Dutch television

Watching television in another country can be really disappointing if you find out there are only a few channels that offer English television shows. In the Netherlands, fortunately, that is not the case. Most of the imported television shows (except for children’s shows) are broadcasted in their original language and subtitled in Dutch. Some channels offer most television shows in English, while other channels have mixed or more Dutch oriented programming. Watching Dutch shows can be a great way to learn some Dutch, so it would be wise to not entirely skip Dutch channels. 

Public and commercial broadcasters

In the Netherlands, cable TV is cheap and very accessible. Main providers such as KPN, Ziggo and Tele2 provide interactive television. In the standard package includes the public broadcasters sharing the channels NPO 1, NPO 2, and NPO 3. Among these commercial broadcasters there is a big variety of channels, both Dutch and foreign. The standard package will include Dutch commercial networks such as RTL 4 and 5, SBS 6, Veronica and Net 5. Foreign networks such as BBC 1, BBC 2 and CNN are usually also included in the standard package. You will also be able to watch National Geographic, Discovery Channel, MTV and popular children’s channels.

Regional broadcasters

There are also regional television channels in the Netherlands. Omroep West covers the northern part of South-Holland: The Hague region, Zoetermeer, Westland, Delft, Leiden, Alphen aan den Rijn and Gouda. Stadsomroep Den Haag is a broadcasting service that operates in The Hague region in cooperation with Omroep West. Omroep West features specific content about the international community in The Hague with Diplomat TV.

Read more in our section about media in the Netherlands.