/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data80754285-a91b2e.jpg)
The fall of The Voice of Holland leaves deep marks in the Dutch commercial television world, caused by sexually transgressive behavior on the set of the most prestigious talent show of the past ten years. RTL Nederland, producer ITV Studios, media billionaire John de Mol – the scandal affects the most powerful media parties and casts a shadow over the intended merger between RTL and Talpa.
Also read this profile about the Boos program: Tim Hofman and his BOOS are now making the media power angry
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets is currently studying this merger plan. A decision on this is expected this spring. Sven Sauvé, CEO of RTL Nederland, recently said in NRC that the merger “has nothing to do with TV”. He outlined the playing field on which the real battle is being waged: the arena of the international streaming giants. Together they are strong, De Mol and RTL thought, against Netflix and HBO.
And now? While RTL announces in-depth independent investigation and shows itself extremely shocked in a statement, John De Mol is silent. When asked whether the research of The Voiceproducer ITV and RTL will also extend to those who knew about the misconduct in the Talpa top, an RTL spokesperson did not respond on Monday. Retrieval of NRC De Mol did not respond in recent days. The television company Talpa, with channels Veronica, SBS 6, Net 5 and SBS 9, has nothing to do with The Voice (broadcast on RTL 4). The fact that the company has something to explain is because it The Voice until 2020, during the period that De Mol’s brother-in-law Jeroen Rietbergen, band leader at the talent show, forced himself on participants.
:format(webp)/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2021/12/web-0512culrtl.jpg)
Read here the interview with Sven Sauvé
Performance Bonuses
The issue raises the question of what John De Mol knew when ITV awarded Talpa Media with the crown jewel in 2015. The Voice took over. As part of a scheme that would bring the company hundreds of millions more, if executive producer remain involved in the programme.
In November 2019, he indicated that he no longer wished to take up the opportunity to work with Talpa for ITV until 2022. All ties were cut in January 2020. Karin de Groot, who worked at Talpa TV, will be the new chairman of ITV. She now has an inheritance that she herself says she has no knowledge of.
ITV can therefore face the greatest financial loss, should The Voice of Holland be permanently discontinued. The Dutch activities of ITV Studios amounted to 60 million euros in 2020, in a lean year in which production was partly stopped due to Covid-19. The year before, ITV Studios in the Netherlands turned over 120 million, also by concluding international license deals, part of which ends up in the Netherlands. It cannot be deduced from the annual report how many The Voice of Holland yields exactly.
The Voice is British ITV’s main international TV format. The program is currently produced in more than 70 countries. In 2020, the ITV Studios business unit recorded a turnover of 1.63 billion euros from production, distribution and licensing of TV programs and films (mostly from the British and American markets). The Voice is estimated to contribute between 100 and 200 million.
The Voice of Holland is also the most important show of RTL Nederland, on Friday and Saturday evenings. The license rights for broadcasting in the Netherlands have been placed with RTL subsidiary Fremantle, where RTL Nederland broadcasts the program and earns money from the advertising surrounding the program.
„The problems around The Voice will certainly affect the revenue model of the merger, but without numerical details it is impossible to say whether this would make the deal unattractive for RTL,” says Hans Schenk, emeritus professor of economics, specializing in contract law. He considers it conceivable that Talpa will be downgraded.
:format(webp)/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data80741899-cf998b.jpg)
Also read: At ‘Show news’ you could see how powerful the De Mol family is
In an extreme case, a crisis of confidence could arise between RTL and De Mol, which could put pressure on the merger plan. Schenk calls the affair “serious”, but also notes that in the corporate world, “crocodile tears are often shed” during publicity crises. In 2019, RTL sister company and producer Blue Circle blamed it when it appeared that a boy had assaulted a drunk participant on the set of reality program The Villa. When three months later it turned out that there had been no criminal offenses and that the editing had led to a suggestive scene, the ranks closed again.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 18, 2022
#Scandal #Voice #leaves #deep #marks #commercial #television #world
