Production of TV drama series

An important distinction between public and commercial broadcasters is that public broadcasters largely make their programmes themselves. These are primarily current affairs programmes, but also travel programmes, documentaries and drama series for example. In addition, the NPO commissions television producers to make programmes.

Providing media content is a creative process to a large extent. However, there are a few provisions in the Dutch Media Act regarding the production and the nature of programmes. For example, a local public broadcaster must produce a certain percentage of programmes itself or commission that (production standard). Buying ready-made programmes is only allowed, therefore, to a limited degree.

Commercial broadcasters generally make less themselves and buy more from producers in the Netherlands and abroad. For example, at TV markets. Ready-made content and new programme formats are traded here. MIPCOM is the most well-known TV market. The commercial broadcasters are not limited, because they do not receive any subsidies from the government.

Programmes of streaming services
All major streaming services make productions that are also shown on TV, sometimes in collaboration with a broadcaster and in other cases it is a ready-made product that is taken over.

In the case of the development of drama productions, there is often cross-pollination between the television and film world. By collaborating with various funds, new drama series are developed and created. The broadcasters have become increasingly dependent on the NPO for the creation of television dramas. Whereas broadcasters used to decide which drama series to spend their budget on themselves, nowadays the NPO manages the largest proportion of the budget and broadcasters must sign up for spots that are available in the broadcast timetable. In fact, broadcasters must pitch their ideas to a network manager in competition with other broadcasters. The position of the broadcasters, and thus also the heads of drama at the broadcasters, has therefore changed.

NPO budget allocation policy
In the period from 2020 – 2022, the NPO shifted its focus from quantity to quality. The NPO:

“In concrete terms, this means that in total we are going to reduce an average of 29 self-produced drama series per year (period 2017-2019) to a maximum of 15 drama series per year. Of those 15 productions, 2 to 3 series are among the best our country has to offer; they measure up to the international top and also have the potential to attract an audience outside our national borders. In the case of our single plays, we have already reduced the production thereof from 4 (2017) to 1 (2019) in the past three years. The performance agreement requires the public broadcaster to participate in at least 16 feature films, two Telescoop films and at least six Telefilms; those numbers are therefore fixed. In addition, there will still be room for talent development and specials.”