Media in the Netherlands

The media in the Netherlands – television, radio, newspapers, magazines – are characterized by a tradition of "pillarization" on the one hand and an increasing degree of commercialization on the other.

Television and radio

:"Main article: Television networks in the Netherlands":"For a full list of television channels see List of Dutch television channels"

Television and radio are provided by a system of public-broadcasting organizations (sharing three television and five radio networks) together with a number of commercial channels.

Public-service broadcasting

The public-service broadcasting system in the Netherlands arose from the former practice of pillarization, in which the country's various religious and social groups all organized their own institutions, with financial help from the government. These institutions included broadcasting. Although the system of pillarization largely collapsed in the 1970s, the broadcasting associations themselves have remained active. Most have several tens of thousands of members, and they are allocated broadcasting time on the public channels in proportion to the size of their memberships. In addition, a number of other broadcasting foundations, established by the government, receive air time.

The system is financed from three sources:
*grant-in-aid payments from the government, raised from general taxation;
*the income from on-air advertising, regulated by the Stichting Ether Reclame (STER), a public body;
*(a small proportion of the total) the dues paid by members of the broadcasting associations.

The broadcasting associations share three national television channels (Nederland 1, Nederland 2, Nederland 3) and five radio channels (Radio 1, Radio 2, 3FM, Radio 4, Radio 5). Each of these channels has its own profile: thus Nederland 1 is oriented towards news, sport, and family programming, Nederland 2 towards culture, arts, politics, and religion, while Nederland 3 concentrates on youth and progressive programming.

There are also several provincial television channels, which are organized by the provinces

Commercial broadcasting

Commercial broadcasting was banned until the late 1980s. In the 1970s Veronica and TROS broadcasted as a pirate station from a boat, they were allowed into the system of public television. In the 1980s the RTL Group started broadcasting from Luxembourg. In 1988 commercial broadcasting was legalized. Currently there are seven larger channels owned by three companies. RTL owns RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8, while the ProSiebenSat.1 Media (formally SBS Broadcasting Group) owns SBS 6, NET 5 and Veronica. There are also other networks present, offering speciality channels. Among them are Discovery Communications, MTV Networks Europe and Time Warner Inc.

Newspapers

:"For a full list of newspapers see List of newspapers in the Netherlands"

All newspaper are all privately owned. They were historically linked to pillars, with some labour unions or political parties. These ties have all been severed now. Two companies play a large role: PCM Uitgevers which owns several newspapers and De Telegraaf which owns De Telegraaf (the largest paper) and the Sp!ts, a free newspaper.

The most important papers are the conservative liberal De Telegraaf, the progressive liberal NRC Handelsblad, which also publishes nrc.next, the leftwing De Volkskrant and the Protestant Trouw.

Smaller Protestant communities have their own paper, like the Nederlands Dagblad and the Reformatorisch Dagblad. The business community has the Het Financiële Dagblad. A recent phenomenon are the widely read free newspapers Spits and the Metro. There are also several local and regional newspapers. The Algemeen Dagblad, the third largest paper, recently merged with several local papers to form a hybrid national-local paper.

Magazines

Magazines are also privately owned and historically connected to pillars: the main news magazines are the leftwing Vrij Nederland and De Groene Amsterdammer and the more rightwing Elsevier and HP/de Tijd.

Ca. 70 Dutch magazines have been sold to and are now published by the Finnish publisher SanomaWSOY. Apart from many typical Dutch ones like Margriet, Libelle and Nieuwe Revu these include a Disney magazine named after Donald Duck and the Dutch edition of Playboy.