No room for two satellite TV operators in the Netherlands, as Eutelsat 9B prepares to lose Joyne TV channels.
Following the bankruptcy of satellite operator Joyne, customers are being taken over by rival Canal Digitaal, part of the Canal+ group from 1st June. As a result, services on the Eutelsat 9B satellite will close in the coming weeks.
The closure of Joyne will put an end to the free-to-air reception of all the main Dutch and Belgian PSB radio stations. It will also mean the end of the free-to-air carousel of Dutch local TV channels.
Services for the Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium will continue on Astra 23.5E only. Here, almost all services are encrypted, including many radio stations.
Satellite television is a minority reception method in both the Netherlands and Belgium, thanks to widespread adoption of cable television over the past 50 years. Both countries also benefit from the advanced deployment of fibre-optic broadband networks. This has also caused terrestrial TV to rapidly decline in popularity.
Quick profile: Eutelsat 9B (9°E)
The demise of Joyne won’t adversely affect the attraction of Eutelsat 9B, which hosts a variety of feeds from across Europe. Eutelsat 9B continues to serve Swiss and German cable operators, with some free-to-air feeds for a number of popular channels. It contains the only free-to-air satellite feed of BBC World News in Europe with an Electronic Programme Guide. Elsewhere, Hungary’s public broadcaster also makes a number of free-to-air feeds available for pan-European use via the satellite. UK DAB and BBC AM services utilise Eutelsat 9B as a satellite feed source for their networks.