During the holidays of Johan Derksen and Martien Meiland, SBS 6 has turned into the viewing figure hell of Hilversum. Even RTL 8 scores even better at prime time. Is this a tactic of John de Mol?
No one will have missed it: SBS 6 has had a devastating week in terms of viewing figures. From Stegeman op de Bres (198 thousand viewers) to Farmers Bibles and Beauties (225 thousand) and from Paleis voor een Prikkie (101 thousand) to Deep Grounds (87 thousand viewers): everything fails. Even for reruns in the summer season, these are outlandish scores.
SBS 6 is viewing figure hell
SBS 6 completely filled Friday evening with new product, but that too did not score. I Want Your Song attracted 217 thousand viewers (5 percent market share) and Davina Michelle: Hyper only got 174 thousand viewers (5 percent). A drama that, according to former SBS 6 boss Tina Nijkamp, is partly due to programming errors.
Tina is Hilversum’s ratings prophet and has been tipping SBS 6 all week about schedule changes, but the channel is continuing its flop programming. “Well. Such a shame that I Want Your Song was not set on Saturday 21.30. So it has now really become a flop,” she responds today to Instagram.
Worst week ever
Tina’s viewership knowledge is enormous and she estimates that SBS 6 ends the worst week ever. “Think this was the worst week in the history of SBS 6 at prime time. And extra painful, also EVERY evening at 9.30 pm by the much smaller channel RTL 5 with their ‘old-SBS 6-like’ program 112 Today.”
SBS 6 makes mistake after mistake, again with that Davina concert, says Tina. “SBS 6 strings the flops together. Davina Michelle also suffers from it. It’s weird to cut a concert in half anyway. The second part is next week. So it looks like very filler TV.”
Is this a tactic?
Mark Koster, media journalist and Mol expert, is now wondering whether this viewing figure horror is not a tactic of John de Mol. The watchdog ACM is currently considering the planned takeover of the SBS channels by RTL, including whether the new combination is not becoming too powerful.
Perhaps John SBS 6 is now deliberately weakening, Mark suggests. “Ask for ACM. Do the viewing figures and associated market shares (for SBS grave this summer) influence the merger with RTL? If SBS’s market position on TV continues to shrink, is combi less of a threat?”
Viewing figures
The big winners at prime time were NPO 2’s De Slimste Mens (1.4 million), RTL 4’s B&B Vol Liefde (816 thousand), NPO 2’s Nieuwsuur (698 thousand) and NPO 1’s Muziekfeest op het Plein (553 thousand).
Programs that did not make the top 15 include Silent Witness (490 thousand), Shownieuws (418 thousand), Secret Duets (354 thousand), 112 Today (256 thousand) and Shownieuws Summer Edition (154 thousand).
The viewing figures of Friday 5 August 2022 (SKO):
Top 15 | Market shares (18-24h, 6+) |
|---|---|
| 01. News 20:00 (NPO1) 1,518,000 | 01. NPO1 / 23.9% |
| 02. The Smartest Human (NPO2) 1,436,000 | 02. RTL4 / 18.9% |
| 03. Half past seven news (RTL4) 1.041.000 | 03. NPO2 / 12.9% |
| 04. A house full (NPO1) 888.000 | 04. SBS6/7.1% |
| 05. I know all about it (RTL4) 857,000 | 05. RTL8 / 4.6% |
| 06. News 18:00 (NPO1) 848.000 | 06. RTL5 / 3.6% |
| 07. B&B Full of Love (RTL4) 816.000 | 07. Vero / 2.8% |
| 08. Op1 (NPO1) 798,000 | 08. NPO3 / 2.7% |
| 09. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 740.000 | 09. RTL7 / 2.5% |
| 10. EenVandaag (NPO1) 738.000 | 10. Paramount / 1.5% |
| 11. News Hour (NPO2) 698,000 | 11. NET5 / 1.5% |
| 12. Edition NL (RTL4) 627,000 | 12. TLC / 1.3% |
| 13. Music Party on the Square (NPO1) 553,000 | 13. RTLZ / 1.1% |
| 14. Eredivisie on Friday (NPO1) 520.000 | 14. N.geog / 0.9% |
| 15. Heart of the Netherlands (SBS6) 513,000 | 15.ESPN2/0.8% |
Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+) | More viewing figures at: |
| 01. Public Broadcasting 39.5% |  |
| 02. RTL Netherlands 30.9% | |
| 03. Talpa TV 11.8% |
