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Television in Belgium wasintroduced in 1953 and began with one channel each in Dutch and French. The country is heavilycabled, with 93% of households watching television through cable as of 2003.[1]
The threeBelgian Communities – Dutch, French and German-speaking – have legal responsibility for audiovisual communication. They constitute separate markets, the common feature of which is the fact that they have been extensively cabled for three decades and are thus able to receive neighbouring countries' channels.
From 1930 broadcasting in Belgium was in the hands of NIR (Nationaal Institut voor Radio-omroep) / INR (Institut national de radiodiffusion). The organisation had separate services on TV and Radio in Flemish and French. In 1960 this organisation was split up into two organisation responsible to the Flemish and Walloon communities for public radio and television services. BRT[2] (Belgische Radio en Televisie), now VRT (Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie), for the Flemish community and 1978, RTB[3] (Radiodiffusion-télévision belge), now RTBF, for the Walloon (Francophone) community. There were also radio programmes for German-speaking Belgians who since 1965 have a separate organisation now known as BRF.[4][circular reference] VRT and RTBF share broadcasting facilities in Brussels, while BRF operates from Eupen. VRT broadcasts in Flanders and RTBF in Wallonia. Both RTBF and VRT broadcast in Brussels Capital Region.
There are no national TV channels in Belgium. Because of the language divide, there are only channels either in Dutch or French, there is no single company operating TV channels in both the Flemish and the French part. Media laws are created and controlled on a regional level (Flemish or French). Thus the Flemish channels are controlled by Flemish law and the French-speaking ones are controlled by the French community. The public broadcasters still share a building in Brussels, a leftover from the time when the Public Television was still a national (Belgian) competence, however, they have split operations altogether with French language broadcaster RTBF occupying the right half of the building and Flemish broadcaster VRT occupying the left half of the building. They are both governed by different law and a different parliament an example of this is the fact that the French languages public broadcaster RTBF is allowed to sell advertising on television and have actual ad breaks, while the Flemish public broadcaster can only sell product placement and sponsor billboards on television. On their radio channels both are allowed to sell full ad breaks. Both public broadcasters also work in a completely different competitive environment.[citation needed]
The two main Belgian public TV networks,VRT in theFlemish Community andRTBF in theFrench Community of Belgium, broadcast their channels via operators using cable, satellite, IPTV and digital terrestrial television (DVB-T2). In the French community of Belgium the channels ofRTBF can be received by DVB-T2 free of charge. The privately owned channels of the French community are not available on digital terrestrial television. In the Flemish part of Belgium all channels of the public tv (VRT) and the most important privately owned channels are available on all platforms (including DVB-T2), however the public TV is not available free of charge through DVB-T2 but part of a subscription service that includes the most important privately owned channels as well. This subscription is offered byTV Vlaanderen which also offers satellite tv subscriptions.
In the Flemish part there are three main broadcast groups:
These three broadcast groups combined generate about 80% of the total market share daily withVRT being the biggest with a market share of just above 36% (all channels combined),DPG Media taking about 31% (all channels combined) and SBS Belgium taking about 12% (all channels combined).
The channelséén andvtm are the main players in terms of daily newscasts and local content with primetime being filled for 90% with local productions or local versions of international formats. Vier(4) also has started programming mainly local productions in the primetime slot. All other channels air a majority of international (mostly US made) productions in original language (English) with subtitles. The only exception is children's programming which is dubbed in Dutch.
Apart from these main groups there are dozens of other local or localised versions of other channels. e.g.MTV,Nickelodeon,National Geographic, andDiscovery Channel.
In the French part there are 3 main broadcast groups:
RTL Group attracts about 25% of market share daily (all channels combined) and RTBF also has about 25% average daily market share (all channels combined). The channels La Une and RTL-TVI are the main channels with local newscasts and the most local programming. Local programming however is relatively limited in the French part. Primetime is often filled with international shows dubbed in French or French tv shows. Up to 70% of the French-speaking Belgians turn on a domestic channel on average every night, up from 55% a few years ago. The success of French channelTF1 makes this a more fragmented market with TF1 sometimes having up to 15% market share in the French part of Belgium. TF1 even has localised ad breaks. Local Belgian channels find it sometimes difficult to compete with French TV which has vastly larger production budgets due to the market size difference (France having an addressable audience 15 times the size of the French part of Belgium) but in the past years the local channels have been investing in local qualitative drama and entertainment which has increased market share and viewership.
Apart from the channels listed above, most cable, satellite and IPTV platforms in Belgium distribute television stations from other European countries including the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Most people are able to receiveNPO 1,NPO 2, andNPO 3 fromNetherlands Public Broadcasting as well asDas Erste andZDF,BBC One,BBC Two,BBC News,BBC First,TF1,France 2,France 3,France 4,France 5 andRai 1.
InBelgium, over 95% of all households havecable television (analog andDVB-C).
Telenet, the main cable network operator inFlanders, the northern region ofBelgium, has around 25 analogue TV channels which are also available digitally on aDVB-CMultimedia Home Platform TV service. In total about 80 TV channels are available digitally. This includes some TV channels that were already available in analogue and digital form:Prime (in Dutch) orBeTV (in French) arepay-TV operators broadcasting severalSDTV channels over oneDVB-C multiplex. Telenet is however pushing for their DVB-C channels as interactive Digital TV, using their cable network for uplink purposes.
Current cable customers do not need to pay an extra subscription for about 35 digital channels, but they must purchase aset-top box in order to view these digital channels and use the interactive services.
Telenet, the main cable operator in Flanders, also offers Dutch-language or Dutch-subtitled versions ofNick Jr.,Boomerang,Cartoon Network,Eurosport,National Geographic Channel,E!,History,Animal Planet andDiscovery Channel.
HDTV was expected from summer 2006, to coincide with the2006 FIFA World Cup, but has not materialized. Despite Telenet, confirmed as part of its launch announcement of "Telenet Digital TV" on 16 June 2005 that it would sell HDTV set-top-boxes as of June 2006, HDTV capable set-top boxes for Telenet interactive digital TV were only available in December 2007. In 2009 Telenet already offered 15 HD channels on its digital network.
From July 2005 Integan, a cable network operator in the outskirts of the city of Antwerp, is offering HDTV. Integan was fully integrated in the Telenet cable network from 2009 onwards.
The main cable network operators in theBrussels Region are VOO andTelenet (after the acquisition of the Belgian operations and networks ofNuméricable in 2017).
VOO is the main cable network operator inWallonia, the southern part of Belgium. Some regions are still covered by independent operators or byTelenet (see above).
Since 1 December 2018, onlyRTBF broadcasts its channelsfree-to-air on the terrestrialDVB-T network within theFrench Community of Belgium.
Analogue terrestrial broadcasts using thePAL standard were phased out in favor of digital terrestrial services in 2008 (Flemish side; switched off on 1 December 2018) and 2010 (French-speaking side), for which an overwhelming majority of clients required rental of proprietary decoders.
VRT can be received all overFlanders andBrussels.
Analogue terrestrial TV transmission ofVRT Eén andVRT Ketnet/Canvas ended on 3 November 2008. The VRT multiplex transmission from Egem moved from channel 40 (626 MHz) to channel 22 (482 MHz); that from Genk on channel 41 (634 MHz) will move to channel 25 (506 MHz), and that from Antwerpen and Schoten on channel 59 (778 MHz) will move to channel 25 (506 MHz) as well. The VRT multiplex transmissions from Brussels, Gent, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, and Veltem will continue to operate on channel 22 (482 MHz). The move to lower frequencies may result in a slight increase in coverage area of the transmissions.
In May 2018, VRT announced it would cease its free-to-air DVB-T broadcasts on 1 December 2018,[5] citing "changingmedia consumption usage.' According to the broadcaster, just 45,000 people were using the DTT broadcasts as their means of reception, which was costing more than 1 million euros a year to sustain.
RTBF launched its DTT platform on 30 November 2007, which is now available to most of French-speaking Belgium and Brussels. It offersLa Une andLa Deux. RTBF also launched a new channel exclusive to DTT calledLa Trois, and they added a fourth channel to the multiplex, namelyEuronews, a pan-European news channel.
In Eastern Wallonia, there is a 2-hoursregional variation on Euronews forBRF TV, public channel of theGerman-speaking Community of Belgium.
RTBF switched off analogue broadcast on 1 March 2010, thus making Belgium complete its digital transition.[needs update]
TV Vlaanderen offersDVB-S andDVB-S2satellite television aimed at theFlemish, Dutch speaking market, broadcasting (encrypted usingNagravision) via theAstra 1L andAstra 1MSatellite at19.2°E. An updated list of channels can be found online.[6] It has more than 60,000 subscribers.
TéléSAT Numérique offersDVB-S andDVB-S2satellite television aimed at the Walloons,French-speaking market, broadcasting (usingNagravision) via theEutelsatHot Bird satellite at 13°E and alsoSES AstraAstra 19.2°E. An updated list of channels can be found[7][8] and includes RTBF La Une, RTBF La Deux, RTL-TVi, and Club RTL and Plug TV in SD and HD as well as a number of French language Belgian radio stations.
Both TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat areBelgiansubsidiaries of theM7 Group S.A., who also owns the Dutch DTH platform,CanalDigitaal.
VRT has an international channel on digital satellite (DVB-S) calledBVN (as a cooperation between the FlemishVRT and the DutchNOS).
RTBF programmes are available via the international joint broadcasterTV5MONDE.
(See alsoEuro1080.)
Proximus (formerly Belgacom) is offeringdigital television (IPTV) viaADSL2+,VDSL,VDSL2 andFTTH using its nationwide copper network. Its offering has been extended with two optional bouquets: one for movies and one selection for families, includingCartoon Network andNational Geographic Channel
Other private companies provide a similar service, using the Belgacom copper network.
With the advent of mobile digital receivers (DVB-H), Proximus is showing some interest in building a DVB-H network.
Source: Hrvatska turistička zajednica (2022)[9]
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