NPO director about other times: “renewal is essential”

The Dutch Public Broadcaster (NPO) wants more younger viewers to watch NPO1. “Now 80 percent of viewers are over 50. That should be reduced to 70 percent,” says NPO director France Klein. News Hour. It was announced today that, starting next year, the regular TV broadcasts of Other times Has been deleted.

Connected Petition has been initiated To change the opinion of the NPO, which was signed nearly 40,000 times Friday evening.

Klein believes it is important to innovate in order to attract a younger target group. “We won’t stop at” other times “, says Klein:” We want to broadcast 6-10 specials and we want to create a new historical environment online using “other times”.

When asked, Klein says canceling regular television broadcasts is not the result of cuts. “It is not a financial issue at all.” Klein would like to attract more younger viewers to television. “Above all, we want to have a better balance in programming. The 20-49 year old group consists of 6 million people, and the 50+ group consists of 5.5 million people.”

“A pointless discussion”

Media studies professor Mark Dawes thinks it shouldn’t be about making your target group younger to watch TV again. “Young people, and I mean everyone under the age of 45, no longer live with newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet. They live in a“ media ”where all these forms overlap and we no longer have loyalty to someone – a platform, a provider, or a program.

“The whole discussion about whether or not the programs will be broadcast, this is a complete discussion of the twentieth century. It no longer fits at this time at all. That is why nonprofit politics often feels as if it does not really know what we as a Dutch people are currently dealing with. The media we are working on. “

As far as Deuze is concerned, media makers and nonprofits should not be primarily thinking of television, but of a mixture of all these new media forms. “Nowadays, I have to explain to my new students what television is, because they no longer know it. This does not mean that it is dying, because all forms of media are still there. But if you are a maker or broadcaster just focus on television, you are your own grave. “.

Journalism or entertainment

It is not certain that the nonprofit organization (NPO) is engaged in a transition in which fewer educational, media and journalism programs are programmed, and more entertainment, says Klein.

“We are spending fifty percent now on media programs. We also need innovation and change in this segment. We need to get the mix of target groups we want to reach properly, and that’s what we’re doing now,” he says.