Central in the Dutch media policy are freedom of speech and the independence of journalism. The constitution offers independence of all media. Journalists, writers and broadcasters are free to publish and broadcast as they wish, without any interference from government (Article 7). Public and commercial broadcasters are obliged to take measures to ensure editorial independency of their journalists.
Media ownership
As a result of emerging commercial broadcasters in 1988 and to ensure pluralistic media content, the Media Act was adjusted from 1991 with rules about media concentration and limitations for cross-media ownership. From 2011 onwards, this issue is part of the general rules concerning competition.
In the annual Media Monitor the Dutch Media Authority reports on media developments in the Netherlands with a special focus on news and information, including media concentration. This Monitor is one of the key sources of the Media Pluralism Monitor Report 2025, which concludes about market plurality (the year 2024):
“In line with previous years, the highest risk for the Netherlands is found in the area of Market Plurality. This holds a medium-high risk, mainly because of a growing market concentration in the hands of fewer players. There are no formal rules against this specifically for the media market, but when mergers are proposed, the independent market regulator ACM looks into the appropriateness of them from a market competition perspective (however not so much from a content pluralism perspective). While a recent merger (Talpa and RTL) was still blocked, it remains to be seen what will be decided about the latest proposed merger, between RTL and DPG Media largest (news)media company in the Netherlands), which could have serious consequences for pluralism, and for the Dutch news agency ANP.” (page 9).
In 2025 ACM gave permission for the acquisition of RTL Netherlands by DPG Media. To safeguard media plurality and editorial independence, the ACM imposed several conditions including independent editorial statutes and guarantees that all titles within DPG Media should retain their own identity, budgets, and editorial teams.
Policies to promote the diversity of cultural expression
The public broadcasting mandate is defined the Dutch Media Act 2008 (Article 2.1) as follows: they “(…) must align with public values and meet the democratic, social, and cultural needs of Dutch society. To this end, they provide media content that:
- is balanced, pluralistic, diverse, and of high quality, and is also characterized by a wide variety in form and content;
- provides a balanced representation of society and reflects the diversity of beliefs, views, and interests that exist among the population in social, cultural, and ideological domains;
- is aimed at and reaches both a broad general audience and population and age groups of various sizes and compositions, with particular attention to smaller target groups.”
Every year, the Dutch Public Broadcaster (NPO) reports on the programming in detail in the NPO Terugblik. Commercial broadcasters do not receive financial contributions from the government, but the Media Act 2008 imposes several requirements on them as well. They are not allowed to broadcast sponsored news, and at least 40 percent of the programmes must be produced in the Dutch or Frisian language. The Performance Agreement between the Ministry and the NPO Dutch Public Broadcasting states that at least 75% of the total airtime of the NPO’s television programming must consist of original Dutch-language productions.
In general, according to the report Het culturele leven (The cultural life, SCP p32), public broadcasting organisations spent more time on culture (7.1%) than commercial broadcasters (3.4%) in 2017.
The reform plans proposed by minister Eppo Bruins (see chapter 2.1) are prepared through decennia long media-political discussions on the rather complex system of external pluralism of the Dutch national media system through member-based broadcaster organisations. The basic idea for renewal is: a less complex (and more efficient) system, while keeping pluralism and content diversity within one broadcasting organisation (the BBC-model). But a lot of details must be elaborated. As the Cabinet Schoof is preparing the reform plans, and new elections will be in October 2025, it is not yet clear what the new Parliament will think of these plans.
Share of domestic vs. imported media programmes
Despite the availability of detailed information about the public broadcasters’ range of programmes, a complete overview of the full audiovisual landscape in the Netherlands is currently lacking. In November 2024, this led Minister Eppo Bruins to announce an independent cross-sector monitor on the audiovisual sector, when he presented his Agenda Audiovisual Supply to the Parliament. The Media Monitor 2024 from the Dutch Media authority also indicates a lack of transparency regarding media consumption and media diversity via social media and streaming services.
This is not to say that there is no relevant information. We know that NPO Dutch Public Broadcaster is still market leader (online and offline) in news consumption: 64% of the news consumers used NPO in 2025, followed by the commercial broadcasters RTL (37%) and SBS (25%). (Dutch Media Authority, Digital News Report 2025, p 23). But the Media Monitor 2024 indicates that linear television use continues to decline in favour of social media and streaming services, especially by the younger generations. The use of these services plays a major role in the decline in the use of traditional media, putting pressure on Dutch media markets. The big and growing role of international platforms is a threat to the visibility of Dutch (news)media.
The market share of Dutch titles in Dutch cinemas is only 14 percent (2024), with a domination of American films. The use of Video on Demand is grown, with – again – a dominant position of international (American) companies.
Within the audiovisual market, all indications point to the growing power of foreign—mostly American—streaming platforms and social media companies, in the areas of news and information, culture, and Dutch audiovisual productions. (See for more information on the Audiovisual Sector: Cultuurmonitor Audiovisueel). For that reason the Act on the Investment Obligation for Audiovisual Content came into effect in 2024 (see chapter 4.2.6).
Press freedom
In two international monitors, the World Press Index and the Media Pluralism Monitor, The Netherlands gets a comparably good judgement on press freedom. This is due, among other things to the a legal framework to protect the work of journalists, including an anti-SLAPP bill intended to implement EU-Directive 2024/1069, the Open Government Act (Woo), effective since 2022 and the Whistleblower Protection Act, 2023), which transposes the EU Directive and extends safeguards to a broad group, including employees and volunteers). The media sector, the police and the Prosecutors Office took steps in 2019 against violence and aggression against journalists. This resulted in the platform PersVeilig. In 2025 the Netherlands was ranked 3rd in the World Press Freedom Index. Despite the relatively positive assessment, the Media Pluralism Monitor Report 2025 highlights several points of concern (see page 9 for a summary).
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