Sixtieth anniversary of Dutch television broadcasts

Rapid changes since 1948

EINDHOVEN – This year sixty years ago, 150 employees at Philips received the first television sets so they could listen to trial broadcasts transmitted from Eindhoven, where Philips had its headquarters. Since 2005, watching TV programs online has become increasingly popular. This year, mobile television was introduced.

The first regular TV programs broadcast from media centre Hilversum date back to 1951. From then on, watching television rapidly became popular in the Netherlands. As early as in 1966, three quarters of Dutch households owned a black-and-white television.

The first colour TV was introduced in 1972, when 14 percent of all Dutch households bought a colour TV. That same year, 80 percent of households still had black-and-white TVs. Within a decade, 80 percent of Dutch households owned a colour TV. Since 1996, there has been at least one colour TV set in every household. In recent years, widescreen TV sets have gained in popularity.

Online media

Watching TV and listening to the radio over the Internet has rapidly become widespread. The proportion of online TV watchers has increased from 26 percent in 2005 to 52 percent in 2008. Young people in particular watch television and listen to music over the Internet.

In June 2008, mobile television was introduced. More than 10,000 households currently watch TV via mobile communication networks.