Monday 09 December 2019

12 points? Government gives public broadcasters €12.4m to stage Eurovision

12 points? Government gives public broadcasters €12.4m to stage Eurovision

Culture minister Arie Slob has agreed to give the public broadcasters €12.4m to help stage the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. The money will come from a media reserve which is to be used for special broadcasting projects, Slob told MPs on Wednesday. The cost of staging the song festival in Rotterdam next May is put at €26.5m. The public broadcasters have come up with €4.5m while €9.6m will be generated by ticket sales and a contribution from the European Broadcasting... More >

RTL pulls 'guilty pleasure' programming

RTL pulls 'guilty pleasure' programming

RTL and its streaming service Videoland are pulling all programming in the category ‘guilty pleasure’ following last week’s near sexual assaults in De Villa, the Volkskrant said on Wednesday. That programme, featuring a group of singles in Spain, has already been dropped after it emerged that two players had tried to coerce female contestants into having sex. ‘We have been extremely shocked,’ RTL programme director Peter van der Vorst said in Wednesday’s Volkskrant. The programme is made by production company... More >

PVV, Forum back new tv initiative

PVV, Forum back new tv initiative

The far-right PVV and nationalist Forum voor Democratie have thrown their weight behind a campaign to launch a new television station in the Netherlands to target the ‘unheard’. Ongehoord Nederland (The Netherlands’ unheard) aims to attract 50,000 paying members by the end of the year, which will entitle it to three hours of television time plus radio airtime. The project, launched this week, collected 18,000 sign-ups within a day, the fledgling organisation said. It’s aim, according to the website, is... More >

Emmys for two Dutch documentaries

Emmys for two Dutch documentaries

Two Dutch documentaries have won prizes at this year’s International Emmy Awards, considered to be the most important international television awards there are. Dance or Die, a documentary by NOS television reporter Roozbeh Kaboly about a young Syrian dancer, took the award for best arts programming. The documentary follows 27-year-old Ahmad Joudeh, who, unable to fulfill his dream to dance in his war-torn home country, fled to the Netherlands. The second Dutch winner was Bellingcat – Truth in a Post... More >

RTL switches off reality dating show

RTL switches off reality dating show

Commercial broadcaster RTL has dropped its reality dating soap De Villa after this week’s show included two scenes in which participants ‘crossed the line of sexually acceptable behaviour’. Both scenes took place at night and involved a male participant trying to persuade an unwilling female cast member to have sex. The broadcast led to a large number of comments on social media as well as formal complaints. RTL said after the broadcast that had suspended the show and also withdrawn... More >

Security services unhappy with regulator

Security services unhappy with regulator

The Dutch security services AIVD and MIVD are ‘unhappy’ with their new regulator, set up last year after both agencies were given sweeping powers to tap phone and internet connections, the Volkskrant said on Thursday. Sources told the paper that the two services – one civilian and one military – say the TIB – which checks applications for hacks – is too assertive in its approach and is hampering their work. TIB chairwoman Mariette Moussault told the paper that the... More >

Vopak staff unhappy about monitoring

Vopak staff unhappy about monitoring

Workers at chemical storage company Vopak are concerned about a new electronic pass card that all workers will have to carry from next year, which will monitor everything they do, the Financieele Dagblad said on Wednesday. The card will record where people are, if they are standing up or sitting down and even if they have a work permit, the paper said. ‘We have our real doubts about this,’ Cees den Breejen, of the company works council, told the paper.... More >

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