It is a well-known fact that media concentration threatens pluralism of reporting. Such pluralism is considered a major value in its importance for healthy opinion formation in a democratic society. Given the current media landscape and the actual use that people make of the media, observers have been criticising the traditional division of media markets according to newspaper and magazine press, radio, and television. They have been in favour of looking at particular media markets to serve specific functions (information, leisure, etc.) in which media platforms are interchangeable. The media authority continues to monitor different media outlets, which is considered to be the most in line with international media practice, based on the sector-by-sector approach of competition policies. Moreover, each medium possesses particular characteristics that make a specific contribution to the provision of information. This is why such modes of dissemination must be looked at separately in order to determine actual media concentration and plurality of media content. There must be sufficient competition within each media type (see also CvM, n.d.).
As of 2018, the television market was dominated by three large players: public broadcaster NPO (NPO1, NPO2, and NPO3), RTL Nederland (RTL4, RTL5, RTL7, RTLZ, and RTL8), and Talpa Network (SBS6, Net 5, Veronica, and SBS9) (CvM, 2019a). NPO’s market share was 35.5 per cent (CR1 = 0.35), RTL’s 23.1 per cent (CR2 = 0.59), and Talpa Network’s 15.9 per cent (CR3 = 0.75). In comparison with the situation in 2008, the CR3-index has improved very slightly (-0.028). However, it still reveals the highly concentrated nature of the television market (CvM, 2019a). In 2018, the first of nine channels with the highest average daily reach (Dutch population aged 6+) belonged to one of these three large players. The 13 regional public broadcasters (Regional Public Broadcasting) are the ten most viewed channels, although the first did not belonging to any of the “big three” players (CvM, 2019a).
In 2018, the radio market was comparably concentrated by three dominant players. Of these, Talpa Network (Radio 538, Sky Radio, Radio 10, and Radio Veronica) possessed a market share of 33 per cent (CR1 = 0.33), public broadcaster NPO (NPO Radio 1, NPO Radio 2, and NPO 3FM) 30 per cent (CR2 = 0.63), and DPG Media (Q-music) 8.7 per cent (CR3 = 0.72). The C3-index increased by 13.8 per cent between 2008 and 2018, primarily due to the takeover of Sky Radio by Talpa Network in 2017 (CvM, 2019a). Based on average daily reach (which represented the Dutch population aged 10+), seven out of the ten most-listened-to channels were owned by one of these three radio players. The other three channels in the top ten were the regional public broadcaster, 100%NL (owned by RadioCorp, an independent media company), and E Power Radio (a private company comprised of fourteen regional commercial channels and one national channel).
The shares for the daily newspaper market are based on circulation data from Nationaal Onderzoek Multimedia, which represents the “total circulation in the Netherlands per year”. At present, only two big companies own most of the newspapers: Mediahuis (De Telegraaf, NRC Media, Holland Media, with regional titles) and DPG Media (ADR Nieuwsmedia – Algemeen Dagblad, and regional titles such as Het Parool, de Volkskrant, and Trouw). Besides these, there is the smaller FD Media group, owner of specialist newspaper Financieel Dagblad (as well as BNR Nieuwsradio, with a daily reach of 0.8 per cent in 2018 among the population aged 10+). The only available figures are the most recent (4th quarter of 2019), based on brand reach (online and offline, based on the population aged 13+). The first six newspapers are all owned by Mediahuis or DPG Media: ADR Nieuwsmedia (71.5%), De Telegraaf (55.1%), de Volkskrant (33.9%), NRC (26.8%), Metro (owned by Mediahuis – 26.4%), and Trouw (20.5%). FD is the first newspaper that is not owned by either of the two largest media companies. Its monthly branch reach is 9.3 per cent (NOM, 2020). These percentages combine online and offline reach. There were no figures available to indicate the reach of news websites exclusively. Since the end of 2019, nu.nl has been owned by DPG Media. It is the only Dutch news website in the top-10 list of the most visited websites on a monthly basis. Of those, Alphabet leads the list along with Google, Google Maps, and Google Play (CvM, 2019a).
