It is impossible to explain the unique structure of Dutch audiovisual media without the concept of “pillarization.” This sociocultural phenomenon describes how, from the end of the 19th century on, different religious and ideological groups in Dutch society (Roman Catholics, protestants, socialists, conservatives, liberals) divided society as a whole in segregated microcosms or “pillars.” Their networks of organizations encompassed political parties, trade unions, education, and leisure activities. It comes as no surprise, then, that these “pillars” were highly interested in the emerging mass media. This resulted in a system of “pillarized pluralism” whereby the public service broadcasting is not in the hands of the state, but overseen by non-profit associations controlled by religious and ideological currents in society. Although a process of cultural “de-pillarization” has been ongoing since the 1960s, with a weakening of the societal importance of religious and ideological beliefs, it took much longer for the broadcasting structures to adapt to this change, and even today part of their power remains intact. The irony is that television, although initially con firming pillarization (van der Haak and van Snippenburg), actually contributed to this development since everybody watched everything available, and not only the program of the relevant “pillar” (De Goede).

Dutch television is commonly associated with Hilversum, a city near Amsterdam and since radio days the country’s media center. It is in Hilversum that the various radio broadcasting associations were established in the 1920s: the protestant “Dutch Christian Radio Association” (NVRV), the Roman Catholic “Catholic Radio Association” (KRO), the socialdemocrat “Association of Workers Radio Enthusiasts” (VARA), the progressive protestant “Modern Protestant Radio” (VPRO) and the neutral “General Association of Radio Broadcasting” (AVRO).

The Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips (today a multinational concern) received permission in 1948 to start with experimental television broadcasts for a few hundred viewers in the surroundings of the Philips headquarters in Eindhoven. From the start, government opted for a public-service approach to broadcasting. This is why in 1951, the existing broadcasting associations were granted TV broadcasting licenses under the authority of an umbrella organization, the National Television Foundation (NTS). But the population was slow to adopt television in the 1950s because of the high price of television sets in relation to average incomes at that time, the restricted reach and airtime of the broadcasts, and the strong religious views suggesting television was harmful (van der Haak and van Snippenburg).

In 1964 a commercial “pirate” station, Radio/TV North Sea (REM), began broadcasting from an off-shore oil rig in international waters, but was quickly shut down by the government. That same year a second television channel, Nederland 2, was launched. The political pressure to open up the broadcasting system to commercial interests and new public license holders increased in 1965, causing the fall of a Christian-democrat and liberal coalition. The succeeding government soon came up with a white paper on the transformation of the broadcasting system into an “open system.”

These plans resulted in the 1967 Broadcasting Act, the first specific broadcasting legislation in the Netherlands since radio’s emergence, and a compromise between commercial and public interests. The Act confirmed the existing structure and the ban on commercial television, but accepted the introduction of new players and advertising. Airtime quota and funds were allocated according to the status (A, B, or C) of the broadcasting association. The five existing associations immediately received A-status (with 450,000 members or more), subscribers to the program guide of each association also counting as members. The Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) was established to play a coordinating role, provide studios and technical facilities, and produce a joint program of news, weather, and sports. The Foundation for Broadcasting Advertising (STER) was to divide most of the advertising profits among the associations. The existing license fee was thus complemented with advertising revenues. The Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation (TROS)—in fact a renewed REM— joined the system that same year. The protestant funda- mentalist “Evangelical Broadcasting Corporation” (EO) followed in 1970, as did Veronica Broadcasting Corporation (VOO or Veronica), a former offshore pirate radio station, in 1975.

The new “open system” stimulated competition among associations, thus giving television broadcasting a pseudo-commercial character (De Goede). With two new players, TROS and Veronica, lacking clear identification with a social or cultural group, the associations all promoted themselves in a quest for larger audiences. In combination with a significant schedule enlargement, many felt that the competition was lowering production and programming standards, a phenomenon labeled “Trossification” for the TROS channel, which was the first to introduce this light entertainment strategy. More and more talk shows, sitcoms and other foreign—especially American—series brought a change of diet for an audience used to a public broadcasting mix of “information, education and entertainment” (Manschot, 1993).

The public system came under growing outside threat from foreign cable stations and other developments in the 1980s. A 1983 Christian right-wing coalition white paper on the future of the mass media developed into the 1988 Media Act, a second milestone in Dutch broadcasting policy. Commercial broadcasting remained forbidden. The supervision of compliance with the Media Act was delegated to a Media Authority. And the NOS split off its facilities into the private Dutch Broadcast Production Company (NOB). Broadcasting associations no longer were forced to use NOB facilities, which stimulated the growth of an independent audiovisual production sector. To broaden the airtime, a third channel, Nederland 3, was launched in April 1988.

The overall intentions of the Media Act (keeping the system of pluralism in place, keeping commercial broadcasting out) was clearly out of step with European media developments (van der Haak and van Snippenburg) The paradigm shift from public service broadcasting monopolies to a deregulated commercial broadcasting environment swept across Western Europe in the 1980s. But in the Netherlands, policy was again behind actual developments. In October 1989, RTL Veronica began broadcasting via Astra satellites from its base in Luxembourg using a “U-turn strategy.” Although presenting programs in Dutch produced in the Netherlands and clearly aimed at a Dutch audience, it was recognized as a foreign station because it was partly owned by the Luxembourg-based CLT (as well as by the Dutch station Veronica), and therefore admitted on Dutch cable. Veronica was severely punished for this commercial escapade, had to withdraw from the partnership, and RTL changed into RTL4. The station quickly attracted about a quarter of the Dutch television audience, becoming market leader within a year. The 1980s boom in programming hours created a need for cheap material with a huge popular appeal, which was largely filled with U.S. soaps and other series. Dallas and Falcon Crest, for instance, were broadcast with great popular success (and the cultural protest of intellectuals). Only in the 1990s would the production of immensely popular domestic soap operas reverse the U.S. dominance.

The last decade of the century was undoubtedly the most dynamic era in terms of new stations, mergers, and policy reforms. As a result, a new Media Act has been permanently “under construction” (van Reenen). At the same time, the development of European Union media regulations gradually reduced the scope of domestic policy to an “exercise in modesty” (De Goede, 1999). The 1990s started with the government commissioning a report from consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., on measures designed to assist public broadcasting to counter commercial television. This 1990 report was to become the basis for several years of television policy. Broadcasting associations were given a fixed space on one of the channels in order to make the three channels equally attractive to audiences and advertisers. The NOS retained its task of broadcasting news, sports, and national events. But the newly founded Netherlands Program Corporation (NPS) became responsible for cultural issues, and minorities and young people’s programs. A cabinet of social democrats and liberals continued the move to liberalization in 1994. This led to a new organizational structure for the public system with an independent board of directors in charge. Since then the broadcasting organizations have been represented on a supervisory board charged with the main policy lines. And after more than 20 years, a new broadcasting association, Bart’s News Network (BNN) aimed at young people, entered the public system in 1998.

It was in the arena of commercial broadcasting, however, that most thorough changes took place. RTL Launched a second station, RTL 5, in 1992, heavily relying on American series. Veronica left the public system in 1995 to form the Holland Media Group (HMG) with RTL. In 2000 Veronica left HMG and in 2003 is seeking a re-entry in the television market with other partners. HMG has approximately a 40 percent market share. The Arcade Group, a Dutch record company, entered commercial television in 1995 with The Music Factory (TMF) a very popular Dutch version of MTV (and since 2000 owned by MTV), and TV10. TV10 changes, to Fox 8 (FOX), and to V8 (SBS) in 2001. A new channel, SBS6, began in 1995, part of the Swedish-American Scandinavian Broadcasting System (SBS) Group together with De Telegraaf, Nether-ands largest newspaper. This channel mainly broadcast reality TV, eroticism, and feature films. They launched a second channel, Net5, in 1999, directed at viewers from public broadcasting. Finally, pay-TV, existing since 1984 as Filmnet and Canal Plus, currently owned by Vivendi, has not seemed to catch on. This is not surprisingly considering the huge array of television choices already available.

Since the arrival of the commercial broadcasting companies, the public broadcasting organizations have seen their market share shrink by half, to stabilize at around 40 per cent in 1997. But the market of independent production companies has flourished, the most famous case being Endemol. The 1993 merger of Joop van den Ende and John de Mol Productions, both producing game shows, soaps, talk shows, reality TV, and drama, formed one of the largest audiovisual companies in Europe. Van den Ende’s soap format Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (GTST) (Good Times, Bad Times) was one of the first domestically produced daily soaps in Europe in 1990. It soon became a key program of RTL4, and remains very popular. Endemol has diversified its output with highly successful and internation-ally distributed “emotion-TV” formats such as All You Need is Love and the by now legendary Big Brother. The final episode of Big Brother broke all the Dutch ratings records, with 3.5 million viewers (in a population of about 16 million). Endemol, a transnational producer with subsidiaries in more than 15 European countries, turned the Netherlands into a prominent television format exporter. Telefónica, the Spanish telecom giant, acquired Endemol in 2000.

The public sector replied to the commercial competition with yet another reform in 2000, focusing on channel branding, creating diverse and clear channel profiles. Ned 1 is to be the in-depth channel inspired by family values, Ned 2 the most accessible channel, most likely to pinch viewers from commercial channels, and Ned 3 also an in-depth channel, but guided by culturally progressive values and tastes. The NOS became the only licensee, with the associations reduced to participants in the license. The license fee was replaced by a small income-tax rise.

Today, viewers in the Netherlands have a wide range of about 30 television stations, both public and commercial, domestic, foreign, and international, through one of the densest cable networks in Europe. Soccer and other sports programs have become by far the most popular program category, recently joined by reality TV shows.

In the 50 years of its existence, the Dutch broadcasting system has seen its boundaries between government, business, and non-profit associations shifted considerably, the two former gaining in influence, the latter losing power (De Goede, 1999). This resulted in a highly diversified dual landscape of public and commercial broadcasters, with a clear shift toward commercialization, internationalization, and concentration, although the government strongly supports the public broadcasting system.

The coming years of Dutch broadcasting will see digitization and Internet applications, currently in an experimental phase. The introduction of thematic TV channels such as a news channel and a children’s channel are under consideration. Looking to future developments in technology, several public and private organizations have joined forces in the consortium Digitenne, with a view to providing digital terrestrial television services.