Peter van der Vorst has been criticized for his performance as content director of, among others, RTL 4. “He has made it very steady, but it is not that you say: gosh, how spectacular!”
RTL 4, the TV flagship of Peter van der Vorst, is not much talked about these days. According to format developer Kirsten Jan van Nieuwenhuijzen, who started his career as one of John de Mol’s first four creatives, it is high time that the country’s largest commercial channel started to surprise a little more.
Not spectacular
Kirsten-Jan thinks it’s disappointing. Although he sees that the viewing figures of RTL 4 are still fine, he fears that a turning point is coming. “RTL is doing well, let’s be honest. But it is not very controversial what RTL does. That’s a point,” he explains in the podcast Content Wars†
Kirsten-Jan thinks the programming is a bit beige. “That you think: are there still programs that you are really going to talk about at RTL? Peter van der Vorst has made it very steady, but it’s not like you say: ‘Gosh, spectacular!’ That’s not the case with RTL, is it?”
‘It is not surprising’
Angela de Jong agrees, she says in the AD Media podcast† “If you really just look at RTL what is happening at the moment… It’s just programmatic… It’s not surprising, it doesn’t really sparkle, it all scores more or less well, but this only has to happen and the viewer is it sat. You can see that at Expedition Robinson.”
Expedition Robinson was always a huge ratings hit, but is currently underperforming. “Apart from what has happened now, I thought The Voice was very much on its last legs last season. There is also very little news on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.”
worn
Peter must guard against decay, according to Angela. “The wear is a bit on it. I mean: we had that a long time ago at the end of the Erland Galjaard era. Then you had all those old titles and they were all still running, but at a certain point, when something better comes on another channel, the viewer is really gone.”
Angela thinks that the RTL 4 viewer is getting bored. “He has already seen Help My Man Is Klusser 384 million times. I received an app from Richard Otto van Communicatie and he said that there is so little investment at the moment because it is all about waiting for the merger. †
blockbuster
Yet Angela thinks that Peter is also to blame for this situation. “It’s also a bit like Peter van der Vorst, of course, he’s always so careful, I always get the idea. Since he’s been there, it’s basically a continuation of the things that are there. Then of course you have the blockbusters that have to fill that channel from 8.30 pm to 10 pm.”
“I think it’s all very careful. You would like someone with vision who dares to go for it to make it a sparkling channel again.”
