Communications in Belgium are extensive and advanced. Belgium possesses the infrastructure for both mobile and land-based telecom, as well as having significant television, radio and internet infrastructure. The country code for Belgium is BE.
The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication solutions operating in Belgium and international markets. In Belgium, the company offers its main products and services under the brands Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings. The Group also operates in Luxembourg as Proximus Luxembourg SA, with the brandsTango and Telindus Luxembourg, and in the Netherlands as Telindus Netherlands. Internationally, activities are carried out by BICS and Telesign. Proximus Accelerators is the ecosystem of IT partners Be-Mobile, ClearMedia, Codit, Davinsi Labs, Proximus Spearit and Telindus.
The Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française, shortened to RTBF, 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.
SFR is a French telecommunications company. It is both the second oldest mobile network operator and the second largest telecommunications company in France, after Orange.
Play4 is a Belgian-Flemish commercial television channel. It is part of Play Media and production company Woestijnvis.
Belgischer Rundfunk (BRF) is the public-service broadcasting organisation serving the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Based in Eupen, with additional studio facilities in Sankt Vith and Brussels, BRF produces one television and three radio channels.
Numericable was a major French cable operator and telecommunications services company. Numericable was originally created in 2007 from the merger between former competitors Noos and NC Numericable networks. Numericable Group SA was founded in August 2013 to act as the parent company of Numericable group companies and to offer its shares on the stock exchange. The company provides cable broadband services in France, Luxembourg and Portugal, offering digital and analog television, Internet, and phone services to homes. From 2008, Numericable also offered mobile telephone services to its customers.
TV Vlaanderen is a digital satellite television and terrestrial television service provider for the Flanders region in Belgium.
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 VRT 1, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT.
Nickelodeon is a Belgian television channel that is derived from the Dutch Nickelodeon. The channel started in the summer of 2009 when it got its own programming. Via the satellite, the Dutch version is still being broadcast.
Internet in Belgium has a high level of adoption and engagement, with a 93% uptake rate among individuals as of 2022, higher than the EU average of 89%. The country is on par with the EU average regarding digital skills, with 54% of its population having at least basic digital competencies. Illustrated through initiatives like the BeCentral digital campus, Belgium has created programs to boost digital literacy, which has trained over 425,000 students since 2017 to narrow the digital skills gap.
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.
Scarlet offers fixed telephony, digital television, fixed Internet connections and mobile subscriptions for private consumers.
Investigation Discovery is a pay television channel available in several European nations. It competes in the same genre as Crime & Investigation Network which is also available in several European nations. The ID channel features crime programming, including "missing persons and murder inquiries, cold cases and historical crime," as well as documentaries on forensic investigations. One such program is Deadly Women, an investigative series in which former FBI agent and profiler Candice DeLong looks at female killers throughout history.
Viceland, and Vice TV in the United States, are brands used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. Viceland launched on February 29, 2016, with two branded cable channels; the American version is a joint venture majority-owned by A&E Networks, while the now defunct Canadian version operated as a Category A-licensed specialty channel majority-owned by Rogers Media.
The mass media in Belgium is characterized by its diversity due to the linguistic divide in the country.
Play Sports, formerly called Prime Sport (2005-2012) and Sporting Telenet (2012-2015), is a brand name owned by the Flemish cable distributor Telenet, consisting of a bundle of television channels. Through television stations, competitions from various European football competitions, including The Belgian Jupiler Pro League. In addition, Play Sports includes American NBA Basketball, American Football, and Golf. In March 2014, it also acquired the rights to broadcast Formula 1 until 2019. In July 2015, the name changed From Sporting Telenet to Play Sports. At the same time, the offer of other sports was expanded extensively, including the acquisition of the rights to the Hansgrohe Superb and World Cup field racing, which were featured on FOUR and Sporza. These competitions are sent free for all Telenet customers, but it also lost several football competitions to the new group of Eleven Sports Network. As of December 5, 2015, The offer was eventually expanded with the new channels Eleven Sports 1 and Eleven Sports 2, which have the rights to Spanish, Italian and French football competitions, NBA, NFL and ATP tennis. These channels are also included in the paying sports subscriptions of major Proximus competitors. From the football season 2016–2017, Play Sports made the full transition to HD for its 8 multisport channels. The golf channel is also broadcast in HD. Play Sports is the first sports package that makes the full transition to HD.
VOO (/vuː/) is the commercial name of the Belgian cable company created by the Economic Interest Group (EIG) of Brutélé GIE in and Association Liégeoise d'Electricité, but came to be controlled by Nethys SA and Brutélé SCRL until 2023.
