Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has made a significant salary increase now that he has switched from the NPO to RTL, and he can use that after a year of sitting on the bench. The big question is: what will he earn?
It is not difficult to exceed the salary ceiling at the NPO – around €200,000 – if you, as RTL boss, negotiate with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Eva Jinek reportedly earned 1.2 million euros per year at RTL over the past four years, and now Matthijs has signed for four years. Will he also collect more than one million euros from the commercial companies?
New horizon
In any case, Matthijs was able to play a number of games against each other, because according to him there was a lot of interest. “I was spoiled in interest. I can’t say otherwise. Yesterday or the day before yesterday it was about Eva Jinek’s Friday of the week. That’s right. I was asked that too,” he reveals in conversation with RTL Boulevard.
He ultimately chose RTL, officially not for the money, but for the new challenge. “What I ultimately wanted is to make programs that I am curious about. I also wanted a brand new horizon after the year behind me. Yes, new. Fresh.”
Five years ago
Matthijs was actually supposed to switch to RTL at the beginning of 2020, then to participate in the late-night carousel; a press photo had even already been taken with Eva Jinek and Beau van Erven Dorens. “I met Peter van der Vorst five years ago, I think… We were almost on the dance floor then. It didn’t make any difference.”
He continues: “I already had a great curiosity about commercial television, or about another horizon, other opportunities. This is how it can go. That ultimately didn’t work out. We were very close to each other then and that was not without reason.”
High salary?
Now Matthijs has actually signed. What will he earn? “As long as I have worked in television, which was in public broadcasting, it has been about money for one reason or another. That is a background music that I have been used to for a long time.”
He continues: “At the public broadcaster I understood something about that, because it is public money and people want to know where it goes, okay, fine. I don’t think I need to tell you that anymore. At least that’s what I was told, that I don’t have to tell, so I don’t tell.”
Advertisement
Does he get the same freedom at RTL as at the NPO? “Good television, if I can do it again, is good television and I don’t have the feeling that I have to go to Peter van der Vorst to see if he approves of everything I decide. I am allowed to work with a certain freedom and we have discussed that freedom. Peter van der Vorst also knows who I am. I feel freedom here, for sure.”
Is he annoyed about the commercial breaks later? “I have to practice that. “We’ll be back shortly after the commercial.” Makes no sense, right? That’s okay.”