Ratings Roundup: Bumper Year for Public Channels in the Netherlands

NEW YORK: The Dutch public channels ruled the roost in 2012, getting a boost from the Euro 2012 soccer tournament and the London Olympics to take a 34.5-percent market share for Ned 1, 2 and 3.

That share was up from 32 percent the previous year. The RTL group’s four commercial channels scored a combined 24.4 percent, down from 26.2 percent in 2011.

The leading channel in the market was Ned 1 with a 21.4-percent share, followed by RTL 4 with 14.8 percent. In a highly fragmented market, commercial channel SBS 6 was third with 7.8 percent and no other channel exceeded a 7-percent share.

Sports programming on Ned 1 took nine of the spots in the Top 10 for the year. With the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament taking place last summer, the domination of matches involving the Dutch national team was no surprise in a truly soccer-mad market. However, women’s field hockey also made the Top 10.

The only non-sports program was an episode of the local version of Farmer Wants a Wife, an original British (ITV) format from FremantleMedia triumphing in the land of format exports. In seventh place for the year, the Sunday edition from last September scored a 27.9 TVR with a share of 50.8 percent.

The top three Euro 2012 matches, all involving Holland, scored viewing shares over 80 percent. Number one of the year was the Euro 2012 match between Holland and Portugal with an amazing 52.2 rating (7.993 million viewers) and a share of 81.5 percent. The game against Denmark scored an even higher share of 86.5 percent.

Olympic field hockey featuring the Dutch women’s team was eighth with a 26.7 TVR and 66.1-percent share.

Excluding sports, local format The Voice from John de Mol on RTL 4 dominated the Top 10 (except for the aforementioned Farmer), taking six spots. The finals on a Friday night last January scored a 24.1 TVR and a 45.1-percent share.

The most successful international channel was Nickelodeon with a share of 1.8 percent for 2012, unchanged from the previous year. Discovery Channel was second with 1.6 percent (up from 1.5 percent) and Comedy Central was third with 1.4 percent (up from 1.2 percent in 2011).

Of the others topping 1-percent shares for the year, Disney XD pulled 1.3 percent (down from 1.4 percent) and National Geographic scored a 1.1-percent share (down from 1.2 percent).