The

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

now has three major forms of broadcast

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 advanc ...

. Terrestrial (

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Febr ...

), Cable ( DVB-C), and Satellite ( DVB-S). In addition

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 media, ...

services are available. At the end of the first quarter of 2013 almost 84% of the households in the Netherlands had some form of digital television.

Terrestrial

The

was the second European country to complete the move to digital terrestrial broadcasting on December 11, 2006. The switch-off was helped greatly by the fact that about 90% of the households have cable that continues to use analog distribution. Due to the very extensive penetration of cable systems, usage of terrestrial television in the

is largely confined to remote rural areas and for portable televisions in caravans, etc. Since then all terrestrial television broadcast in the Netherlands are digital. The national public television channels

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 ...

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 ...

and the regional public television channels are

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

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 ...

transmissions in the Netherlands are provided commercially by

KPN KPN (in full Koninklijke KPN N.V., also Royal KPN N.V.) is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. History Un ...

daughter company

Digitenne Digitenne is the Dutch digital terrestrial television platform. It is owned by KPN. Digitenne uses the DVB-T2 standard. The national public television channels NPO 1, NPO 2, NPO 3 and the regional public television channels are free-to-air. For a ...

. They offer 25 TV channels and 16 radio channels, including the free-to-air channels. The Digitenne service uses Conax encryption.

Handheld

launched a DVB-H service MobileTV on Thursday, June 5, 2008 with a bouquet of ten channels. The ten channels are

RTL 4 RTL 4 (Radio Télévision Luxembourg 4) is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel; it is the most-watched commercial station in the country, popular especially with those aged between 20 and 49. RTL 4 is a general entertainment channel with in ...

, RTL 24,

SBS 6 SBS6 is a Dutch free-to-cable commercial TV channel and is a part of Talpa TV, formerly known as SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are Net5, Veronica, and SBS9. History SB ...

, Disney XD (Netherlands)/ Veronica,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

Xite XITE is an interactive music video platform. Founded in the Netherlands with linear networks, interactive TV, and on-demand streaming services, XITE is now live in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom a ...

and Nick Toons. RTL24 is a made-for-mobile channel with news and current affair. Xite is a new Dutch music channel. In November 2008, a new dedicated mobile TV channel was added. Nu.tv from Ilse Media and the nu.nl news web site. The service was closed on June 1, 2011,

is now using the freed up capacity for adding new channels to its Digitenne DTT platform.

Cable

Over 90% of the households in the Netherlands receive their television signal by

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, making it one of the highest cable penetrated countries. Some cable viewers still watch analogue because no

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 ...

is necessary. But with the uptake of LCD and plasma televisions customers are looking for better picture quality in digital cable. In addition digital cable offers hundreds of channels compared to the about thirty channels analogue cable offers. All the major cable companies in the Netherlands offer a digital television service. They all use the DVB-C standard for their digital signal but use different encryption techniques, most used are Irdeto 2 and

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 ...

. The largest cable company,

Ziggo Ziggo Holding B.V. () is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing digital cable television, Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers. History The company is the result of the merger between ...

, supports the CI+ standard making it possible for their customers to use televisions with an integrated digital tuner without the need for an additional

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 sig ...

. All cable companies offer a number of high-definition channels. The most watched channels are being transmitted in the clear on the Ziggo and Caiway digital cable networks. The three largest cable companies in the Netherlands are: *

Caiway Caiway (or simplified as CAIW) is a cable operator in the Netherlands, providing digital cable television, Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in mainly the Westland, Twente and Schiedam areas. In additio ...

DELTA Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

Satellite

Digital satellite television in the Netherlands is available via

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 ...

, using the

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

' Astra satellites at 19.2° east and 23.5° east. Services from both satellite positions can be received using a single dish with a

Duo LNB A Duo LNB is a double low-noise block downconverter (LNB) developed by SES for the simultaneous reception of satellite television signals from both the Astra 23.5°E and Astra 19.2°E satellite positions. It is a monoblock LNB, which comprises ...

, specifically designed for this purpose. It is only possible to register as a customer of CanalDigitaal using a Dutch postal address, due to

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

restrictions. A standard DVB-S receiver is used, which can also receive other

broadcasts. CanalDigitaal uses the

Mediaguard MediaGuard is a conditional access system for digital television developed by SECA (Société Européenne de Contrôle d'Accès; renamed to Canal+ Technologies SA) (CEO François Carayol), a subsidiary of Canal+ Group, sold to Thomson (CEO Thierry ...

encryption. In 2017 a second provider of digital satellite television began its services named Joyne, using the Eutelsat's

Eurobird Eurobird was a series of satellites owned and operated by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees ...

satellites at 9° east. Joyne uses the

Conax Conax develops television encryption, conditional access and content security for digital television. Conax provide CAS technology to pay TV operators in 85 countries. The company has offices in Norway (headquarters), Russia, Germany, Brazil, t ...

encryption.

IPTV

Since May 1, 2006

offers Mine TV, an

service based on their

DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

service, with the ability to receive

Video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

and replay a missed TV episodes besides regular TV programming. During 2007, the KPN service was renamed KPN Interactieve TV.

Tele2 Tele2 AB is a Swedish telecommunications operator headquartered in the Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It is a major telephone operator in Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Tele2 also has a 25% share in T-Mobile Netherland ...

also offers an

service called Tele2Vision. Since mid-2008 XMSNET also has started the rollout of IPTV over their

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 ...

(Fiber To The Home) network in several cities in the Netherlands.

High definition

In the Netherlands customers can receive

high-definition television 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 ...

channels by cable or satellite and DVB-T2.

History

The first trials with high-definition television in the Netherlands began in the summer of 2006 with the broadcast of the 2006 World Cup in HD. The games where broadcast by the

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 ...

(NPO) broadcaster NOS on a temporary

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...

HD version of the

channel. Only the live games where broadcast in HD, images from the studio and interviews were still SD. The NPO 2 HD channel went off-air after the World Cup. The larger cable companies continued a HD service with a small number of general interest channels like

Discovery HD Discovery HD is the international name of the high-definition television channels owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The international Discovery HD (later Discovery HD World in Asia-Pacific markets, n ...

and National Geographic Channel HD. But because no Dutch network had made the move to HD, already broadcast in

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

and the quality of the

standard-definition 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 ...

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 ...

signal was good enough for most people, demand was low. Since the 2006 trials none of the main Dutch networks made the move to HD until the summer of 2008 when from June 1 until August 24, 2008 the NPO made their primary channel,

temporary available in HD. This made it possible to broadcast

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

, the

2008 Tour de France The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th running of the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regu ...

, and the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in HD and additionally allowed them to test their systems before the scheduled launch of their permanent HD service. Technicolor Netherlands, the company responsible for the technical realisation of the broadcasts for all the NPOs television and radio channels, began the summer 2008 test broadcast of NPO 1 HD in

and by doing so following the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) recommendations for HD broadcasting. During the test period an additional

1080i 1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...

version of the channel was made available to the cable companies because of quality complaints from viewers. On July 4, 2009 the NPO started their permanent HD service when all three channels,

, and

, began

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

ing in

high-definition. Most programming in the early stages is upscaled as in time more programs will become available in native HD. On October 15, 2009

RTL Nederland RTL Nederland is a Dutch media network, a subsidiary of the RTL Group. The media company is located in Hilversum, although the licences of its TV stations are issued in Luxembourg. History The history of the network dates back to 1989 when dut ...

started simulcasting their

RTL 7 RTL 7 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched as ''Veronica'' on 1 September 1995. RTL 7 is RTL Nederland's "men's channel" with action films, reality television about crime and professions, soccer, motorsport and talk sho ...

and

RTL 8 RTL 8 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched on 18 August 2007 replacing Tien, previously known as Talpa. RTL 8's main target audience consists of women. It broadcasts soap operas, talk shows, films and reruns of progra ...

channels in

high-definition. RTL Nederland then also announced plans for HD versions of their two other channels,

and

RTL 5 RTL 5 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched on 2 October 1993. It mainly broadcasts American films and hit series but also reality shows, comedy, travel, international shows and local productions including '' Expeditie Rob ...

, for 2010. Also these are available in HD since then.

Current

The Netherlands has ten main television channels, three public and seven commercial. All main television channels are

ed in high-definition. Furthermore other general interest high-definition channels are available with Dutch audio or subtitles. Main Dutch channels that broadcast in HD: *

(started 4 July 2009) *

(started 2010) *

(started 15 October 2009) *

RTL Z RTL Z is a Dutch free-to-cable business and financial news television channel. It displays economic changes and the stock exchange news in a banner at the bottom of the screen in the daytime. In the evenings the programming consists of documenta ...

(started 7 September 2015) *

(started 2010) * Veronica (started 2010) *

NET 5 Net5 is a Dutch free-to-cable commercial TV channel and is part of Talpa TV, formerly a part of SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are SBS6, Veronica, and SBS9. It is aime ...

(started 2010) * SBS 9 (started 2014) *

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

(started 2013) Other HD channels available in the Nederlands: * 24Kitchen HD * Al Jazeera English HD *

Animal Planet HD 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 dev ...

* BBC First HD * BBC World News HD * Boomerang HD * Cartoon Network HD * CNN HD * Comedy Central HD * DanceTelevision HD *

* Discovery Science HD * Disney Channel HD * Disney Junior HD * Disney XD HD * E! Entertainment HD * Euronews HD * Eurosport 1 HD * Eurosport 2 HD * Family 7 HD * Fashion TV HD * Film1 Premiere HD * Film1 Action HD * Film1 Comedy & KidsFamily HD * Film1 Drama HD * Fox Sports 1/2/3 HD * Fox Sports 4/5/6 HD * History HD * Horse & Country TV HD * Investigation Discovery HD * Love Nature HD * MTV HD *

MTV Live HD MTV Live (formerly MTVNHD and MTV Live HD) is an international 24-hour high-definition live music pay television network that is operated by Paramount International Networks' subsidiary Paramount Networks EMEAA. The channel is currently avail ...

* myZen.tv HD * National Geographic HD * National Geographic Wild HD *

Nickelodeon HD 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. Its ...

* OutTV HD * RTL Crime HD * RTL Lounge HD * RTL Telekids HD * ShortsTV HD * Spike HD * Stingray Classica HD * Stingray Djazz HD * Stingray iConcerts HD * TLC HD * TV 538 HD * Viceland HD * Xite HD * Ziggo Sport HD * Ziggo Sport Select HD * Ziggo Sport Voetbal HD * Ziggo Sport Racing HD * Ziggo Sport Golf HD * Ziggo Sport Docu HD * Ziggo Sport Extra HD Also available on most platforms: * BBC One HD *

BBC Two HD BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

* VRT één HD * VRT Canvas HD * Ketnet HD * Das Erste HD *

ZDF HD 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 fed ...

* Arte HD * TV5 Monde HD Satellite viewers can receive a number of additional HD channels from the surrounding countries when broadcasting

. But most of these channels are not part of HD services offered in the Netherlands nor broadcast programming aimed at the Dutch market.

References

External links

SES fleet information and map
{{Digital television deployments Television in the Netherlands

Science and technology in the Netherlands