On September 17, all children’s programming currently on air via the three public channels in the Netherlands (Nederland 1, TV2 and Nederland 3) will be broadcast on a new, as-yet-unnamed public kids channel, which will be transmitted through Nederland 3. It is not yet decided who will helm the newbie, but the position should be filled by April.

In addition to the three hours of daily programming that currently airs between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the three kid channels, the new channel will air an additional 10 hours per week, with a morning block from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m., an hour-and-a-half film slot on weekends, and special broadcasts during holidays. The current lunch-time half-hour preschool block will also be increased to an hour. The new channel will average six hours of programming a day from Monday to Sunday.

The Dutch kids market share is led by KinderNet which took 17.6% in ’99. Fox Kids grabbed 14.9%, followed by Cartoon Network at 11.2%, Nederland 3 at 11%, Belgium’s public kids channel Ketnet at 9.7%, Nederland 1 at 6.2%, TV2 at 3.3% and SBS6 at 2.4%. Nederland 3’s market share dropped 1.1% from 1998, as was the case with RTL4 (-1.8%) and KinderNet (-3.4%). Nederland 1 and TV2 both gained over the ’98 market share, by 0.9% and 0.4% respectively. Together, the three public channels snared a market share of 20.5% in ’99, and the new kids channel’s goal will be to secure a greater market share. Public TV programming reaches about 90% of kids ages three to 12 in the region.