Challenge over Dutch TV news deadline

Date: 06/03/1997

DUTCH television channel RTL5 is under European Commission scrutiny once again after a complaint that it has broken a commitment to transform itself from a general to a specialist news channel.

Swedish-based international media company SBS SA has called in Commission competition officials, saying that RTL5 has ignored a January deadline to transform itself into a

“CNN-style” news channel and is still transmitting a mixture of movies and news.

“There are reports that movies are being shown with rolling news headlines at the bottom of the screen,” said a Commission official, adding that RTL5 had failed to notify the Commission of any problems with meeting the deadline and had not asked for an extension.

The transformation of RTL5 into a general news service was one of the conditions imposed by the Commission for its continued existence as part of a slimmed-down version of Holland Media Groep (HMG), a private commercial television joint venture.

Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert originally blocked the creation of HMG, the Netherlands' largest-ever television alliance between producer Endemol, independent commercial channels RTL4 and RTL5 and cash-rich former public broadcaster Veronica, in 1995. The group would have attracted 60&percent; of national advertising and 42&percent; of Dutch viewers.

The Commission ordered Endemol to reduce its stake in the joint venture from 24&percent; to 7.5&percent; and sell off RTL5, to ease its worries about market dominance of the new partners. It eventually accepted the transformation of RTL5, the least attractive asset within the group, into a news channel after the station's closure was threatened when no buyers were forthcoming.

RTL5, now renamed RTL news and weather, says it is undertaking a gradual changeover which should be completed in April. In the meantime, it is altering its programme mix almost weekly.

“We only got the go-ahead to start programmes late last year and it is taking some time to get things right,” said a spokesman. “We are not very happy about what SBS has done with this complaint. You should compete on programming rather than make complaints about non-issues,” he added.

RTL5 says the complaint is linked to the fierce ratings war and ongoing losses by SBS' new channel SBS6. SBS SA launched its own commercial television station in the Netherlands, mainly aimed at the youth market, in 1995 and has been aggressively attempting to boost its audience share from around 8&percent; to 10&percent; ever since.