- published: 14 Aug 2015
- views: 272548
vtm or Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij (English: Flemish Television Company) is the main commercial television station in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium.
It went live in 1989 and quickly became the Flemish market leader.[citation needed] It can be received on cable or by satellite in Flanders.
Vlaamse Media Maatschappij (VMMa), its parent company, also operates the TV channels 2BE and JIM, frequently passing on programs, mainly for reruns. The broadcaster also owns three radio stations: Q-music, JOEfm and, the now defunct, Radio BemBem. In 2005 there were talks about VMMa buying the Flemish part of Canal Plus from Telenet but this fell through. In 2006 rumours were spread that the RTL Group would buy 50% of VMMa, but vtm as well as RTL denied those plans.
In 2004, vtm lost its market dominance back to the public broadcaster VRT's flagship channel één. After its latest rebrand in 2008, vtm regained strength with popular shows.
For several years, vtm broadcast a kids' strand called TamTam, competing with VRT's Ketnet. It featured programmes such as Teletubbies Everywhere and Miffy for little children and shows such as SimsalaGrimm, Tweety and Sylvester Mysteries, Schuif Af and Kids Top 20 for older kids. During vtm's latest rebrand on February 29, 2008, the channel decided to do away with the TamTam brand. The programming block is now broadcast under the vtm brand.