Presentation
Public
Broadcasting in
the Netherlands
For the Serbian delegation
November 5th, 2014
Aron Tihanyi
Index
• Abolition of the licence fee (From Licence fee to State Funds)
• Financing of the Dutch national public broadcasting services
(PBS)
• Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting
services in the Netherlands
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Abolition of the licence fee (1)
Licence fee in The Netherlands (1969-1999)
• payment of the licence fee  possession of a receiver (radio, TV).
• Yearly indexation.
• Collection by the agency “Dienst omroepbijdragen”
 Costs of the agency (in 1999): 27 million Euro;
 The agency has collected (in 1999) 636 million Euro.
• Licence fee in 1999:
 88 euro per household for TV and Radio
= This would be 119 euro per household in 2013 when indexed.
 25 euro per household for Radio only
= This would be 34 euro per household in 2013 when indexed.
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Abolition of the licence fee (2)
Abolition of the licence fee: WHY?
• Political (and financial) decision;
• Licence fee as a collective burden;
• Efficiency gains of 27 million Euro (no collection costs);
• Budget is required for Youth Care.
Basic conditions for the abilition were: independency,
continuation of the NPO and a stable level of financing.
Macro-economical effets in 1999/2000
• “Inflation falls due to the abolition of the licence fee”
(Statistics Netherlands);
• Income tax was raised by 1,1%.
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Abolition of the licence fee (3)
Advantages of abolishing the licence fee (according to the
government in 1999/2000)
• No collection costs (= efficiency gains for the government).
• No collection problems.
Disadvantages of abolishing the licence fee
• Licence fee as a legal “target charge”;
• Licence fee as a certain source of income;
• Budget of the NPO is part of the annual general national budget;
• Budget cuts.
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Abolition of the licence fee (4)
Financing: how was it?
• Revenues from Licence fee + Commercial income (Ster)
Financing: how is it?
• State Funds + Commercial income (Ster)
State Funds:
• A minimum level of budget is fixed in the Media Act (1998).
• Indexes are linked to the budget:
 index growth of number of households;
 and the domestic consumer price index (CPI).
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Financing of the Dutch national PBS: Current
financial system with State Budget (1)
X 1 million Euro
Media budget:
Revenues (2014)
State Funds
808,9
Commercial incomes
(Ster-incomes)
196,0
Interest (on the
amount which is in the
General Reserve
Media)
0,5
Total
1.005,4
The Regional public
broadcasting
services are part of
the Media budget
since 2014!
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Media budget: Expenditures (2014)
National public broadcasting services (NPO)
Regional public broadcasting services
Other institutions*
Subtotal
Mutations to the General Reserve Media (AMR)
Total
770,2
146,4
50,2
966,8
38,6
1.005,4
* such as: the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision,
the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, the Dutch Media Authority
and the Stimulation of the Press.
Mutations to the AMR: to allow for the restructuring and
termination costs of institutions and for the fluctuations of
the commercial income.
Reorganization and new structure of the public
broadcasting services in the Netherlands (1)
Current structure of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting (NPO)
• 21 national broadcasting associations:
 9 member based and licensed broadcasters (AVRO, KRO, etc.);
 2 new member based associations (PowNed and WNL);
 2 associations are task-based (NOS and NTR);
 and 8 other organizations have limited airtime for "religious
programming (RKK, OHM, etc.)."
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Reorganization and new structure of the public
broadcasting services in the Netherlands (2)
Budget cuts in the past
• Examples: under the Cabinets Balkenende I, Balkenende II,
Balkenende IV, Rutte I and Rutte II.
Latest budget cuts (Cabinets Rutte I and Rutte II):
 Budget cuts Media (incl. the Independent Administrative
bodies): approx. 252 million Euro.
 Budget cuts NPO: approx. 145 million Euro.
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Reorganization and new structure of the public
broadcasting services in the Netherlands (3)
Cabinet Rutte I (- 201,3 million Euro):
• Research BCG (2011): efficiency gains.
Cabinet Rutte II (- 51 million Euro):
• Research BCG (2013): increasing incomes.
• Prospective (foresight) study by the Dutch Council for Culture (2014):
how the public broadcasting could best fulfill its public functions in the
future?
• The vision of the State Secretary about the future of the public
broadcasting system (13th of October 2014)
Date of the debate about the vision: 24th of Nov. 2014.
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Reorganization and new structure of the public
broadcasting services in the Netherlands (4)
The main Cabinet vision for the public broadcasting in a nutshell:
• More innovative, more decisive and more distinctive;
• Programs: information, education and culture;
• New program makers;
• More cooperation between national and regional broadcasters;
• More attention to public values;
• Increased level of accountability.
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Reorganization and new structure of the public
broadcasting services in the Netherlands (5)
New structure of the NPO (in 2016)
• 8 national broadcasting associations
 3 merged: KRO/NCRV, VARA/BNN, TROS/AVRO;
 3 stand-alone: EO, MAX and VPRO;
 2 task-based: NOS and NTR.
• New broadcasting associations must join the existing ones.
• New program makers will be able to offer their plans for programs
directly to the NPO (“umbrella organization”).
• More cooperation between the 8 national and the 13 regional
broadcasters.
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Thank you for your
attention!
Any questions?
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