Belgian Dutch language public broadcaster VRT is pulling the plug out off its DVB-T broadcasts on December 1, citing “changing media consumption usage.’
The end of digital terrestrial broadcasts concerns VRT’s three main channels Eén, Canvas and Ketnet, that are now available free-to-air across the country.
According to the broadcaster, just 45,000 people currently use the DTT broadcasts as their means of reception, which costs more than EUR1 million a year to sustain.
VRT said it now wants to invest the money into its free-to-use VRT Nu online platform which has 1,125,000 registered users. VRT Nu offers live streams of all the channels as well as added functionality such as catch-up via the EPG as well as selected on-demand programming.
Viewers in Belgium will continue to have access to Antenne TV, the pay DVB-T2 service from M7 Group, which launched in December 2017. For €9.95 per month, Antenne TV offers 15 channels via DVB-T2 including all private Belgian TV channels. There is a possibility that M7 will negotiate a distribution deal to bring the three VRT channels to the platform.
