In the early 1960s, there was only
one television channel in the Netherlands. Airtime was divided between the six members of the
Dutch public broadcasting system of the time (AVRO, VARA, NCRV, KRO, VPRO and NTS) and commercial advertising was strictly forbidden. The rise in offshore radio stations led to the creation of alternative broadcasters such as Veronica and REM, the latter of which started a radio station. After starting Radio Noordzee in June 1964, the backers of the Reclame Exploitatie Maatschapij decided to set up a television station. Even before its creation, the future station was receiving its first advertising money. (some sources suggest 650,000 sets, for a total of two million viewers). With these events, viewers had cut the number of television channels available from three to two; those two being owned by the complex
Dutch public broadcasting system. Commercials on television were legalised in 1967 when
Ster made its first commercial break; while commercial television didn't kick off until 1989, with the failed launch of
TV10 and the successful launch of RTL Veronique - which in 1990 absorbed some of TV10's would-be assets to the rebrand of the channel as
RTL 4. ==References==