Netherlands

[NL] Concession Granted to the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation

IRIS 2000-8:1/15

Inger Weidema

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 31 March 2000, the Concessiewet (Concession Act) became effective. The Concession Act contains a description of the tasks assigned to public broadcasting and new rules concerning the granting of concessions and recognition of broadcasting associations aimed at facilitating the fulfilment of these tasks. The Mediawet (Media Act), as amended by the Concession Act, allows only one concession to be granted. In accordance with Article IV of the Concession Act and Article 30a of the Mediawet a concession for a period of ten years has been granted by Royal decree dated 17 August 2000 to the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation - NOS) for the realisation of the assignment of tasks of the public broadcasting system, with effect from 1 September 2000. Within the framework of the concession, broadcasting time is given to individual broadcasting associations for a period of five years.

According to Article 30b of the Mediawet, the NOS had to provide a policy document with regard to its application for the broadcasting concession. On 1 May 2000, the NOS published the policy document called verschil maken ("making a difference"). The concession granted to the NOS was based on this policy document. In his response to the policy document, State Secretary for Culture and Media Van der Ploeg has asked the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation to draw more attention to new forms of mass media, young people and cultural diversities. He also asked for more clarity regarding the development of channel differentiation. However, the policy document has not given rise to the introduction of instructions and general directions in the above-mentioned Royal Decree, as indicated in Article 30a, paragraph 3 of the Mediawet, which could be connected to the granting of the concession.