave, Drama, Dave Ja Vu), some music channels (4Music, Viva etc.), some movie channels (MovieMix, Movies4Men), a gameshow channel (Challenge) and some other kids stuff.

All of these are FTA and available through your aerial/antenna without subscription.

For a country around 4 times larger in population terms than The Netherlands - we seem to have quite a few more pro rata...
AG
AxG
But remember, not all are available on Freeview Lite.
BA
bilky asko
And, of course, ITV Be launches in just over a week's time.
MA
Maarten1
Since terrestrial tv is barely used here ('Freeview' only carries the three public broadcasting channels, adding commercial channels cost €7/month), it is hard to draw a line between national channels.

NPO, RTL and SBS make up the main tv landscape. Here an overview of the shares in audience in NL: https://kijkonderzoek.nl/images/Maandpersberichten/2013/140107_Persbericht_SKO_2013_december.pdf

Just counted quickly, the UK has 21 main channels for 64m people, 'we' have 10 main channels for 17m people. Pro rato, we got more Smile
BA
bilky asko
Just counted quickly, the UK has 21 main channels for 64m people, 'we' have 10 main channels for 17m people. Pro rato, we got more Smile


I think Noggin was including the +1 channels in the calculation.
NG
noggin Founding member
Since terrestrial tv is barely used here ('Freeview' only carries the three public broadcasting channels, adding commercial channels cost €7/month), it is hard to draw a line between national channels.

NPO, RTL and SBS make up the main tv landscape. Here an overview of the shares in audience in NL: https://kijkonderzoek.nl/images/Maandpersberichten/2013/140107_Persbericht_SKO_2013_december.pdf

Just counted quickly, the UK has 21 main channels for 64m people, 'we' have 10 main channels for 17m people. Pro rato, we got more Smile


http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TQ339712 Tells a truer story.

Looking at the 6 DVB-T and 2 DVB-T2 muxes in London I get (TV=SDTV) :

PSB1 9 TV services
PSB2 9 TV services
PSB3 6 HDTV services (though these are HD simulcasts of SD services on PSB1 or 2)

COM4 15 TV services
COM5 15 TV services
COM6 9 TV services (ignoring PayTV)
COM7 7 HDTV services / 1 TV service (Most HD services are simulcast of SD services on other muxes - but not all)
LW 4 service

I make that 62 SD services and 13 HD services? That includes +1 and shopping services, and counts channels that don't operate 24/7 - and only count those that don't require a subscription of any form. That is 8 multiplexes of non-Pay TV, subscription-free TV.

My understanding (confirmed when I was in Amsterdam for IBC in 2013) was that in the Netherlands only NED1-3 and a local station or two were FTA and didn't require a Digitenne subscription? (From memory there isn't a strong FTA satellite platform for the Netherlands either - with NED1-3 SD and HD encrypted - though not sure if they are FTV or PayTV on satellite? The only FTA satellite service I remember was BVN?)
Last edited by noggin on 29 September 2014 4:26pm
MA
Maarten1
My understanding (confirmed when I was in Amsterdam for IBC in 2013) was that in the Netherlands only NED1-3 and a local station or two were FTA and didn't require a Digitenne subscription? (From memory there isn't a strong FTA satellite platform for the Netherlands either - with NED1-3 SD and HD encrypted - though not sure if they are FTV or PayTV on satellite? The only FTA satellite service I remember was BVN?)


DVB-T Freeview is rarely used here. Since only NPO1, 2, 3 and the provincial tv is on there. Overall, coaxial tv is far more common here. The analogue package offers ~25 channels (NPO, RTL, SBS, regional and local public tv, Flemish public tv, BBC1 and 2, and channels like Discovery Channel and National Geographic).

BVN is the only FTA satellite service, for other channels you'll need a subscription.

It is very likely SBS9 and RTLZ will become digital-only channels (not on Digitenne or analogue cable), since the analogue packages are filled.
WW
WW Update
Just counted quickly, the UK has 21 main channels for 64m people, 'we' have 10 main channels for 17m people. Pro rato, we got more Smile


There are European countries that have more domestic terrestrial channels per capita. Slovenia, for instance, has 10 domestic TV channels on DVB-T (four public, six commercial), and more on cable, even though its population is just two million.
AM
amosc100
My understanding (confirmed when I was in Amsterdam for IBC in 2013) was that in the Netherlands only NED1-3 and a local station or two were FTA and didn't require a Digitenne subscription? (From memory there isn't a strong FTA satellite platform for the Netherlands either - with NED1-3 SD and HD encrypted - though not sure if they are FTV or PayTV on satellite? The only FTA satellite service I remember was BVN?)


DVB-T Freeview is rarely used here. Since only NPO1, 2, 3 and the provincial tv is on there. Overall, coaxial tv is far more common here. The analogue package offers ~25 channels (NPO, RTL, SBS, regional and local public tv, Flemish public tv, BBC1 and 2, and channels like Discovery Channel and National Geographic).

BVN is the only FTA satellite service, for other channels you'll need a subscription.

It is very likely SBS9 and RTLZ will become digital-only channels (not on Digitenne or analogue cable), since the analogue packages are filled.

Then in that case RTL also has RTL Lounge and RTL Crime which are Digital Only and the not forgetting NPO24.
NG
noggin Founding member
My understanding (confirmed when I was in Amsterdam for IBC in 2013) was that in the Netherlands only NED1-3 and a local station or two were FTA and didn't require a Digitenne subscription? (From memory there isn't a strong FTA satellite platform for the Netherlands either - with NED1-3 SD and HD encrypted - though not sure if they are FTV or PayTV on satellite? The only FTA satellite service I remember was BVN?)


DVB-T Freeview is rarely used here. Since only NPO1, 2, 3 and the provincial tv is on there. Overall, coaxial tv is far more common here. The analogue package offers ~25 channels (NPO, RTL, SBS, regional and local public tv, Flemish public tv, BBC1 and 2, and channels like Discovery Channel and National Geographic).

BVN is the only FTA satellite service, for other channels you'll need a subscription.

It is very likely SBS9 and RTLZ will become digital-only channels (not on Digitenne or analogue cable), since the analogue packages are filled.


Is cable subscription-free though? I thought it was pay-TV in the Netherlands?
TH
Thinker
This leaves us with the question: don't we -- in a country of 17m people -- have enough national tv channels?


As has been pointed out, that really depends on how you mean "national channels" differ from others. Many local versions of channels like Discovery and MTV are quite popular in the Netherlands and can rival some of those in the list above.

I'd say the number of general entertainment channels isn't completely dependent on the number of inhabitants in a country. If there is a possible niche with a certain critical mass, it will be exploited. Smaller countries tend to have more channels per capita, but the money spent on each channel will obviously be smaller.

Is cable subscription-free though? I thought it was pay-TV in the Netherlands?


Cable penetration is very high in the Netherlands, so I assume many would think of the channels on analogue cable as "free" or "national" channels, even if you have to pay to get them.

Newer posts