In her time as boss of SBS 6 – she worked there until 2011 – Tina Nijkamp tried to introduce cuts to expensive clothing stylists. However, it led to resistance from the presenters.
There are an incredible number of celebrities stylists walking around in Hilversum. Tina Nijkamp, the former SBS 6 channel boss who is now known as a viewing figure analyst, has mixed feelings about this. “We have a lot of that in the Netherlands. Why actually? And is a stylist always necessary?” she writes on her opinion channel.
Expensive stylists
According to her, hiring a stylist is ‘not always cheap’. “I noticed that when I had to pay the bills of the stylists at Hart van Nederland and Shownieuws: for example 350 euros a week for stylist A for star A. 550 euros a week for stylist B for star B, etcetera.”
What did they provide for that? “Three to five clothing sets a week for a program where you only see the top of the presenter 90 percent of the time. And those garments were not even allowed to be kept, they were collected by the stylist after that week and returned to the store.”
Cutback
A waste of money, thought Tina. “So to save money we came up with a solution: every presenter buys with a stylist in one day: five blazers, five tops and they mix and match them themselves. And at the end of the TV season they get to keep it. And five sets will be bought again for the new season. Much cheaper and everyone happy.”
What does it save to work this way? “We calculated it and it would save 50 to 60 thousand euros per year.”
Star resistance
The stars of SBS 6, however, resisted. “There was so much resistance from many Hart and Show presenters that we ultimately canceled the plan. But I still think it’s a good plan.”
She concludes: “It remains strange that as a broadcaster you have to pay so much for clothing that you are not even allowed to keep.”