Holland: HDTV or nothing

No more free TV for the Dutch people.

The Netherlands is the first county to end all “free to air” analog television broadcasts and to completely switch over to digital signals.

Most of the country’s population did not even feel the switch. The large majority of viewers already purchase cable. In a country of over 16 million, only about 80,000 use old fashioned antennas for their primary television viewing. Even the “occasional use” homes, like vacation or RV’s reported a small number of antenna supported viewing.

The former analog bandwidth has been licensed for the next ten years to the Dutch company Royal KPN NV. It will use the bandwidth to broadcast digital television.

In its agreement with the government, Royal KPN will continue to broadcast three state supported channels and several regional public channels for free. But even these will come at a cost for viewers. In order to be able to view the “digital terrestrial” signals, consumers will have to first purchase a tuner to decode that signal. These are available for around $66.50.

Consumers will have the choice of continuing to receive their channels for free or they can expand their viewing choices for the cable comparable price of only about $18.50 per month.

This was a monetary decision for the Dutch government which expects the switch to save almost $14 million per year.