BVN

BVN (Het beste van Vlaanderen en Nederland, "The best of Flanders and the Netherlands"), is a satellite and cable television channel providing Dutch and Flemish public-service television to viewers around the world.

It is a joint venture by the public broadcasting company of the Netherlands, Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO); and that of the Flemish part of Belgium, the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT).

BVN has grown to became a major international channel with worldwide coverage.

History

The channel was started in 1996 as Zomer-TV (Summer-TV), an operation aimed at making Dutch-language programming available to Dutch and Flemish holidaymakers abroad.

All of its programming originally came from the Netherlands (the abbreviation BVN at first standing for het Beste Van Nederland, "the best of the Netherlands") but this was later adapted, once the Flemish Region of Belgium began contributing both financially and with output from the schedules of VRT, to het Beste van Vlaanderen en Nederland: "the best of Flanders and the Netherlands".