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The public broadcaster shifts up a gear with VRT.NU. The free streaming service can be viewed on television from September and will even have its own programming, aimed at young people.
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The public broadcaster wants to make the viewing experience of the free streaming service VRT.NU easier. You can already view VRT.NU via laptop, tablet and smartphone. To watch television you need a Chromecast. That device starts online video platforms on another screen and then sends the images to the television. This requires technical knowledge that not everyone has. But one in five Flemings owns a Chromecast.
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The essence
- The online platform VRT.NU will have its own app on television. Until now, the free video platform was only available on TV via Chromecast.
- The VRT aims at young viewers. There will be support programs for young people who are not in the linear offer.
- Less than half of Flemish people still watch linear television.
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Research shows that people watch longer via Chromecast than on smaller smartphone or computer screens. That is why there will be a ‘first screen app’ for VRT.NU, which users can install directly on their smart TV. The app will be implemented on Android TV in September, followed by the TV boxes of Telenet and Proximus in the course of the autumn, and later normally also Samsung TV and Apple TV. For example, VRT.NU will be placed on television next to Netflix, Streamz and other platforms.
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In this way, the VRT is anticipating the competition. The VTM GO platform has already been rolled out almost everywhere. In addition, there is the changing viewing behaviour. Less than half of Flemish people still watch linear television. Research predicts that by 2023, non-linear viewing for 18- to 44-year-olds in prime time will exceed linear consumption of television programs.
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This is also apparent from the interest in VRT.NU. More and more people are finding their way to the platform. The lockdowns gave the Flemings a digital push. Last year VRT.NU counted 120 million ‘starts’. That is, users started watching a program 120 million times. That growth will continue this year. In the first seven months of 2021, VRT.NU already counted 91 million starts, 36 percent more than in the same period last year. For comparison: VTM GO registered slightly more than 100 million requests for programs between January and July.
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Teen Pregnancies
The viewing platforms of our TV channels are most popular with young people. The public broadcaster is responding to this with special content for young viewers. ‘Today we already serve adult Flemish people with One and Canvas and children with Ketnet. We do reach young people with some of our major titles, but those programs are not specially made for them’, says Lotte Vermeir, the new network manager of One and Canvas.
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VRT.NU will receive extra programs that tie in with the television programs made for One or Canvas. For example, in addition to the TV program ‘Unexpected’, in which Iluna Planckaert and her mother embark on a journey of discovery into the world of sex and pregnancy with her peers, there is also the six-part web series ‘More unexpected’. In it, the 16-year-old granddaughter of ex-cyclist Eddy Planckaert and sexologist Lotte Vanwezenmael elaborate on themes such as falling in love, sexual orientation and sexting with young people. The VRT will also make web-only programs for young people intended for VRT.NU only. ’95 percent of the content on the platform remains programs that we make for the linear channels’, says Vermeir.
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We do reach young people with some of our big titles, but those programs are not made especially for them.
