Print media
The major regional publishers in 2008 are Koninklijke Wegener, NDC/VBK de uitgevers, and Telegraaf Media Groep (CvM 2009). Wegener has a dominant position in six provinces: overijssel (99.5 %), Gelderland (95.0 %), zeeland (99.9 %), NoordBrabant (99.9 %), Limburg (99.9 %) and Flevoland (62.4 %). NDC is dominant in the provinces of Groningen (99.2 %), Friesland (86.3 %) and Drenthe (99.0 %). AD Nieuwsmedia, a joint venture of Wegener and PCM uitgevers, dominates the market in the provinces of utrecht (88.8 %) and zuid-Holland (88.1 %). Telegraaf Media Groep, finally, dominates in the province of Noord-Holland (72.8 %). When De Persgroep took over PCM, it also took over the joint venture AD Nieuwsmedia. In nine of the twelve provinces, more regional than national newspapers are distributed. The three exceptions are Noord-Holland, where the share of regional papers is 43.3 %, utrecht (35.9 %) and Flevoland (18.2 %). The dominant share of regional papers in the province of zuid-Holland is very tight (51.9 %), and we should therefore conclude that in the rim city (or ‘Randstad’, the large conurbation comprising the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and utrecht) generally speaking more national papers than regional ones are read.
Radio and television
By contrast with the market of regional papers, concentration in the regional radio market in 2008 is considerably lower. This is partly explained by looking at the number of players (there is at the most only one player of any significance in each province – the regional public broadcaster), but mainly by the dominant position of national broadcasters. Commercial non-national broadcasters play only a marginal role. Shares of listening time in the regional radio market are conspicuously higher than shares of viewing time in the regional television market. exceptions to this rule are the provinces of Groningen and Friesland, where the regional public radio stations account for about one quarter of all listeners. In those provinces that partly overlap with the large conurbation of the ‘Randstad’, they achieve much lower shares of listening time (4-12 %). For television, the shares of viewing time of regional public broadcasters do not amount to more than 1 to 3 %. The greatest competitors of regional broadcasters are the national commercial channels taken together, and this is even more true of radio than of television.
