Television in the Netherlands was officially introduced in 1951. In the Netherlands, the television market is divided between a number of commercial networks, such as RTL Nederland, and a system of public broadcasters sharing three channels, NPO 1, NPO 2, and NPO 3. Imported programmes, as well as news interviews with responses in a foreign language, are almost always shown in their original language, with subtitles.
The Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Community of Belgium, in Wallonia and Brussels. Its counterpart in the Flemish Community is the Dutch-language VRT, and in the German-speaking Community it is BRF.
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription, other ongoing cost, or one-off fee. In the traditional sense, this is carried on terrestrial radio signals and received with an antenna.
The VRT, is the national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Community of Belgium.
Euro1080 was the first commercial broadcaster in Europe to broadcast full-time high-definition television (HDTV) content. It was founded by Gabriel Fehervari in 2004 and is owned by Alfacam, of which declared bankrupt in 2013.
CanalDigitaal is a provider of digital television via satellite for the Dutch market, using the Astra satellites at 23.5° east.
Telenet Group N.V. is the largest provider of cable broadband services in Belgium. Its business comprises the provision of analog and digital cable television, fixed and mobile telephone services, primarily to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels. In addition, Telenet offers services to business customers all across Belgium and in Luxembourg under its brand Telenet Solutions.
Analogue television in the United Kingdom includes terrestrial, satellite and cable services that were broadcast using analogue television signals. Following the termination of Virgin Media's analogue cable television service in Milton Keynes in November 2013, all television in the United Kingdom is broadcast in digital only.
BVN, is a Dutch free-to-air television channel providing Dutch public-service television to viewers around the world.
Groupe Canal+ is a French mass media company. It is owned and controlled by Vivendi and has a film library in excess of 5,000 films. Vivendi has sold some parts of Canal+ to private investors which are still using the name of Canal+. It is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the suburbs of Paris.
La Une is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. La Une is the equivalent of Flemish station Eén, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT.
Television in France was introduced in 1931, when the first experimental broadcasts began. Colour television was introduced in October 1967 on La Deuxième Chaîne.
The Netherlands now has three major forms of broadcast digital television. Terrestrial (DVB-T), Cable (DVB-C), and Satellite (DVB-S). In addition IPTV services are available. At the end of the first quarter of 2013 almost 84% of the households in the Netherlands had some form of digital television.
Television in Belgium was introduced in 1953 and began with one channel each in Dutch and French. The country is heavily cabled, with 93% of households watching television through cable as of 2003.
Satellite television varies in the different regions around the world.
The mass media in Belgium is characterized by its diversity due to the linguistic divide in the country.
Télésat, formerly known as Télésat Numérique, is a satellite subscription television provider owned by M7 Group aimed at the French-speaking community of Belgium and Luxembourg, which also offers a triple play package of satellite television, internet and landline telephone services. In september 2019, M7 Group was bought by Vivendi's Canal+ Group. In 2020 the legal entity M7 Group S.A. changed its name into Canal+ Luxembourg S.a.r.l. while its groupbrand name remains M7 Group.
M7 Group is a Luxembourg-based television provider which operates several direct broadcast satellite pay TV platforms: HD Austria in Austria, Télésat in Belgium and Luxembourg, TV Vlaanderen in the Flanders region in Belgium, Skylink in Czech Republic and Slovakia, Canal Digitaal in the Netherlands, Focus Sat in Romania, and Direct One in Hungary. It also operates a terrestrial pay television platform in Flanders, Belgium and offers B2B multimedia services.
JoyNEE was a provider of digital television via satellite for the Dutch and Flemish market, using the Eutelsat's 9B satellites at 9°E east. JoyNEE is a combination of the words Joy and NEE For most channels a smartcard was required to decrypt the Conax signal. On 9 April 2021 JoyNEE went bankrupt. Bankruptcy was requested by Eutelsat. On 19 April 2021 it was announced Canal+ Luxembourg took over certain assets. Customers were offered to move to Canal Digitaal and TV Vlaanderen's offer. Some channels offered formerly by JoyNEE continued broadcasting on Eutelsat 9B until 31 July 2021. Some other channels including channels owned by Discovery have ceased broadcast on 19 April 2021.
