Radio auction has begun, shifts on the FM band are coming

• Danny Van Ziegelaar

  Online editor

Exciting days await commercial radio stations: today the auction for FM frequencies begins. And this does not happen often, the last time was in 2003.

The stakes are high, as the FM band is still the primary way of listening to radio for many people. But what about that and will your favorite radio station still be there?

This is the result of a court ruling. Last year, it turned out that national FM frequencies had to be auctioned off to commercial radio stations. Radio station KINK, which has no place in the FM band, enforced this.

The government actually wanted to extend the current licenses, which were already granted in 2003, until 2025, because the radio stations were financially affected by the Corona pandemic. But the court overturned that decision, in part because the permits had already been extended twice. So far new auction, with permits valid from September 1, 2023 to September 1, 2035.

Simply put: the existence of existing national commercial channels. Space on the FM band is limited. But a part is already reserved for public radio stations, such as NPO Radio 1, Omroep Gelderland and Radio Westerwolde.

In short: space is scarce and it’s worth a lot. A lot of money is involved in the radio market. According to Audify, which represents the interests of radio stations, 203.3 million euros worth of radio advertising was sold on public and commercial channels last year. It is therefore not surprising that a major battle broke out on the rare FM frequencies. There are a total of nine bundles that will be auctioned off.

No, not in the next few years. A campaign has been running for a few years now to promote FM’s digital successor, DAB+. Many cars already have this built in as standard. There is room for many channels on DAB +. However, DAB + is not a panacea, if only because many people cannot receive it yet. Economic Affairs Minister Adriaansens does not expect the foreign minister to take off before 2035.

this is the question. In addition to the existing commercial channels (538, Sky Radio, Radio Veronica, BNR, Radio 10, Q-Music, 100% NL, Sublime and Slam!) other parties will target frequencies.

For example, it has been circulated for some time that the owner of Q-Music wants a second transmitter on the FM band. There are also undoubtedly (deep-pocketed) foreign parties seriously looking into the auction. And of course there is Kink who has won lawsuits and is keen to start broadcasting on Band FM. But at this point we don’t know who will be involved.

Last year, Newsor gave the following report on the tension at radio stations:

By the way, many commercial channels are already in foreign hands. For example, Q-Music from the Belgian media DPG, 100% NL, Radio Veronica and Slam! It was recently bought by Mediahuis, also of Belgium. Sublime was actually owned by Mediahuis. This company will lose one FM band anyway, because one company can only have three bands.

Moreover, at the 2003 auction, the situation was different: then half of the frequency bands were “selected”. This means that the government set the requirements and as a result the packages were worth a lot less money. Consider a package for a radio station that has “modern specials” (now Slam!) or “non-modern specials” (now Radio Veronica).

But there are now only two packages with such explicit requirements: a package for news (now from BNR), and a package for music in Dutch (now from 100% NL).

It depends on who manages to get which frequencies. If the sender re-downloads the current package, nothing will change. But it is also possible that the radio station gets another packet and therefore has to move. Or the station might even disappear from the FM band, if someone else introduces more.

Economic Affairs Minister Adriaansens, who is in charge of the auction, said the auction should bring in at least 73.3 million euros.

For three out of nine total FM frequency bands, radio stations must pay no less than 15 million euros. Q-Music, 538 and Sky Radio now broadcast on these packages. But if it really becomes a bidding war, that amount will (significantly) increase. These three packages in particular are worth a lot, also because they can be picked up in a larger part of the country.

And, by the way, the expected return is much lower than in 2003. Then pay John de Mol’s Radio North Sea FM (now Q-Music) alone cost €80.4m for frequencies that would be valid for more than eight years, and €538 (€57m) and Sky Radio (€56m) made a pretty big bag.

The National Digital Infrastructure Inspectorate, the agency that organizes the auction on behalf of the government, expects the auction to last a few days. Only when the auction ends will it become clear which stations will be heard on FM in the coming years.

And maybe the real fireworks will start only after that, as we saw after the previous auction in 2003. Then, after the auction, lawsuits, acquisitions, changing DJs, programs and frequencies began. One thing is for sure: the radio landscape will look very different from September 1st.