The Dutch spent an average 190 minutes per day watching TV in 2017. The average time watching live TV on the big screen fell by 3 percent to 178 minutes per day, while time spent on other forms of video, such as Netflix or YouTube, increased to around 12 minutes daily, according to figures from the ratings group SKO.
The SKO noted that the drop in traditional TV viewing was smaller than in 2016 (-3.7%). Time spent watching video on other screens also increased in 2017, but this is not included in the latest figures.
All three major broadcasters lost share in the key prime-time hours. The public broadcaster NPO went from 35.1 to 34.9 percent, RTL dropped to 27.5 from 28.6 percent, and SBS declined to 18.2 percent from 18.5. The other broadcasters increased their combined share by 1.6 points to 19.4 percent. This includes mainly Fox, Viacom, Discovery and Disney.
Among the 25 best-watched programmes, the channel NPO1 accounted for 18, NPO3 three, RTL7 two and RTL 4 two. Excluding sport, only NPO1 and RTL4 registered programmes in the top 25. Overall the best-watched programme last year was the women's final of the Euro football tournament, with 5.3 million viewers.