From Teletekst to Smart-TV Apps: How the Dutch Living-Room TV Has Changed

The Dutch living-room television has moved from a box that showed whatever was on, with teletext as its only extra, to a connected screen that runs apps, pauses live programmes and streams over the home internet line. The way the signal arrives, the way viewers find programmes and the remote in their hand have all changed. What has held steady is the role of the set itself: a shared screen for the evening news, the big match and the series the whole household follows.

The teletext years

For a long stretch, Teletekst was the closest thing a television had to a search engine. Viewers typed a three-digit page number on the remote and waited while the page cycled into view: news headlines, sports results, weather, traffic and the evening schedule, all in blocky coloured letters. It felt slow, yet it was always there and needed no extra equipment. Subtitle pages also made programmes accessible to viewers who were hard of hearing, a function that kept teletext relevant long after its news pages had more modern rivals.

The remote control of that period was simple. A row of numbered buttons mapped directly to channels, so the public broadcasters and a growing list of commercial stations each had a fixed number that families knew by heart. Changing channel meant pressing a digit, not scrolling a menu.

Recording the evening: the VCR and its successors

The video recorder gave households their first real control over time. Programming a timer recording was famously fiddly, but the principle was new: television no longer had to be watched when it was broadcast. Later, DVD recorders and hard-disk recorders made the process cleaner, with on-screen menus instead of tape counters, and they paved the way for the pause and rewind features that are now taken for granted.

Digital TV and the set-top box

The switch from analogue to digital signals changed more than picture quality. Cable, satellite and terrestrial providers began handing out set-top boxes, and with them came an electronic programme guide. Instead of a printed TV guide or a teletext schedule page, viewers could open a grid on screen, see what was on now and next, and set a recording with a couple of button presses. The number of channels also grew, so the old habit of remembering channel numbers gave way to browsing lists and favourites.

This was also the era of the second remote. Many homes ended up juggling one handset for the television and another for the box, which is part of why features that let devices on an HDMI chain share commands became so welcome. Our explainer on how HDMI-CEC lets one remote control the TV, soundbar and player covers how that works today.

Catch-up and on-demand

Once set-top boxes were connected to broadband, the programme guide could look backwards as well as forwards. Catch-up viewing let people start a programme that had already aired, and on-demand libraries offered series and films outside the broadcast schedule altogether. Public broadcasters added their own online players, so a missed episode no longer depended on someone remembering to press record.

Smart-TV apps and internet television

Today, the television is often a computer with a large screen. Smart-TV platforms run apps for streaming services, broadcasters, video platforms and music, and many sets can be controlled by voice or from a phone. Alongside these apps, internet protocol television (IPTV) delivers live channels over the home broadband connection rather than a coaxial cable or satellite dish. For Dutch viewers who want live channels through an app or a small streaming device, providers such as startiptvnederland offer IPTV subscriptions aimed at the Netherlands, and comparing line-ups, supported devices and trial options is a sensible first step. A broader look at the format is in our piece on IPTV services in the Netherlands and what they bring to home viewing.

How the eras compare

What has stayed the same

• The evening news. A fixed news bulletin still anchors the evening in many homes, even when the rest of the night is on demand.
• Shared viewing. Big football matches, national events and talent shows still pull the household onto the same sofa at the same moment.
• Subtitles. Foreign programmes have long been subtitled rather than dubbed for adult audiences, and that habit carried straight over into streaming apps.
• The search for something to watch. Whether it meant flicking through teletext pages or scrolling app rows, deciding what to put on remains part of the ritual.

Common questions

Does teletext still exist on Dutch television?

Teletext services have continued in some form alongside apps and websites, particularly for subtitles. The television's own menu shows whether a given set supports them.

Is a set-top box still needed with a smart TV?

Not always. Some providers offer an app that runs directly on the television, while others still rely on their own box for live channels and recordings. Checking which devices a provider supports before signing up avoids buying hardware that sits unused.

What should be checked before moving to internet television?

1. A stable broadband connection, ideally with the TV or streaming device wired in or close to the router.
2. Which channels, catch-up windows and recording options are included.
3. Whether the app runs on the television already in the living room.
4. Contract length and how easy it is to cancel.

The screen on the wall looks very different from the curved glass set that once showed Teletekst news pages, yet the household around it still gathers for much the same reasons.