News item | 07-07-2023 | 11:10
DPG Media, Business News Radio, Financial News Radio, Mediahuis and Talpa Radio have won licenses to broadcast from 1 September 2023 to 2035 with national commercial radio stations. Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) has announced the results of the Dutch national radio auction. Through the auction, which started on July 4, the national government made nine national packages available, each of which consisted of one FM license and one DAB license. The auction that ended today raised a total of € 152.8 million.
Of these nine national packages, one is specifically intended for a commercial news channel (Business News Radio) and one for a channel that mainly plays Dutch music (Mediahuis). These two so-called clauses are sufficient for a sufficiently varied offer via the national packages. New channels such as DAB+, internet radio and streaming services meanwhile provide a varied range to have a broad Dutch media landscape in terms of music genre or theme. The rest of the packages are therefore unconditional: radio stations are free to determine what they broadcast on these frequencies.
A legal entity could obtain a maximum of three packages for a period of twelve years at this auction. During that period there is a link in the packages between analogue (FM) and digital (DAB+) radio. Any mandatory phasing out of analogue radio (FM) will therefore only take place after 2035. This offers certainty to parties who have now won one or more packages.
Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK): “With this successful auction we have ensured that there is and remains a sufficiently varied radio supply for the Dutch. That was necessary, because the last major distribution was in 2003. Since then, the market has been locked. In addition, the way we listen to music, entertainment or news has changed dramatically with the advent of digital radio, streaming services, podcasts and social media. By auctioning, we now have a future-proof and competitive radio market again. Parties have now been able to change licenses and there is also a newcomer.”
New distribution of national commercial radio licenses (2023-2035)
The parties will later announce under which channel names they will broadcast from 1 September via the nine packages.
1) Talpa Radio, 101 FM and DAB+ (was: SkyRadio)
2) Talpa Radio, including 103.0/103.2 FM and DAB+ (was: Radio Veronica)
3) DPG Media, 100.4 FM, 100.7 FM and DAB+ (was: Qmusic)
4) Business News Radioincluding 91.3/100.1 FM and DAB+ (was: BNR)
5) Mediahuis, including 91.1/95.2 FM and DAB+ (was: SLAM!)
6) Talpa Radio, 102 FM and DAB+ (was: Radio 538)
7) DPG Media, including 103.8/104.1 FM and DAB+ (was: Radio 10)
8) Financial News Radioincluding 90.5/90.7 FM and DAB+ (was: Sublime)
9) Mediahuis, including 104.4/104.6 FM and DAB+ (was: 100% NL)
Wide range, opportunities for newcomers
The licenses for national commercial radio stations were last issued in 2003. These ran until September 1, 2011. Instead of a new distribution, a majority of the House of Representatives has called on the cabinet since 2011 to temporarily extend the licenses of the existing radio stations.
Rulings in 2022 from the court and on appeal from the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) have determined that the most recent extension (2021) was not acceptable. Both judgments state that FM licenses are scarce, have a limited term and, moreover, had already been extended several times. That is why they had to be redistributed to give newcomers a chance as well. A newcomer who has now managed to obtain a permit is Financial News Radio.