The new NPO boss Jet de Ranitz really wants one thing: an NPO Start button on every remote control. Just like Netflix. She only needs the government for that. What will Rob Jetten do?
Anyone who buys a new television often receives a remote control with a Netflix button. NPO Start does not have that privilege. Only four in ten Dutch people use NPO Start, even though it is free and the public broadcaster on linear television is still the largest in the country.
Must carry
Jet de Ranitz, who recently took office as the new NPO board chairman, knows where the problem lies: findability. And she also knows what the solution is. A button. The problem is that such a button is not free. Netflix pays television producers for that prominent place on the remote control and the NPO cannot do that.
That is why Jet is lobbying for government intervention: a legal obligation that forces manufacturers to also give NPO Start a permanent place. According to her, the proposal is not crazy at all: the NPO already has one must-carrystatus among providers for its linear channels and a digital equivalent is then expected.
What does Jetten do?
But whether Prime Minister Rob Jetten will jump on this enthusiastically is anything but certain. The Hague is actually cutting back on public broadcasting, and arranging a mandatory button on every Samsung and LG in the Netherlands requires political will that is not clearly there at the moment. So for now it remains a wish.
Jet sighs in it A.D: “When you buy a new TV, access to Netflix is pretty much the first thing you see. We cannot afford that. I also want you to automatically find an NPO Start button, but we need the government for that. If people can find it everywhere and easily, we have done our job well.”
ON!
If Jetten implements such a button, the broadcaster he hates will also get ON! a bigger stage. Is that party still part of the public broadcaster? Jet: “Yes, and so does the sound they represent. As long as ON! is there, they belong to our club.”
She concludes: “It is an aspiring broadcaster that makes programs based on a certain belief and that is appreciated. Yes, there is also criticism about that, but it is up to the minister to say something about that. My method is: always keep in touch with them.”