After the original Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS confirmed it did not intend to take part in Eurovision 2027, after boycotting Eurovision 2026, the head broadcaster of the Netherlands NPO has directly taken over and has confirmed its participation in Burgas, with NOS in charge of the actual broadcasting of the Contest.
🇳🇱 Back after one year
Last year, AVROTROS withdrew from the contest in December, right after the General Assembly of the EBU which confirmed new rules for the Contest and allowed Israel’s participation to continue (by not holding a vote on participation). This had marked the first non-participation of The Netherlands since 2002.
This summer, the broadcaster confirmed its non-participation for 2027, but this gave the Dutch broadcasting environment much more time to prepare for a potential participation. This has now been confirmed, with NPO taking over.
The chair of NPO’s executive board confirmed that while the Netherlands wanted to return to the contest, they also had talks with the EBU about the politicisation of the contest and a desire to go back to its “unifying” roots,
We understand that taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest gives rise to mixed feelings in the Netherlands. We have explicitly asked the EBU to make the unifying character of the contest a central part of the event once again, in recognition of a time of geopolitical unrest, war and polarisation.
Jet de Ranitz, Chair of the NPO ExecuTve Board
[…]
We are seeking that connection again now, by taking account of what is happening in the world and by making room for a conversation about it. To help shape and carry forward that direction, we as Dutch public broadcasting want to be part of the Eurovision Song Contest again. That way we can truly live up to ‘United by Music’ together
[…]
The Contest was founded in 1956 to bring together European countris after the war. And we must conclude that we are experiencing such difficult times again, and this is why we want the Contest to find back this atmosphere.
The EBU has responded to the piece of news with a statement from Martin Green:
We are delighted to welcome the Netherlands back to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027.
Martin Green CBE, Eurovision Song Contest Director
We value the constructive conversations we have had with NPO and look forward to working together to reinforce the Contest as a place that truly reflects the spirit of ‘United by Music’.
The Netherlands took part in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Its founding purpose then remains as relevant today as ever. In a world that is increasingly divided, the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique space for people and countries to come together through music, share in a common experience and find connection.
With that in mind, we are very happy that the Netherlands is once again joining the Eurovision family on stage in Burgas next May.
NPO and NOS as joint broadcasters
NPO announced that it will set up a working group to select the Dutch entry, and that it requested that NOS produce and publish the content of the Contest (previews, semi-finals and the final, as well as commentary, for example).
The Dutch broadcasting system
To better understand that situation, one may need a little summary of the unique broadcasting landscape in The Netherlands.
Public broadcasting is shared between several “federated” broadcasters, such as NOS, AVROTROS, KRO-NCRV, etc. Most of these are associations which can be joined by any Dutch citizen, on a paid membership basis (like some sports club ; this payment was historically done through subscription to the broadcaster’s TV guide magazine). These member-based broadcasters represent different segment of societies, ideologies as well as content types (KRO-NCRV is a christian broadcaster focusing on family, ethics, etc, while AVROTROS is a more general-audience broadcaster with entertainment in mind). Alongside these, two broadcasters are fully public entities with no membership : NOS and NTR. The former produces unbiased news, and covers national events, parliament as well as sports competitions, while the latter produces educational content. These missions are written in Dutch law itself and are statutory.
All of these broadcasters are federated under one umbrella organisation : NPO. It is NPO that actually owns and organises TV channels (NPO 1, NPO 2, etc.), funneling a budget between all its member broadcasters, and deciding which channel will broadcast which content on a specific timeslot. The broadcasters produce the content, NPO distributes and publishes it, and organises the balance in the system.
The joint NPO-NOS participation
For years now, AVROTROS was fully in charge of Eurovision for The Netherlands, selecting the entry and providing the delegation, the commentary, etc. for the NPO channels. This time, NPO will organise the selection itself, with a working group, but it does not have any broadcasting capability, so it must ask an actual broadcaster to organise the rest. According to the NPO statements, the organisation “requested” that NOS take on this part of the job, as part of its statutory obligations to cover major events and news.
AVROTROS reacted to the decision by confirming its earlier decision and explaining that it will not take part in the upcoming decision processes :
We said goodbye to the Song Contest three weeks ago and made a careful ethical assessment regarding this, based on our own norms and values. It is now up to the other public broadcasters to make their own assessment
aVROTROS on NPO taking over the Dutch participation in Eurovision
How do you feel about this news? Are you happy to see the Netherlands coming back, or did you support its absence? And how do you think the new joint team will manage their 2027 participation? Tell us more in the comments below or on socials!
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