Monthly consumption of linear TV and VOD in the Netherlands 2018-2021

COVID-19 home quarantine led to a surge in online and linear television consumption in the Netherlands. Consumers spent 187 minutes each day watching linear TV (live TV as well as on-demand television) in January 2021. The biggest increase, however, can be found in the "other" category, which includes popular video streaming services available in the Netherlands, like Netflix and Disney Plus. People spent 55 minutes daily on non-linear television that month. Both figures decreased from February onwards. In October 2021, the linear TV and video-on-demand viewing time increased again.

Is Dutch viewing time any different from other countries?

Linear television consumption in the Netherlands was lower than that of Belgium but higher than in Luxembourg. In March 2020, for example, French Belgians spent nearly four hours each day watching television, whereas their Dutch-speaking counterparts spent around 10 minutes less (222 minutes). In Luxembourg, viewers spent less time watching television than in the other two countries. In 2020, linear television consumption in the Grand Duchy was set around two hours and 11 minutes every day, ranking among the lowest time spent watching television across all of Europe that year.

Netherlands, Netflix-land

The number of paying Netflix subscribers in the Netherlands is predicted being higher than those from Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of 2021. According to the forecast, the number of users would increase by roughly 100,000 compared to the beginning of the year. Nonetheless, a domestic survey contrasted these estimations by evaluating the number of Dutch Netflix subscribers to be around 3.3 million in late 2019. Therefore, figures for Netflix users in the Netherlands remain uncertain.