VRT (broadcaster)

The communications tower at the headquarters of VRT / RTBF in Brussels, the Reyers Tower.

VRT is the successor to a succession of organisations. The Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting was known as the Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep (NIR) in Dutch and the Institut National de Radiodiffusion (INR) in French, was founded in 1930 and existed until 1960. This became the Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (BRT) in 1960 and the Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep Nederlandstalige Uitzendingen (BRTN) from 1991 to 1998.

The NIR/INR and BRT (Radio-Télévision Belge, or RTB, in French) had each been single state-owned entities with separate Dutch- and French-language production departments. They were housed in Le Flagey, formerly known as the Maison de la Radio, from when the new building was completed in 1938 until 1974, when the building became too small.[1][2] However, in 1977, as part of the ongoing state reform in Belgium broadcasting became reserved to the language communities rather than the national government in 1977. Accordingly, BRT/RTB went their separate ways in 1977. While the former French half changed its name to RTBF in 1977, the Dutch side retained the BRT name until becoming BRTN in 1991. However, the two broadcasters share production facilities on Auguste Reyerslaan (French: Boulevard Auguste Reyers) in Brussels.

The final renaming to VRT, on 1 January 1998, followed a change in the organization's legal status: from being part of a semi-governmental entity (a parastatale in Belgian terminology) it had, on 16 April 1997, became a publicly owned corporation (NV van publiek recht) in its own right.

As successors to the NIR/INR, VRT and its counterpart in the French Community of Belgium, RTBF, share the Belgian membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – an association of public broadcasters. Along with RTBF, it is one of the 23 founding members.

With the ending of its television monopoly – marked by the creation of VTM, a commercial television company that initially captured more than half of VRT's audience – the public broadcaster has been compelled to fight back, and part of its successful response has been the use of external production houses such as Woestijnvis, the creator of such formats as The Mole (De mol) and Man Bites Dog (Man bijt hond).

Television channels are transmitted on:[3]

• Cable: analog and digital on all Belgian and Dutch cable providers;
• IPTV to all major Belgian DSL providers (Proximus, Orange, Scarlet);
• Satellite with paid TV Vlaanderen subscription (encrypted DVB-S2 using SES Astra network).
• Terrestrial with paid TV Vlaanderen subscription (encrypted DVB-T2 using Norkring network) in Flanders and paid Digitenne subscription (encrypted DVB-T2) in the Netherlands. Free to air DVB-T broadcast by VRT was discontinued on 1 December 2018.[4][5]

The VRT broadcasts radio channels in both analog format (FM) and digital format (using DAB+). All channels are also broadcast live over the Internet at radioplus.be.

International broadcasting was done via VRT's Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (RVi).

Through open innovation, VRT explores new technologies and applications in a constantly evolving media context. The innovation department works together with partners such as start-ups, universities, broadcasters, and media organisations on several (funded) projects. To put innovation into practice, VRT consistently tests new prototypes on the production floor, while working closely with both media professionals and end users.

VRT Sandbox supports innovation within VRT and the media sector by organising collaborations with start-ups, scale-ups and entrepreneurs. Within VRT Sandbox, scale-ups get the chance to test, validate or develop their products on VRT's production floor, with access to the infrastructure and production teams. In addition, VRT Sandbox leads a programme in which scale-ups and media organisations develop future media applications together. This allows European and Flemish scale-ups to tailor their solutions to the needs of the media sector.

With the French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF, VRT also leads the international Future Media Hubs network to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• 
  NIR logo (1953–1960)
• 
  VRT's third and older logo used from 1967 to 1979.[7]
• 
  BRT logo (1979–1990)[8]
• 
  BRTN logo (1991–1998)
• 
  VRT logo (1998–2002)
• 
  VRT's sixth logo used from 7 January 2002 to 21 June 2017.
• 
  VRT's seventh and previous logo from 22 June 2017 to July 2021.
• 
  VRT's eighth logo from July 2021 to 29 August 2022.
• 
  VRT's ninth and current logo as of 29 August 2022.

• List of radio stations in Belgium
• List of television stations in Belgium
• Bert De Graeve, former CEO
• Tony Mary, former CEO

Media related to Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website (in Dutch)
• VRT NWS(in Dutch) news site of VRT
• English B2B website VRT International
• 16 April 2008 'Belgian pubcaster to launch HD Channel' via Broadband TV News