“If you want the NPO to be cut back, then continue with this app,” wrote a complainant on review site Trustpilot. Another: “Unbelievably bad… Such a shame, because the underlying offer is worth it.”
After the launch of a new app for NPO Start, the public broadcaster’s streaming platform, at the end of last year, complaints from users abounded. A series of feature drops quickly led to poor ratings on review websites. Of the 1,300 reviews of NPO Start on Trustpilot, more than 90 percent have one star, on a scale of up to five.
The new NPO Start app suddenly stopped working on older smart TVs from Samsung, LG Philips and Sony. In addition, the app itself had many flaws, such as the loss of saved favorite programs, an inadequate search function, glitches with Apple TV and, to a lesser extent, with Android. At the beginning of February, the NPO promised that the problems would be resolved within two weeks, but it was only after two months that almost everything was resolved. For example, since April it has been possible to save favorite programs again, but the missing separate profile for children is still not available. “We were under great time pressure, so many complaints were rightly made,” says the leader of NPO Start, Mezen Dannawi.
Danger of collapse
Dannawi started at the public broadcaster as a DJ at youth radio station FunX and has led NPO Start since 2017. He is technically dependent on the team of Sebastiaan Popma, product owner of NPO Start.
Why the haste with the introduction in November last year? Dannawi and Popma point out the need for a major “double innovation”: the app with all its functions had to be updated at the same time as the infrastructure on which the app runs. “The platform was in danger of collapse when there were large numbers of viewers at the same time, such as football matches and election results,” said Popma. The continuity of the infrastructure took priority over the functionality of the app.
But why launch a new app that lacked old features? “We had to go live with the new app in November. We were not allowed to renew the expiring contract with an external party due to procurement rules. The car had to keep running, so we were forced to introduce the dashboard incomplete.” Because public broadcasting is financed by the government, facility expenditure falls under European procurement rules, TV programs are excluded from this.
The new app would bring better ‘personalization’ with recommendations based on ‘tastes’. But users on review websites also complain about this. The recommendations are often irrelevant in practice. This is what you get after watching Indonesia Calls five series about Indonesia recommended or after The Jewish Council more war. While you’ve had enough for a while.
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However, Dannawi and Popma are confident that the recommendations will be a major improvement after the difficult introduction period. They are based on ratings of programs by a panel of 10,000 Dutch people, with eight values including ‘varied’ and ‘reliability’. NPO converts this into an algorithm that offers individual viewers recommendations.
Dannawi: “We are proud of this, because we had the algorithm built together with universities with public values such as pluralism and broadening of interests, with a representative panel. Unlike commercial algorithms that recommend more of the same for maximum viewing time. So we use data to serve you, not to make money from you.”
Much higher budget
NPO Start offers free programs from NPO channels for seven days, which are also available live online. Subscribers to NPO Plus pay 2.95 euros per month to be able to watch programs for a year and to see series earlier than on linear TV.
The more than 35 euros per subscriber per year yields 28 million euros for the NPO with the current number of users. This is mainly spent on extra rights because programs must be available for Plus subscribers for a year, according to the NPO. The public broadcaster does not reveal exactly which programs and rights the money is spent on.
Just as newspaper publishers compete with Meta, Google and TikTok, NPO, RTL and Talpa compete with giants such as Netflix, HBO Max and Prime. Public money and knowledge and experience of language, culture, viewing preferences, and original productions must keep the NPO strong. And: investments in our own streaming services. In the NPO budget for 2024, 75 million euros have been allocated for NPO Start, 30 million more than in 2023. This is at the expense of the budget for linear television.
We had to go live with the new app in November
That extra money will mainly go to new streaming series, specifically for NPO Start and access to broadcasting archives. For example, from programs like Other times, which still necessarily refers to YouTube. In addition, the NPO is investigating the merger of Start (video) and Listen (radio/podcast), a service that the Flemish public broadcaster VRT already offers.
At the beginning of April, the NPO does not yet know how the high budget for ‘Start-only titles’ for 2024 will be divided. “We are in the middle of registration by broadcasters. We especially ask for exciting, continuous stories without a weekly tension, that more binge– to be worthy. And aimed at audience groups that drop out linearly, especially young people,” says Dannawi.
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