‘NPO wants another streaming service’

The umbrella organization of the public broadcaster, the NPO, wants another video-on-demand service. This should exist alongside the existing services NPO Missed and NPOplus. De Volkskrant reports this on the basis of a policy document.

With the new streaming service, the public broadcaster would like to compete with, for example, Netflix and Videoland, De Volkskrant writes on the basis of a policy document that will be published in June. The service should contain ‘timeless programs from the public broadcaster’.

It is not exactly clear what the difference between NPO Missed and NPOplus will be. NPO Missed is the free streaming service with recently broadcast programs from the public broadcaster, while NPOplus has approximately the same offer, but where programs can often be viewed in higher quality and they remain online longer. In addition, some programs do appear on NPOplus and not on NPO Missed.

The NPO may also want to put series, documentaries and films on the new service that have not been broadcast recently: the fact that the NPO refers to ‘timeless programs’ points to this. In addition, it is unclear whether the NPO wants to ask for money for the new streaming service.

The new streaming service is not the only change in public broadcasting. The NPO wants to tighten the reins in the coming years and give individual broadcasters such as VPRO and Avrotros less freedom, according to the policy plan. Not only do they have to share details about their budget, but they also get less freedom on the internet. Earlier it appeared that the public broadcaster is cutting the number of websites and theme channels.