Television in Belgium was
introduced in 1953 and began with one channel each in Dutch and French. The country is heavily
cabled, with 93% of households watching television through cable as of 2003.
History
The three
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
Communities – Dutch, French and German-speaking – have legal responsibility for audiovisual communication. They constitute separate markets, the common feature of which is the fact that they have been extensively cabled for three decades and are thus able to receive neighbouring countries' channels.
Until 1978, Radio-Television Belgium ( nl, Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep; french: Radio-Télévision Belge) was Belgium's national public
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
broadcaster. When broadcasting was devolved to the language communities in 1977, the old organization split into three separate organisations now known as
VRT,
RTBF and
BRF respectively. VRT and RTBF share broadcasting facilities in Brussels, while BRF operates from Eupen.
Channels
Native channels
There are no national TV channels in Belgium. Because of the language divide, there are only channels either in Dutch or French, there is no single company operating TV channels in both the Flemish and the French part. Media laws are created and controlled on a regional level (Flemish or French). Thus the Flemish channels are controlled by Flemish law and the French-speaking ones are controlled by the French community. The public broadcasters still share a building in Brussels, a leftover from the time when the Public Television was still a national (Belgian) competence, however, they have split operations altogether with French language broadcaster RTBF occupying the right half of the building and Flemish broadcaster VRT occupying the left half of the building. They are both governed by different law and a different parliament an example of this is the fact that the French languages public broadcaster RTBF is allowed to sell advertising on television and have actual ad breaks, while the Flemish public broadcaster can only sell product placement and sponsor billboards on television. On their radio channels both are allowed to sell full ad breaks. Both public broadcasters also work in a completely different competitive environment.
The two main Belgian public TV networks,
VRT in the
Flemish Community and
RTBF in the
French Community of Belgium
In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Féd ...
, broadcast their channels via operators using cable, satellite, IPTV and digital terrestrial television (
DVB-T2
DVB-T2 is an abbreviation for "Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial"; it is the extension of the television standard DVB-T, issued by the consortium DVB, devised for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial tele ...
). In the French community of Belgium the channels of
RTBF can be received by DVB-T2 free of charge. The privately owned channels of the French community are not available on digital terrestrial television. In the Flemish part of Belgium all channels of the public tv (
VRT) and the most important privately owned channels are available on all platforms (including DVB-T2), however the public TV is not available free of charge through DVB-T2 but part of a subscription service that includes the most important privately owned channels as well. This subscription is offered by
TV Vlaanderen
TV Vlaanderen is a digital satellite television and terrestrial television service provider for the Flanders region in Belgium.
TV Vlaanderen's customers are mostly people living in Flanders. However, as TV Vlaanderen is officially available to ...
which also offers satellite tv subscriptions.
In the Flemish part there are three main broadcast groups:
#
VRT (the public broadcaster) which has the TV channels
één (one),
Ketnet
Ketnet is a Dutch-language public children's television channel in Belgium owned and operated by the VRT, Flemish public broadcaster. It broadcasts a mix of locally produced and imported productions on the VRT3 channel from 6am until 8pm.
On 1 D ...
and
Canvas.
#
DPG Media
DPG Media Group is a Belgian media company also active in the Netherlands and Denmark. It is owned by the Van Thillo family and employs some 6,000 people.
Divisions
The DPG Media Group operates through three national subsidiaries:
* DPG Med ...
(formerly
Medialaan
DPG Media Group is a Belgian media company also active in the Netherlands and Denmark. It is owned by the Van Thillo family and employs some 6,000 people.
Divisions
The DPG Media Group operates through three national subsidiaries:
* DPG Media ...
and before that VMMa) is the main Flemish commercial TV group which runs the channels
vtm,
vtm2,
vtm3 and
VTM Kids
VTM Kids (formerly known as VTMKzoom) was a Belgian commercial television channel for youth. The broadcasts of the channel began on 1 October 2009. VTM Kids targeted children. The children's channel was owned by DPG Media (formerly Medialaan). .
# Play Media is the 2nd Flemish commercial group which runs the channels
Play4,
Play5
Play5 started in October 2004 as SBS Belgium's second channel and a sister channel to VIER (formerly VT4).
History
On 1 October 2004, the first broadcast was that of a soccer game, even though women are the channel's target audience. By doi ...
and
Play6
Play6 is a Belgian commercial television channel for Flemish public which started broadcasting on 6 October 2016. It is part of SBS Belgium. The channel is a sister channel of Play4 and Play5. ZES focuses on older, successful series, movies and ...
. The word Play is used because the channels are owned by
Telenet
Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines ...
, the biggest digital tv provider in Flanders, and its on demand
SVOD offer already is branded Play and
Play More
''Play More'' is a Belgian premium television service owned by Telenet, the Belgian content division of Liberty Global. Prime launched together with its sister service Prime Sport (later Sporting Telenet and now Play Sports) on September 3, 2005 ...
while its linear pay tv channels are branded
Play Sports
Play Sports (formerly Prime Sport (2005-2012) and Sporting Telenet (2012-2015) is a brand of the Flemish cable distributor Telenet, which consists of a bundle of different (partly own) channels. Through television stations, competitions from vari ...
and Play More Cinema, Play More Kicks, Play More Relax, Play More Black.
These three broadcast groups combined generate about 80% of the total market share daily with
VRT being the biggest with a market share of just above 36% (all channels combined),
DPG Media
DPG Media Group is a Belgian media company also active in the Netherlands and Denmark. It is owned by the Van Thillo family and employs some 6,000 people.
Divisions
The DPG Media Group operates through three national subsidiaries:
* DPG Med ...
taking about 31% (all channels combined) and SBS Belgium taking about 12% (all channels combined).
The channels
één and
vtm are the main players in terms of daily newscasts and local content with primetime being filled for 90% with local productions or local versions of international formats. Vier(4) also has started programming mainly local productions in the primetime slot. All other channels air a majority of international (mostly US made) productions in original language (English) with subtitles. The only exception is children's programming which is dubbed in Dutch.
Apart from these main groups there are dozens of other local or localised versions of other channels. e.g.
MTV,
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
,
National Geographic, and
Discovery Channel.
In the French part there are 3 main broadcast groups:
#
RTBF (the public broadcaster) which has the TV channels
La Une
La Une () is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. La Une is the equivalent of Flemish station Eén, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT.
History
INR
Ex ...
,
La Deux
Tipik is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF.
History From RTbis to Télé 2
On March 26, 1977, RTB launched a second television channel called RTBis, wh ...
and
La Trois
La Trois is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. It was launched on 30 November 2007 and currently distributed via digital terrestrial television, satelli ...
#RTL Group Belgium (the main French-speaking commercial TV group) which runs the channels
RTL-TVI
RTL-TVI is a private French-language Luxembourg based television station in Belgium owned by DPG Media and Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by the RTL Group until 31 March 2022. Within the French-speaking area of Belgium, it is the mos ...
,
Club RTL
Club RTL is a Luxembourgish channel of French language based in Kirchberg, Luxembourg-City, Luxembourg and it was owned by DPG Media and Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by RTL Group until 31 March 2022. The two principals countries of tr ...
and
Plug RTL
Plug RTL is a general Luxembourgish French speaking commercial television chain with international presence and targeting adolescents and young people (15-34 age bracket). The station is particularly popular in francophone parts of Belgium (Wallon ...
. It was used to be owned by
RTL Group
RTL Group (for "Radio Television Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 68 television channels and 31 radio stations in Germany, France an ...
before sell out in 2022
#
Mediawan Thematics
Mediawan Thematics (formerly known as AB Groupe) is a French business group in the field of broadcasting.
It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television
...
(formerly AB Groupe; the 2nd French-speaking commercial group) which runs the channels
AB3 and
ABXplore
ABXplore is a private commercial thematic television channel of the French Community of Belgium operated by Mediawan Thematics.
History
On September 13, 2017, AB Groupe
Mediawan Thematics (formerly known as AB Groupe) is a French business gro ...
(formerly
AB4
AB4 was a Belgian broadcast television station owned and operated by BTV, a subsidiary of AB Groupe. It targeted the French community in Belgium. On September 13, 2017, at 20:30 it became ABXplore.
History
Claude Berda, CEO of the French AB Gr ...
).
RTL Group attracts about 25% of market share daily (all channels combined) and RTBF also has about 25% average daily market share (all channels combined). The channels La Une and RTL-TVI are the main channels with local newscasts and the most local programming. Local programming however is relatively limited in the French part. Primetime is often filled with international shows dubbed in French or French tv shows. Up to 70% of the French-speaking Belgians turn on a domestic channel on average every night, up from 55% a few years ago. The success of French channel TF1 makes this a more fragmented market with TF1 sometimes having up to 15% market share in the French part of Belgium. TF1 even has localised ad breaks. Local Belgian channels find it sometimes difficult to compete with French TV which has vastly larger production budgets due to the market size difference (France having an addressable audience 15 times the size of the French part of Belgium) but in the past years the local channels have been investing in local qualitative drama and entertainment which has increased market share and viewership.
Foreign channels
Apart from the channels listed above, most cable, satellite and IPTV platforms in Belgium distribute television stations from other European countries including the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Most people are able to receive
NPO 1
NPO 1 (''NPO een'', formerly Nederland 1 until 2014) is the first national television station in the Netherlands. It launched on 2 October 1951. It provides public broadcasting and currently exists next to sister channels NPO 2 and NPO 3. Severa ...
,
NPO 2
NPO 2 (''NPO twee'', formerly Nederland 2 until 2014) is a Dutch television channel, sister channel of NPO 1 and NPO 3. It was established on 1 October 1964 at 20:00, initially with a 2.5 hours schedule until 22:30.
NPO 2 tends to broadcast ar ...
, and
NPO 3
NPO 3 (''NPO drie'', formerly Nederland 3 until 2014) is the third and youngest of the terrestrial television channels operated by the Dutch public-broadcasting organization NPO in the Netherlands. It carries programmes provided by member-based ...
from
Netherlands Public Broadcasting
(; abbreviated to NPO ; literally "Dutch Public Broadcaster") or Dutch Foundation for Public Broadcasting () is a Dutch public broadcasting organisation that administers public broadcasting services in the Netherlands. The NPO is also the owner ...
as well as
ARD and
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
,
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
,
BBC Two,
BBC World News
BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and ...
,
BBC Entertainment
BBC Entertainment is an international television channel broadcasting comedy, drama, light entertainment, reality and children's programming (some regions only) from the BBC, Channel 4 and other UK production houses. The channel broadcasts regi ...
,
TF1,
France 2
France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews.
Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...
,
France 3
France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info.
It is made up of a network of regional television services provi ...
,
France 4
France 4 () is a French free-to-air television channel owned by France Télévisions, focused on children's programming. The colour of France 4 is purple.
Originally launched as Festival in 1996, the channel took its current name in 2005 when it ...
,
France 5
France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...
and
Rai 1
Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream and gener ...
.
Cable
In
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, over 95% of all households have
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
(
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
and
DVB-C).
Flanders
Telenet
Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines ...
, the main cable network operator in
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
, the northern region of
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, has around 25 analogue TV channels which are also available digitally on a
DVB-C Multimedia Home Platform
Multimedia Home Platform (DVB-MHP) is an open middleware system standard designed by the DVB project for interactive digital television. The MHP enables the reception and execution of interactive, Java-based applications on a TV-set. Interactive ...
TV service. In total about 80 TV channels are available digitally. This includes some TV channels that were already available in analogue and digital form:
Prime
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
(in Dutch) or
BeTV (in French) are
pay-TV
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
operators broadcasting several
SDTV
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
channels over one
DVB-C multiplex. Telenet is however pushing for their DVB-C channels as interactive Digital TV, using their cable network for uplink purposes.
Current cable customers do not need to pay an extra subscription for about 35 digital channels, but they must purchase a
set-top box
A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
in order to view these digital channels and use the interactive services.
Telenet
Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines ...
, the main cable operator in Flanders, also offers Dutch-language or Dutch-subtitled versions of
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...
,
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning ...
,
Cartoon Network,
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...
,
National Geographic Channel,
E!,
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
Animal Planet
Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...
and
Discovery Channel.
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
was expected from summer 2006, to coincide with the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...
, but has not materialized. Despite Telenet, confirmed as part of its launch announcement of "Telenet Digital TV" on 16 June 2005 that it would sell HDTV set-top-boxes as of June 2006, HDTV capable set-top boxes for Telenet interactive digital TV were only available in December 2007. In 2009 Telenet already offered 15 HD channels on its digital network.
From July 2005 Integan, a cable network operator in the outskirts of the city of Antwerp, is offering HDTV. Integan was fully integrated in the Telenet cable network from 2009 onwards.
Brussels
The main cable network operators in the
Brussels Region are VOO and
Telenet
Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines ...
(after the acquisition of the Belgian operations and networks of
Numéricable in 2017).
Wallonia
VOO is the main cable network operator in
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
, the southern part of Belgium. Some regions are still covered by independent operators or by
Telenet
Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lines ...
(see above).
Terrestrial
Since 1 December 2018, only
RTBF broadcasts its channels
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
on the terrestrial
DVB-T network within the
French Community of Belgium
In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Féd ...
.
Analogue terrestrial broadcasts using the
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
standard were phased out in favor of digital terrestrial services in 2008 (Flemish side; switched off on 1 December 2018) and 2010 (French-speaking side), for which an overwhelming majority of clients required rental of proprietary decoders.
Flanders and Brussels
VRT can be received all over
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
and
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
.
Analogue terrestrial TV transmission of VRT Eén and VRT Ketnet/Canvas ended on 3 November 2008. The VRT multiplex transmission from Egem moved from channel 40 (626 MHz) to channel 22 (482 MHz); that from Genk on channel 41 (634 MHz) will move to channel 25 (506 MHz), and that from Antwerpen and Schoten on channel 59 (778 MHz) will move to channel 25 (506 MHz) as well. The VRT multiplex transmissions from Brussels, Gent, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, and Veltem will continue to operate on channel 22 (482 MHz). The move to lower frequencies may result in a slight increase in coverage area of the transmissions.
In May 2018, VRT announced it would cease its free-to-air DVB-T broadcasts on 1 December 2018, citing "changing
media consumption
Media consumption or media diet is the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, reading books and magazines, watching television and film, and lis ...
usage.' According to the broadcaster, just 45,000 people were using the DTT broadcasts as their means of reception, which was costing more than 1 million euros a year to sustain.
Wallonia and Brussels
RTBF launched its DTT platform on 30 November 2007, which is now available to most of French-speaking Belgium and Brussels. It offers
La Une
La Une () is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. La Une is the equivalent of Flemish station Eén, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT.
History
INR
Ex ...
and
La Deux
Tipik is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF.
History From RTbis to Télé 2
On March 26, 1977, RTB launched a second television channel called RTBis, wh ...
. RTBF also launched a new channel exclusive to DTT called
La Trois
La Trois is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. It was launched on 30 November 2007 and currently distributed via digital terrestrial television, satelli ...
, and they added a fourth channel to the multiplex, namely
Euronews, a pan-European news channel.
In Eastern Wallonia, there is a 2-hours
regional variation
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
on Euronews for
BRF TV
BRF TV (also known as BRF Fernsehen) is a German-language television channel in Belgium.
It is owned by the Belgian public broadcaster Belgischer Rundfunk and transmitted via cable in the German-speaking Community of Belgium and throughout the c ...
, public channel of the
German-speaking Community of Belgium
The German-speaking Community (german: links=no, Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft, or DG; french: links=no, Communauté germanophone; nl, links=no, Duitstalige Gemeenschap), since 2017 also known as East Belgium (german: links=no, Ostbelgien), is ...
.
RTBF switched off analogue broadcast on 1 March 2010, thus making Belgium complete its digital transition.
Satellite
TV Vlaanderen
TV Vlaanderen is a digital satellite television and terrestrial television service provider for the Flanders region in Belgium.
TV Vlaanderen's customers are mostly people living in Flanders. However, as TV Vlaanderen is officially available to ...
offers
DVB-S and
DVB-S2 satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
aimed at the
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
, Dutch speaking market, broadcasting (encrypted using
Nagravision
Nagravision (or Nagra Kudelski or simply Nagra) is a company of the Kudelski Group that develops conditional access systems for digital cable and satellite television. The name is also used for their main products, the Nagravision encryption syste ...
) via the
Astra 1L and
Astra 1M
Astra 1M is a geostationary communications satellite which is operated by SES. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 19.2° East, from where it is used to provide direct to home (DTH) broadcasting to Europe, Africa, and the ...
Satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
at
19.2°E. An updated list of channels can be found online. It has more than 60,000 subscribers.
TéléSAT Numérique offers
DVB-S and
DVB-S2 satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
aimed at the Walloons,
French-speaking market, broadcasting (using
Nagravision
Nagravision (or Nagra Kudelski or simply Nagra) is a company of the Kudelski Group that develops conditional access systems for digital cable and satellite television. The name is also used for their main products, the Nagravision encryption syste ...
) via the
Eutelsat Hot Bird satellite at 13°E and also
SES Astra
SES Astra SA was a corporate subsidiary of SES, based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg, that maintained and operated the Astra series of geostationary communication satellites between 2001 and 2011.
Formed in 1985 as Société Européenne de ...
Astra 19.2°E
Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.
Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly k ...
. An updated list of channels can be found
and includes RTBF La Une, RTBF La Deux, RTL-TVi, and Club RTL and Plug TV in SD and HD as well as a number of French language Belgian radio stations.
Both TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat are
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
subsidiaries of the
M7 Group S.A.
M7 Group (legally Canal+ Luxembourg S.à.r.l.) is a Luxembourg-based television provider which operates several direct broadcast satellite pay TV platforms: HD Austria in Austria, Télésat in Belgium and Luxembourg, TV Vlaanderen in the Flander ...
, who also owns the Dutch DTH platform,
CanalDigitaal
CanalDigitaal is a provider of digital television via satellite for the Dutch market, using the Astra satellites at 23.5° east.
Initially customers were mainly Dutch citizens in the countryside who did not have cable access. But in the me ...
.
VRT has an international channel on digital satellite (
DVB-S) called
BVN (as a cooperation between the Flemish
VRT and the Dutch
NOS).
RTBF programmes are available via the international joint broadcaster
TV5MONDE
TV5Monde (), formerly known as TV5, is a French public television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union.
The network is available across ...
.
(See also
Euro1080
Euro1080 was the first commercial broadcaster in Europe to broadcast full-time high-definition television (HDTV) content. It was founded by Gabriel Fehervari in 2004 and is owned by Alfacam, of which declared bankrupt in 2013.
The name orig ...
.)
Other technologies
IPTV
Proximus
Proximus (stylised as pro⌘imus; formerly known as Belgacom Mobile) is the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies and is a part of Proximus Group (previously Belgacom Group). It competes with Orange Belgium and Base. ...
(formerly Belgacom) is offering
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative adva ...
(
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
) via
ADSL2+
G.992.5 (also referred to as ADSL2+, G.dmt.bis+, and G.adslplus) is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per second ...
,
VDSL
Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...
,
VDSL2
Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...
and
FTTH
Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber op ...
using its nationwide copper network. Its offering has been extended with two optional bouquets: one for movies and one selection for families, including
Cartoon Network and
National Geographic Channel
Other private companies provide a similar service, using the Belgacom copper network.
Digital terrestrial television
With the advent of mobile digital receivers (
DVB-H), Proximus is showing some interest in building a DVB-H network.
Most-viewed channels
Source: Hrvatska turistička zajednica (2022)
Timeline
Flanders
Wallonia
See also
*
List of television stations in Belgium
This list contains the Belgian television channels that are broadcast either terrestrially (DVB-T), via cable ( Telenet, VOO and Numericable) or phone lines (Proximus), or via satellite (TV Vlaanderen and Télésat).
See also
* Television ...
References
External links
MAVISE - TV market in Belgium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television In Belgium