Last year, Dutch people spent an average of 3 hours and 28 minutes in front of the television screen per day. But they only watched half of this on live television (one hour and 38 minutes). They spent the rest of their TV time on other things, such as streaming services and delayed viewing (31 minutes) via, for example, NPO Start.
This is evident from the annual figures of the viewing service NMO. The NMO does not break down the other screen time, so it is not clear what share of this consists of streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube and Videoland, which are also watched via other screens, such as a telephone, tablet or computer.
Live television has been shrinking for years, but very slowly. The viewing time for live TV last year was two minutes shorter than in 2023. The total TV time, on the other hand, was 21 minutes longer – but that is largely due to the NMO’s new measuring method. The public broadcaster continues to attract the most TV viewers, especially to NPO 1. That channel had a market share of 25 percent in the evening (average 966,000 viewers), followed by RTL4 with 18 percent (715,000) and SBS6 with 13 percent (500,000). . These figures have not shifted significantly compared to 2023.
NPO1 single-handedly fills the entire top 25 of most-watched programs, especially with European Football Championship matches. The most watched program of the year was the semi-final between the Netherlands and England with almost seven million viewers.
Who is the Mole?
Apart from the sport, it was the most popular TV programme Who is the Mole?peaking at 3.7 million viewers. What was striking about that broadcast was the large share of delayed viewing (2 million). Who is the Mole? is followed in the top 25 by the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest (3 million), All of Holland Bakt (2.9 million) and Pieter Derks’ New Year’s Eve conference (2.6 million).
The football viewing figures are also distorting. If the European Championship had not attracted so many viewers to the public broadcaster, the growth of the commercial broadcasters RTL and Talpa compared to the NPO would probably have been greater.