The VRT (), is the national
public-service broadcaster for the
Flemish Community
The Flemish Community ( nl, Vlaamse Gemeenschap ; french: Communauté flamande ; german: Flämische Gemeinschaft ) is one of the three institutional communities of Belgium, established by the Belgian constitution and having legal responsibilitie ...
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 ...
.
History
VRT is the successor to a succession of organisations. The Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting was known as the Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep (NIR) in
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; ...
and the L'
Institut National de Radiodiffusion
The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...
(INR) in French, was founded in 1930 and existed until 1960. This became the Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (BRT) in 1960 and the Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep Nederlandstalige Uitzendingen (BRTN) from 1991 to 1998.
The NIR/INR and BRT (Radio-Télévision Belge, or RTB, in French) had each been single state-owned entities with separate
Dutch- and
French-language production departments. They were housed in
Le Flagey
The Flagey Building (french: Bâtiment Flagey, nl, Flageygebouw) also known as Radio House (french: Maison de la Radio, nl, Radiohuis) is a building located in Ixelles, a municipality of Brussels, Belgium, housing the Flagey cultural centre. ...
, formerly known as the Maison de la Radio, from when the new building was completed in 1938 until 1974, when the building became too small. However, in 1977, as part of the ongoing
state reform in Belgium broadcasting became reserved to the language communities rather than the national government in 1977. Accordingly, BRT/RTB went their separate ways in 1977. While the former French half changed its name to
RTBF in 1977, the Dutch side retained the BRT name until becoming BRTN in 1991. However, the two broadcasters share production facilities on Auguste Reyerslaan (French: Boulevard Auguste Reyers) in
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 ...
.
The final renaming to VRT, on 1 January 1998, followed a change in the organization's legal status: from being part of a semi-governmental entity (a ''parastatale'' in Belgian terminology) it had, on 16 April 1997, became a publicly owned corporation (''NV van publiek recht'') in its own right.
As successors to the NIR/INR, VRT and its counterpart 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: Fédà ...
, RTBF, share the Belgian membership in 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) – an association of public broadcasters in the countries of Europe and the Mediterranean rim that, amongst other activities, organises the annual
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
. Much like RTBF, it is also one of the 23 founding members.
With the ending of its television monopoly – marked by the creation of
VTM, a commercial television company that initially captured more than half of VRT's audience – the public broadcaster has been compelled to fight back, and part of its successful response has been the use of external production houses such as
Woestijnvis
Woestijnvis (literally: ''Desert Fish'') is an independent Flemish television production company based in Vilvoorde.
History
The name of the company refers to a famous mistake of a quiz-candidate in the Flemish version of Wheel of Fortune: the re ...
, the creator of such formats as
The Mole (''De mol'') and ''Man Bites Dog'' (''
Man bijt hond
''Man bijt hond'' (Dutch: ''Man bites dog'') is a long-running Flemish TV programme. The show aired in Flanders and the Netherlands, with separate versions for each country. The Flemish version aired from 1997 to 2013, whilst the Netherlands versi ...
'').
Television channels
Television channels are transmitted on:
* Cable: analog and digital on all Belgian and Dutch cable providers;
*
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, ...
to all major Belgian DSL providers (
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. ...
,
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
,
Scarlet);
*
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 radioisotope ...
with paid
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 ...
subscription (encrypted
DVB-S2 using
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 ...
network).
*
Terrestrial
Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth.
Terrestrial may also refer to:
* Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...
with paid
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 ...
subscription (encrypted
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 ...
using
Norkring
Norkring AS is a provider of digital terrestrial television and radio transmitting in Norway and Belgium. In Norway, Norkring operates a Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) network for Norges Televisjon, as well as an FM and Digi ...
network) in Flanders and paid
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 ...
subscription (encrypted DVB-T2) in the Netherlands. Free to air
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 ...
broadcast by VRT was discontinued on 1 December 2018.
Current channels
*
Eén
Eén (stylized as één; en, "one") is a public Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the VRT, which also owns Ketnet, Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsorship messages are broadc ...
(
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
for: ''
one''), the main channel, formerly known as VRT TV1. Started in 1953 on VHF channel 10. In
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 ...
colour since 1971. In 1977 the transmission standard changed from Belgian 625 to European
CCIR) standard.
*
Canvas, the quality TV channel. Started in 1997.
*
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 ...
, the children's channel. Formerly took up Canvas's channel from 6am to 8pm.
*
Sporza
Sporza is a multimedia brand of Belgian public-service radio and 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 ...
, the sports channel. Sport programs (like cycling, football, tennis...) are aired under the Sporza name but on the channels of
Eén
Eén (stylized as één; en, "one") is a public Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the VRT, which also owns Ketnet, Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsorship messages are broadc ...
,
Canvas or Ketnet. During big sport events (like the Olympics) it is not uncommon for two or more channels to simultaneously air Sporza.
Former channels
* BRTN TV2 was launched on 26 April 1977 as BRT TV2. BRT(N) TV2 broadcast ''Terzake'' and ''Het Journaal 8 uur'' until Sunday, 30 November 1997, when TV2 ceased transmission. On Monday 1 December 1997, BRTN TV2 was split into two channels: BRTN Ketnet and BRTN Canvas. The two channels were part of BRTN until 1998 – Canvas and Ketnet are still broadcasting as part of VRT2.
*
OP12
OP12 (English: On 12) was the third channel of Belgium's VRT that featured evening broadcasts. The channel was launched on May 14, 2012 and closed on December 31, 2014. The channel's name was derived from the digital channel number that the s ...
(
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
for: ''on twelve'') was a channel used as backup in the event of primetime shortage. Mostly used for excess sport- and culture programs. It was discontinued in 2014.
*
BVN
BVN (''Het beste van NPO'', "The best of NPO"), is a Dutch free-to-air television channel providing Dutch public-service television to viewers around the world.
It is a service of the public broadcasting company of the Netherlands, Nederlands ...
was a joint
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
-Flemish TV station for international audiences; some VRT programmes aired as part of BVN's schedule. VRT left the BVN venture in July 2021; the channel is currently owned exclusively by the Dutch public broadcaster
NPO and airs an exclusively Dutch schedule.
Radio channels
The VRT broadcasts radio channels in both analog format (
FM) and digital format (using
DAB+). All channels are also broadcast live over the Internet at radioplus.be.
International broadcasting
International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was ...
was done via VRT's
Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (RVi).
Regular channels
*
Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to:
*BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC
** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music
*CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...
– info channel
*
Radio 2 – Flemish channel
*
Klara – classical channel
*
StuBru – young and alternative channel
*
MNM – hit channel
Digital and streaming-only channels
*
Klara continuo – uninterrupted classical music
*
MNM Hits
MNM Hits is one of the radio stations of the VRT that can be heard via digital radio and the internet.
It airs the greatest hits from the past and present, without advertising or presenters. Every hour there is the news from the mother station ...
– uninterrupted popular music
*
Nieuws+ – latest news programme continuously repeated
Streaming-only channels
* Radio 1 Classics – uninterrupted classics songs
* Radio 1 De Lage Landen Lijst
* Radio 2 Bene Bene – uninterrupted music from Flemish artists
* Radio 2 Unwind
* Ketnet Hits – uninterrupted kids music
* MNM Hits – the music you love
* MNM R&Beats – uninterrupted urban music
* MNM 90's & 00's – uninterrupted popular music from the nineties and nillies
* StuBru De Tijdloze – uninterrupted alternative classics
* StuBru Hooray – uninterrupted hiphop music
* StuBru Bruut – uninterrupted heavy music
* StuBru UNTZ
* StuBru #ikluisterbelgisch
TMC
They also have a
Traffic message channel (TMC) service transmitted on Radio 2.
Logo history
File:NIR INR.gif, NIR logo (1953–1960)
File:BRTN logo 1960.png, VRT's third and older logo used from 1967 to 1979.
File:BRT old logo.png, BRT logo (1979–1990)
File:BRTN logo.jpg, BRTN logo (1991–1998)
File:VRT logo.jpg, VRT logo (1998–2002)
File:VRT logo (2002-2017).svg, VRT's sixth logo used from 7 January 2002 to 21 June 2017.
File:VRT logo.svg, VRT's seventh and previous logo from 22 June 2017 to July 2021.
File:VRT 2017 bright green and black VRT text.svg, VRT's eighth logo from July 2021 to 29th August 2022.
File:VRT 2022.svg, VRT's ninth and current logo as of 29th August 2022.
See also
*
List of radio stations in Belgium
*
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 ...
*
Bert De Graeve
Bert, baron De Graeve (born 1955, Avelgem) is a Belgian businessman and since 20 May 2006 chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Bekaert, where he succeeded baron Julien De Wilde. In 2014 he became chairman of the board.
Education
Bert D ...
, former CEO
*
Tony Mary, former CEO
References
External links
*
VRT NWSnews site of VRT
16 April 2008 'Belgian pubcaster to launch HD Channel'via Broadband TV News
{{Authority control
Television networks in Belgium
Dutch-language television networks
Publicly funded broadcasters
European Broadcasting Union members
Radio stations established in 1930
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1930 establishments in Belgium
State media
Flemish mass media