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Netherlands' SBS seeking nominal yearly fees to pay for HD broadcasts

by Darren Murph posted Jan 15th 2009 at 8:19AM

No one ever said the spoils of high-definition came free, and no one knows that better than Dutch commercial broadcaster SBS. The outfit is reportedly holding its hand out and covering its face while asking for payments between €2 to €3 per year, per subscriber, from cable operators in order to pay for HD broadcasts. That's according to Eric Eljon, MD of SBS Productions, who hopes to begin high-def simulcasts within a few months should a deal be reached. In The Netherlands today, there is no license fee at all, with the public broadcasting system paid for out of the general budget; additionally, there's currently no way to recoup the massive increase in cost when switching to HD via advertising alone. C'mon, cable carriers / consumers -- just think of the HD starved children.

[Thanks, Wouter]

The Netherlands takes baby steps towards HD

by Steven Kim posted Nov 16th 2008 at 12:45PM

Netherlands flag
We've been awfully hard on Toshiba's super-resolution upscaling pitch, but it looks like the tech may be a good fit for the Netherlands, where HD subscriptions are having a hard time getting off the ground despite an explosion in the number of HDTVs taking up residence in Dutch homes. Estimates put the number of households receiving HD signal at a paltry 85,000 in a country where 1.2 million HD sets are supposed to sell through this year alone. Maybe those people are waiting for the free OTA HD stuff, but based on what's in the pipeline, there's no telling how long it will be before HD pixels become abundant.

Dutch public broadcasters hitting the HD switch in 2009

by Darren Murph posted Nov 15th 2008 at 12:29AM

Now here's a trend we can really get behind. Just weeks after four French national channels decided that the grass was greener (or at least clearer) on the high-def side, a trio of Dutch broadcasters have announced their intentions to follow suit. Beginning in Q2 2009, Nederland 1, 2 and 3 will begin broadcasting in high-definition, and initially 15% of all primetime content will be shot in HD; the rest will "upscaled to HD," which frightens us just a wee bit. We're also told that carriage negotiations are already underway with "all major distributing platforms including cablers UPC and Ziggo," but only time will tell if anyone is willing to sacrifice the bandwidth for the sake of high quality.

Nederland 1 testing 1080i instead of 720p after PQ complaints

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 15th 2008 at 4:22PM

Rekindling the 1080i vs. 720p HD debate, Dutch pubcaster NPO is offering an HD version of Nederland 1 HD in 1080i as opposed to 720p because of complaints about picture quality. Apparently many of the complaints stemmed from the Euro 2008 matches after the native feed was made to do the 1080i/720p switch by technical partner Technicolor, and resulted in many complaints. The 1080i feed is in testing now on several broadcasters, so any of our Dutch readers give it a shot and see if you notice the difference. As ignorant Americans we generally avoid such issues by simply ignoring sports outside our borders, but highlights of Euro 2008 looked pretty good on ESPN HD's 720p feed, so we're leaning more towards equipment or compression problems as being behind the gripes until proven otherwise.

Canal Digitaal gears up to launch its first HD channels in Dutch market

by Darren Murph posted Mar 11th 2008 at 6:03PM


As the European HD changes continue to roll out, along comes news that Canal Digitaal is getting set to launch its first HD channels in the Dutch market. Details are fairly scarce at the moment, but we are hearing that National Geographic HD and Discovery Channel HD will indeed be landing in April, and negotiations are still ongoing to throw Dutch Classic Music Channel BravaHDTV into that mix. Reportedly, the HD tier will cost a stiff €9.95 ($15) per month after the first free month that's provided to all that wish to accept, but here's to hoping that becomes a bargain as more channels are added in.

[Thanks, Richard]

HD VMD Day is January 22, celebrate the one true red contender in the HD war

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 11th 2008 at 8:53AM

Still not sure if HD VMD is a viable or even notable contestant in the next-gen disc wars? Find out more during "Global VMD Day", January 22nd, hosted at NME's first manufacturing line in The Netherlands. For the price of one transcontinental plane ticket (or intra-continental for our European friends) attendees can enjoy a celebration of all things HD VMD, learn about new supporters of the format and experience tech demos. You're an HD enthusiast right? Be a pal and hop the next Concorde to Europe, then let us know if VMD is a contender or pretender.

[Via CNN Money]

Netherlands officially pulls the plug on analog OTA transmissions, goes all digital

by Darren Murph posted Dec 12th 2006 at 5:24PM

Aw yeah, we knew this day was coming (or at least we thought), but it's thrilling to see the big shots keeping their word and actually going through with something in a timely manner. In a move sure to cause backlash and rejoicing alike, the Dutch have officially yanked the plug on OTA analog broadcasts, leaving a host of open frequencies that we're sure will be put to good use. Although just a small percentage of customers actually rely solely on those (now) antiquated signals, those folks who are now forced to search for alternate forms of fetching television can purchase a digital terrestrial tuner for around $66.50. The bandwidth formerly used by analog has been "licensed through 2017 by Royal KPN NV, which will use it to broadcast digital television." The government is suggesting that killing the old broadcasts will "save them around $14 million annually," not to mention the segment of new customers looking for service will hopefully drive competition within the cable / IPTV market there. So for those holding it down in the Netherlands, be sure to pop the champagne while everybody else sits around and waits it out.




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