News item | 11-28-2022 | 4:00 pm
Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) will start the consultation for the auction of the nine licenses for national commercial radio stations. The cabinet will auction these licenses in 2023, whereby analogue radio (FM) is linked to digital radio (DAB+). Two of these nine national licenses are intended for a commercial news channel and for a channel that mainly plays Dutch-language music. A legal entity can acquire a maximum of three through the auction. The permits are for 12 years (2023-2035).
Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK): “After a number of extensions requested by the House of Representatives, it is good to be able to auction the licenses for national commercial radio stations again. How, where and when people listen to music, entertainment or news has changed radically in the past twenty years due to the rise of streaming services, podcasts, social media and digital radio, for example. By auctioning now, the radio market will again provide a lot of listening pleasure for everyone in the coming years and we will also offer newcomers a chance to obtain a licence.”
Fewer obligations in permits
The current nine national commercial channels are 100% NL, BNR, Qmusic, Radio 10, Radio 538, Radio Veronica, Sky Radio, Slam! and Sublime. In the previous distribution of licenses in 2003, five of the nine licenses had specific requirements (clauses) attached to music genre or theme. The minister now proposes, in agreement with State Secretary Gunay Uslu (OCW), to reduce this to two specific licenses at the upcoming auction in 2023: one for Dutch-language music and one for news & current affairs. That is sufficient, because new channels such as DAB+, internet radio and streaming services now provide a varied range for a broad Dutch media landscape.
A commercial radio station with Dutch-language music has a cultural value for society and promotes the production and distribution of home-grown music. In addition to providing public news – via the NPO – a commercial channel with news and current affairs contributes to development, opinion formation and representation of society. Producing news (programs) entails high costs, which means that it is plausible that no commercial news channel will be established without clauses.
The consultation on the draft scheme will run for six weeks from 29 November 2022.