Dutch broadcasting companies can earn a lot of money by putting items from their archives onto websites, Avro sales manager Tom Steenbergen told the Volkskrant on Tuesday.

The government has already cut spending on public broadcasting considerably and further cuts of up to €200m are expected next year.
Public broadcaster Avro is now launching Avro.tv to exploit its archive which includes recordings of great stars such as Abba, Elton John, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.
Back catalogue is also a useful source of revenue, Steenbergen says. For example, new film Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp, includes a clip of The Carpenters from 1974. ‘Warner Bros got it from us and they paid well for its use,’ says Steenbergen.
Cannes
Steenbergen says the other broadcasting companies should do more to exploit their back catalogue. At the recent MIP tv trade fair in Cannes, the Avro was the only Dutch company with a sales team.
‘Since we introduced our new marketing policy, income has doubled compared with 2008,’ he told the Volkskrant.
Avro, Europe’s oldest broadcasting company after Britain’s BBC, will invest the money earned in new programmes.