The four parties that hope to form the next coalition are opposed to the outgoing government’s plans to extend the NPO’s concession to run public broadcasting for a further two years, the Telegraaf said on Friday.

Ministers on Friday will vote to extend the current licence, due to expire in 2026, to 2028.

However, the PVV and VVD don’t want to extend the concession at all, the Telegraaf said. “The less of the left-wing Liberal NPO noise the better,” PVV leader Geert Wilders is quoted as saying. The NSC has similar thoughts, the paper said.

The BBB says it wants to extend the concession for as short a period as possible, to allow the next government enough time to decide how to reorganise the broadcasting sector.

The outgoing government wants to extend the current licence for two years, rather than the customary five, to give a new government enough time to make properly thought out reforms.

One option on the table is to scrap one of the three channels. “But reforms are about more than one less channel,” said BBB MP Mona Keijzer. “It is about multiple points of view, neutral news provision and making connections.

The Dutch Publieke Omroep (NPO), or public broadcasting system, is funded partly by advertising and partly by the treasury. The amount of airtime it has depends on how many members they can attract.

There are currently 11 public broadcasting companies operating under the NPO banner: AVROTROS, BNNVARA, EO, HUMAN, KRO-NCRV, MAX, ON!, PowNed, VPRO, WNL and ZWART, plus the news arm NOS and a number of specialist companies and regional broadcasters.

Together, they provide programming for three national television and five radio stations as well as digital channels. The broadcasters all have a specific religious, political or social slant.

For example, ON1, admitted to the public broadcasting system in 2021, is backed by Dutch far right parties PVV and FvD.