The cabinet is planning to restrict commercial radio companies to three FM frequencies, following recommendations from consumer and markets authority ACM.

The decision means that broadcaster Talpa, owner of Radio 10, Radio 538, Sky Radio and Radio Veronica could be faced with losing one of its stations at next year’s auction. Talpa said it is studying the new plans and declined to comment further.

The restrictions were announced in the run up to the auction in 2023 of nine commercial radio frequencies for a 12-year period which will shape the radio landscape for the coming decade.

One of the nine stations must be a news provider while the other must play Dutch language music.

The government had planned to delay the auction for three years to give radio stations enough time to recover from their loss of advertising income during the coronavirus pandemic.

However, they were forced to rethink after one hopeful, Radio Kink, took the issue to court and won.