The Evangelische Omroep (EO) will be fined 164,500 euros because the company has violated the Media Act. The broadcaster was guilty of commercial influencing the children’s program The Treehouse Battle† That has the Media Authority announced on Tuesday†
In The Treehouse Battle, which was broadcast on NPO 3 in 2019, children between the ages of nine and fourteen built luxurious tree houses at holiday parks. The province of Drenthe contributed financially to the realization of the program with 302,000 euros, which the EO noted neatly in its annual report. It later turned out that owners of campsites in Drenthe on which the tree houses were built also sponsored the program for an unknown amount. The EO does not mention this in the annual reports. The Commissariaat determined on Tuesday that this can be qualified as “sponsor contributions”, which is prohibited according to the Media Act.
Commercial rental
After the program has ended, the cabins will be rented out for commercial purposes, as a place to stay or as a meeting location. According to the Commissariaat, the TV program offered „a platform […] to draw attention to the rental of these tree houses and [heeft] thus contributed to a (commercial) advantage for third parties”. The investigation was launched in August 2020 following a report by NRC†
Also read: Can a broadcaster increase the rental rate of a few tree houses in Drenthe?
Sponsoring is not allowed in any case, but because it was a children’s program, the Commissariaat was extra strict in its judgment. “Now that the program has been broadcast on the youth channel NPO Zapp, the EO should have paid extra attention to this.”
The EO does not agree with the verdict and a spokesperson called it “out of all proportion” to the ANP news agency. The broadcaster plans to appeal the ruling. A spokesperson for the EO was not immediately available for Tuesday afternoon NRC†