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Digital television in the Netherlands

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TheNetherlandsnow has three major forms of broadcastdigital television.Terrestrial (DVB-T), Cable (DVB-C), and Satellite (DVB-S). In additionIPTVservices are available. At the end of the first quarter of 2013 almost 84% of the households in the Netherlands had some form of digital television.[1]

Terrestrial[edit]

After tests held in 2002, digital terrestrial television in theNetherlandswas launched on April 23, 2003 byDigitenne,the main Dutch digital television platform owned byKPN.TheNetherlandswas the second European country to complete themove to digital terrestrial broadcastingon December 11, 2006. The switch-off was helped greatly by the fact that about 90% of the households have cable that continues to use analog distribution. Due to the very extensive penetration of cable systems, usage of terrestrial television in theNetherlandsis largely confined to remote rural areas and for portable televisions in caravans, etc.

Since then all terrestrial television broadcast in the Netherlands are digital. The national public television channelsNPO 1,NPO 2,NPO 3and the regional public television channels arefree-to-air.

DVB-T2transmissions in the Netherlands are provided commercially byKPNdaughter companyDigitenne.They offer 25 TV channels and 16 radio channels, including the free-to-air channels. The Digitenne service uses Conax encryption.

Handheld[edit]

KPNlaunched aDVB-HserviceMobileTVon Thursday, June 5, 2008 with a bouquet of ten channels. The ten channels areNPO 1,NPO 3,RTL 4,RTL 24,SBS 6,Disney XD (Netherlands)/Veronica,MTV,Discovery Channel,XiteandNick Toons.RTL24 is a made-for-mobile channel with news and current affair. Xite is a new Dutch music channel.[2]In November 2008, a new dedicated mobile TV channel was added. Nu.tv from Ilse Media and the nu.nl news web site. The service was closed on June 1, 2011,KPNis now using the freed up capacity for adding new channels to its Digitenne DTT platform.

Cable[edit]

Over 90% of the households in the Netherlands receive their television signal bycable,making it one of the highest cable penetrated countries. Some cable viewers still watch analogue because noset-top boxis necessary. But with the uptake ofLCDandplasmatelevisions customers are looking for better picture quality in digital cable. In addition digital cable offers hundreds of channels compared to the about thirty channels analogue cable offers.

All the major cable companies in the Netherlands offer a digital television service. They all use theDVB-Cstandard for their digital signal but use different encryption techniques, most used are Irdeto 2 andNagravision.The largest cable company,Ziggo,supports theCI+standard making it possible for their customers to use televisions with anintegrated digital tunerwithout the need for an additionalset-top-box.All cable companies offer a number ofhigh-definitionchannels. The most watched channels are being transmitted in theclearon the Ziggo and Caiway digital cable networks.

The three largest cable companies in the Netherlands are:

Satellite[edit]

Digital satellite television in the Netherlands is available viaCanalDigitaal,using theSES'Astrasatellites at19.2° eastand23.5° east.Services from both satellite positions can be received using a single dish with aDuo LNB,specifically designed for this purpose.

It is only possible to register as a customer of CanalDigitaal using a Dutch postal address, due tocopyrightrestrictions. A standardDVB-Sreceiver is used, which can also receive otherfree-to-airbroadcasts. CanalDigitaal uses theMediaguard/Nagravisionencryption.

A second provider of digital satellite television namedJoynebegan its services in 2017,[3]but went bankrupt in 2021. Joyne usedEutelsat'sEurobirdsatellites at 9° east.

IPTV[edit]

Since May 1, 2006KPNoffers Mine TV, anIPTVservice based on theirDSLservice, with the ability to receiveVideo on demandand replay a missed TV episodes besides regular TV programming. During 2007, the KPN service was renamed KPN Interactieve TV.

Tele2also offers anIPTVservice called Tele2Vision. Since mid-2008 XMSNET also has started the rollout of IPTV over theirFTTH(Fiber To The Home) network in several cities in the Netherlands.

High definition[edit]

In the Netherlands customers can receivehigh-definition televisionchannels by cable or satellite and DVB-T2.

History[edit]

The first trials with high-definition television in the Netherlands began in the summer of 2006 with the broadcast of the2006 World Cupin HD. The games where broadcast by theNetherlands Public Broadcasting(NPO) broadcasterNOSon a temporary720pHD version of theNPO 2channel. Only the live games where broadcast in HD, images from the studio and interviews were still SD. The NPO 2 HD channel went off-air after the World Cup. The larger cable companies continued a HD service with a small number of general interest channels likeDiscovery HDandNational Geographic Channel HD.But because no Dutch network had made the move to HD, already broadcast inwidescreenand the quality of thestandard-definitionPALsignal was good enough for most people, demand was low.

Since the 2006 trials none of the main Dutch networks made the move to HD until the summer of 2008 when from June 1 until August 24, 2008 theNPOmade their primary channel,NPO 1temporary available in HD. This made it possible to broadcastEuro 2008,the2008 Tour de France,and the2008 Summer Olympicsin HD and additionally allowed them to test their systems before the scheduled launch of their permanent HD service. Technicolor Netherlands, the company responsible for the technical realisation of the broadcasts for all the NPOs television and radio channels, began the summer 2008 test broadcast of NPO 1 HD in720pand by doing so following theEuropean Broadcasting Union(EBU) recommendations for HD broadcasting. During the test period an additional1080iversion of the channel was made available to the cable companies because of quality complaints from viewers.

On July 4, 2009 the NPO started their permanent HD service when all three channels,NPO 1,NPO 2,andNPO 3,begansimulcastingin1080ihigh-definition.[4]Most programming in the early stages is upscaled as in time more programs will become available in native HD.

On October 15, 2009RTL Nederlandstarted simulcasting theirRTL 7andRTL 8channels in1080ihigh-definition. RTL Nederland then also announced plans for HD versions of their two other channels,RTL 4andRTL 5,for 2010. Also these are available in HD since then.

Current[edit]

The Netherlands has ten main television channels, three public and seven commercial. All main television channels aresimulcastedin high-definition. Furthermore other general interest high-definition channels are available with Dutch audio or subtitles.

Main Dutch channels that broadcast in HD:

Other HD channels available in the Nederlands:

Also available on most platforms:

Satellite viewers can receive a number of additional HD channels from the surrounding countries when broadcastingfree-to-air.But most of these channels are not part of HD services offered in the Netherlands nor broadcast programming aimed at the Dutch market.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Dutch digital TV reaches 84%".4 June 2013.
  2. ^Robert Briel (2008-05-29)."Ten channels for Dutch mobile TV service".Broadband TV News.Retrieved2008-05-29.
  3. ^Jarco Kriek (9 December 2011)."Canal Digitaal en Joyne strijden om abonnee in krimpende satellietmarkt"(in Dutch). TotaalTV.
  4. ^JK (2009-06-16)."Nederlandse Publieke Omroep dicht bij start HDTV".TotaalTV(in Dutch).SBS Broadcasting.Retrieved2009-06-03.

External links[edit]

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