Belgium market analysis

Details on the television market in Belgium including which shows and formats are proving to be successful.

Belgium is a federal state with two linguistic regions – Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north and French-speaking Wallonia to the south. Each has a separate public broadcasting body.

Buyers in Belgian TV, where the main channels earned €966m (£660m) in advertising revenue last year, regularly acquire high-end documentaries, popular factual and classic drama from the UK. Increasing competition has prompted both regions to consider British entertainment formats.

SBS BROADCASTING
Channels VT4 and Vifj TV are owned by pan-European group SBS Broadcasting and serve the Flemish community. Aimed at the 15 to 44-year-old audience, VT4 airs both local and international content including Lost, CSI and Friends. It will be launching a local version of Simon Cowell’s format America’s Got Talent later this year.

With a 2.5% share, Vifj TV squarely targets the female audience with its mix of drama, movies, talkshows and lifestyle formats such as Housetrapped in the Sun, House Doctor, 10 Years Younger, Changing Rooms, Holiday Showdown and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Esther van den Brink is in charge of acquisitions.

VMMA
VMMa (Vlaamse Media Maatschappij) owns Flanders’ leading commercial channel, VTM, as well as youth-oriented channels Kanaal Twee and JIMtv. With over 80% of primetime content locally produced, VTM’s schedule is built around news, entertainment, drama and domestic soaps.

The entertainment line-up includes Strictly Come Dancing and A Farmer Wants a Wife. Recent acquisitions also include UK format Your Money or Your Wife and How to Look Good Naked.

Kanaal Twee, meanwhile, has achieved a 9% share of the 15 to 34-year-old audience with its sport, entertainment and foreign drama line-up. Local adaptations of Fame Academy, How Clean is Your House? and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy sit alongside Joey, Prison Break and Trigger Happy TV. Music-led channel JIMtv airs betting show Banzai. Luc Janssens heads the acquisitions team.

RTBF
The Francophone region of Belgium is served by the publicly funded broadcaster RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française). RTBF’s portfolio consists of terrestrial channels La Une and La Deux and digital free-to-air service RTBF Sat, which plays news, sports and cultural magazine shows.

RTBF is planning to launch La Trois, a digital version of RTBF Sat. La Une routinely buys in cop dramas such as Monk and Columbo, while younger-skewing La Deux licenses US series such as Boston Legal and Everwood, as well as the Jamie Oliver cookery franchise. Jean-Michel Germys looks after drama and entertainment and Claire Colart documentaries.

RTL GROUP
The RTL group operates RTL TVI, Club RTL and Plug TV in Francophone Belgium. RTL TVI attracts an average 24.1% share among 18 to 54-year-olds in primetime. The family-oriented channel offers entertainment, US dramas including Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, local news and films.

RTL TVI scores its best ratings with formats Star Academy Made in Belgium and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as well as local dramas Place Royale (Royal Square) and A la Flamande (The Flemish Way). Club RTL provides kids programming during the day and sport and classic movies for a male audience at night. Plug TV is aimed at young adults with shows including Friends, South Park, Dirty Sanchez and The Bachelor. Acquisitions are handled by Patrick Vandenbosch and Erwin Lapraille.

VRT
VRT (Vlaamse Radio-en Tele- visieomroep) runs publicly funded channels Een, Canvas and Ketnet in Flanders. Entertainment network Een skews heavily towards local productions but also acquires UK dramas such as Primeval, Lewis and Silent Witness. Cultural channel Canvas favours British comedy such as Green Wing, Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show, while Bob the Builder and Tweenies feature on Ketnet. Frans Lefever looks after acquisitions and co-productions, Catherine Wilmes is responsible for drama and Tom Blaevert buys documentaries.

Analysis

Broadcasters have traditionally been receptive to high-end UK programming but the range has recently grown, particularly in Flanders. “They’ve started looking at a lot more in the last year or two,” says Lucy Hellier, sales executive for Benelux and Iberia at Granada International.

With buyers’ sights trained on UK entertainment, formats such as Granada’s Soapstar Superstar have fared well. In 2006 public broadcaster VRT scored a 49.4% share with the show. British distributors can also expect to benefit in other genres. “A lot of our drama used to go to the main channels but now the other broadcasters are looking at it,” says Hellier.