Veronica's years as public broadcaster (1976–1995) operating a
high striker to celebrate the opening of Veronica's headquarters in Hilversum, August 1987 The Association resulted from a
pirate radio station,
Radio Veronica, which broadcast from a ship on
international waters off the
coast of the Netherlands between 1959 and 1974. The wave appearing in the
logo hearkens back to that time. The name
Veronica is a derivation of the abbreviation VRON (Vrije Radio Omroep Nederland / Free Radio Broadcasting Netherlands). After the pirate-activities became legally impossible (31 August 1974), Veronica transformed itself into the Veronica Broadcasting Organization (Veronica Omroep Organisatie, short VOO), enabling it to gain a legal radio and television license within the
Public broadcasting system. It finally was given a license on 28 December 1975. The first television broadcast of Veronica was on 21 April 1976. Within a decade it became one of the largest public broadcasters and the trademark was tested as being more popular than
Coca-Cola. In 1990, it was revealed that Veronica used
ƒ 7-10 million to illegally finance
RTL 4, which was initially named RTL Veronique. Veronica lost its appeal case in 1993 and had the risk of being suspended for seven weeks from the public system due to improper management.
With Holland Media Groep (1995–2001) In 1995 the
Veronica Association gave up public broadcasting and entered a joint-venture with
CLT, parent company of
RTL 4 and
RTL 5,
VNU and
Endemol, called the
Holland Media Groep, running three mostly successful national TV-stations and three less successful national radio stations.
BNN became a public broadcasting association as a part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system and replaced Veronica on 15 August 1997, after Veronica gave up public broadcasting and entered a joint-venture with
CLT. BNN first stood for the Brutaal News Network (Flagrant News Network). The name was later changed to Bart's Neverending Network after founder
Bart de Graaff's death at age 35 from kidney failure caused by a rejection of a kidney transplant he received in 1999. Conflicts let to the dissolution of this co-operation in Spring of 2001.
RTL rebranded
Veronica into
Yorin which would finally be rebranded into
RTL 7.
Current commercial era (2003–present) In 2002–2003, the Veronica Association learned that it could not realise radio and TV in a stand-alone setting. In 2001
SBS Broadcasting B.V., then the Dutch branch of the
SBS Broadcasting Group, already bought the Dutch TV channel
Fox 8 from the
News Corporation and renamed it into
V8 in anticipation of
Veronica. However, the negotiations between the Veronica Association and SBS Broadcasting were not going as planned and no agreement could be set. In the course of 2002
Veronica cooperated with
MTV Networks Benelux and started time-sharing with MTV's
Kindernet. The ratings were poor though. At the end of 2002 the Association is even talking with HMG again. Eventually Veronica Association closed a deal with SBS, and
V8 was rebranded as Veronica on 20 September 2003. ==References==