Enrichment for democracy or depletion for the viewer? – Volkskrant

On 2 October 1989, the RTL Véronique careful that began with the first commercial TV broadcasts was in the Netherlands. Was then still mostly laughed at the amateurish opening show with Catherine Keyl and programs going with that Banana and Hei elei Kuck elei; 25 years later, almost everyone agrees that “the commercials’ the Dutch television landscape has been shaken considerably.

But what did all those years commercial television well actually brought us? We ask the big names in the broadcasting and lay them at the same time, what was the highlight? And what the nadir

Jan de Jong, NOS director

“Thanks to the commercials, there is at least a much richer supply for the people. And most importantly, the public broadcaster’s better, more modern and more alert become. As a broad public broadcasting provides better quality and commercial television. They reinforce each other. RTL News is the NOS of a traditional bulletin organization turned into a 24/7 factory-new. And I mean this positively. ”

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‘Big Brother was definitely the highlight. That was something new, big and different. The guts what was required that was – especially at that moment-not available in public broadcasting. ”

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‘The beauty of television is tolerance, I can really think of any lows. You do not have to like it or looking at it myself, but I think it’s fine if someone else does so with great pleasure. That should give each other

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Fons van Westerloo, former CEO of both RTL and SBS

“The industry got a lot more opportunities to bring its products to the attention of a large audience with commercial television. And the viewers were informed much wider than in the time of a protected public system. Especially with the advent of RTL News got the NOS a formidable competitor. Heart of the Netherlands, focused on the regions contributed to that suddenly became interested in the major news section for the little news. ”

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The highlight was the arrival of SBS 6 as a new commercial broadcaster. Nobody, but nobody really believed that it was possible to even make. Successful commercial broadcaster in addition to a strong public broadcaster RTL and a strong When commercial broadcasting was really commercial, because there had to be at once competed. RTL was until that moment really just a monopolist. ”

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‘The end of Talpa as a TV channel. There was, or a competitor from the market, but it was certainly a loss for the viewer. If investors had sustained longer was definitely a success and had become the vigor of competitors only increases

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Shula Rijxman, board NPO (Dutch Public Broadcasting)

“Not only is the number of TV programs increased, the quality of programs has become much better our competitive TV market. The “publics” and “commercials” complement each other well and we set the bar high over and over again. With the spotlight as the winner. ”

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“Such joint Giro-555-action such as those for the victims of the natural disaster in the Philippines for me a real highlight. At such a moment prevails a sense of belonging in the society. Commercial and public broadcasters know within no time a day and evening program to put together, thus giving that feeling again. ”

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“The commercials have introduced belspelletjes. I’m glad we are rid of it

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Ruud Hendriks, media entrepreneur and co-founder RTL 4

“The public broadcaster is to work much more efficient that is profit. But commercial television, the Dutch television viewers especially brought more choice. For example, Yahoo! News is an enrichment for democracy. It is a lot of TV talent discovered at the commercials, I call Jeroen Pauw and Carlo Boszhard. ”

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“The talk show Barend & amp; Van Dorp is for me the absolute highlight. In journalism field I call the broadcast by RTL Nieuws during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War. At those moments the NOS News was sleeping. ”

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‘The failure of the Sport7 established partly by me was the low point in the last 25 years. But I am ashamed for anything; entrepreneurship will happen with risks and failures

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Bert Cottages, editor Omroep WNL

“The commercial broadcaster has provided a tremendous creative TV industry, one of the largest in the world. Look at Endemol, Eyeworks, Talpa; their work provides a lot of money for the treasury. This could never have done with only the public broadcaster. It is wonderful that the whole world is watching Dutch formats? ”

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“What RTL News and Heart of the Netherlands (SBS) have competed at the journalism field is enormous. They have shaken the public broadcaster. Heart of the Netherlands has really focused on taking a less educated audience, an audience that broadcasters ignored for a long time because the leadership mostly consisted of highly educated people with doctoral title. ‘

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“Of all the commercial failures of Talpa to Sport7, you can say at least that there was some ambition, but you can not tell from FOX. What have they been doing? Nothing. I think it’s an incredibly low point that such a large TV party with so much expertise so gigantic fails Netherlands’

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Bert Habets, CEO of RTL Netherlands (RTL4,5,7 8)

‘Commercial television has ensured that choosing the viewer and the advertiser something got. Competition is always good in the end, because it allows for more choice and often more quality. Whether it was at Yahoo! News, or to the many forms of advertising, themes and genres that we launched the first to like latenight shows, horizontal programming, talent shows, tools, it has the Dutch media landscape and the advertising market enriched. ”

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‘Big Brother and The Voice of Holland are the absolute highlights. Big Brother really brought a complete turnaround effected within the international reality genre. Teams from all over the world flew to the Netherlands to do about it. Reporting I can still see the reporters from CNN, ABC and BBC stand at a fence in Almere. In The Voice, I personally witnessed the emergence of a new global blockbuster. ”

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“Whether I’m ashamed for something? No.. Of course, we have known the necessary lows, which can not be otherwise if you’re around for a quarter century. But everything is transient

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Jean Pierre Geelen, television critic Volkskrant

“The commercial broadcaster has brought us a lot: sponsoring, horizontal programming, daily soaps, daily latenight, emotion-TV, but also the elevation of” the common man “to instant television star from Big Brother and Utopia into The Voice. But it brought to the public service broadcaster, in my opinion wrong, tend to copy. Success of the commercial broadcasting Finally, it became clear that a good quality news section can make. Commercially station In addition: competition in this area has also been more focus in public broadcasting – it could not hurt. ”

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‘Barend & amp; Van Dorp; a talk show in his best years given the talk of the day. But from a technical point media was probably the biggest success Big Brother: the harbinger of a new global phase (commercial) television.

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“It is difficult to determine. Actually there regularly reaches a new threshold in the course of the years, ranging from about the redhead with Wendy van Dijk – those people on the street for 100 guilders had to eat the spaghetti from each other’s pants – the Scandinavian soft-porn which Fons van Westerloo SBS6 viewers are treated in the nineties, to Oh Oh Cherso dating and naked on an island

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The commercial television so far

The contrast between the serious tone of the first broadcast RTL News on October 2, 1989 – “of course you should our sound and alert notification expect – and the amateurish opening show full of B stars that followed, could hardly be greater. Yet it is precisely this blend of journalism and entertainment that the commercial broadcasters slowly connection found among the general public.

For where the public broadcaster could still breathe a sigh of relief over that almost failed ‘Luxembourg’ attempt to finally purely to introduce Dutch commercial television the first months it could in the course of 1990 no longer ignore.

The ratings rose sharply thanks to the arrival of the stars of TV producer Joop van den Ende, who moments before saw go up. His plan for its own transmitter in smoke Dutch law was his TV10 in the way, but then turned out be the salvation for RTL. Hennie Huisman, Ron Brandsteder and André van Duin were together with the steadily improving RTL Nieuws responsible for the breakthrough of commercial television in the Netherlands.

And especially journalistic supplement – as a competitor of NOS News – is to this day referred to by many as an enrichment of democracy. Or can be of a range of programs and channels in the years followed, also said the question, but it is certain that the offer for the viewer is greatly increased.

After RTL 4 RTL 5 came out, followed by RTL 7 (also stopped Yorin) and RTL 8 (formerly Talpa / Tien). From Scandinavia SBS6 came in 1995, followed by just five in 1999 In the meantime, was followed by the tumultuous rise and fall of football channel Sport7. The former public broadcaster Veronica expressed in various commercial forms and other foreign media companies introduced over the years, various Dutch versions of channels such as Discovery Channel and Comedy Central. TMF was as successful Dutch music engulfed by competitor MTV. Last year there was the latest addition; lean performing FOX.

The commercial television was responsible for successful TV genres that were at that time not to see. Big Brother (1999) began a new era reality. Barend & amp; Van Dorp introduced the latenight-beer halls, while Heart of the Netherlands (SBS 6, 1995) brought the region to the national TV. Finally, there was the Dutch soap. The success of Good Times (RTL 4) Often copied – even by public broadcasters (the way to tomorrow) – but never equaled. The program is for 24 years one of the most watched programs of the Netherlands

View images from the history of commercial television in the Netherlands:

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