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Netherlands – (E2) Media ownership concentration regional level

Score in short:

The same two large players dominate both the national and regional newspaper markets. By contrast, concentration in the regional radio and television market is considerably lower.

Score in detail:

As of 2018, the major regional publishers – Mediahuis and DPG Media – also dominated the national level. For the most part, the regional news offering could be assigned to a specific owner, because separate figures were not available for each door-to-door magazine (CvM, 2019a). As Piet Bakker mentioned, hyperlocals are very diverse, both in the way they bring news to the readers and in terms of their reach figures, but most of them (such as VersBeton) are independent.

Concentration in the regional radio and television market was found to be considerably lower, because each province had its own regional public broadcaster. At the local level, 77 localities are defined, 9 of which have no local regional broadcaster at all (NLPO, 2020). The audiences of regional public broadcasters varied a lot across the different regions, but were able to be reached via radio, television, and the Internet. For instance, RTV Oost was found to really be in touch with the population of the province of Overijssel (east of the country, 25 villages, 1.15 million inhabitants), being a news leader, and providing high-profile stories via radio, television, app, and social media, resulting in 170,000 singular listeners, 660,000 singular viewers, and an average of 1,019,750 visitors online on a weekly basis. RTV Noord (in the northern province of Groningen – 12 villages with 584,000 inhabitants) demonstrated the following reach figures: 121,000 singular listeners, 812,000 singular viewers and an average of 715,250 visitors online on a weekly basis. In the province of Brabant (in the south – 62 villages with 2.5 million inhabitants), Omroep Brabant is available through radio, television, and online platforms. On a weekly basis, it reached 255,000 singular listeners, 961,000 singular viewers, and an average of 2,156,000 visitors online (ORN, 2020).