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BNNVARA
Type	Public broadcaster
Country	Netherlands
Founded	1 January 2014; 11 years ago
Headquarters	Hilversum, Netherlands
Broadcast area	Netherlands
Official website	bnnvara.nl
Replaced	BNN; VARA

BNNVARA (Dutch pronunciation: [bijɛnˌɛɱˈvaːraː]) is a broadcasting association and network within the Dutch public broadcasting system.

History

BNNVARA was founded on 1 January 2014 through a merger of the BNN (founded 1997) and VARA (founded 1925) associations. These continued to exist without broadcasting directly until 2018. In 2011 VARA and BNN announced that they would merge. On 6 November 2011, the members of VARA voted for the merger, after the member council of BNN had already done so a week earlier. The merger was opposed by the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Freedom Party.^[1] BNN and VARA announced on 8 February 2012 that the decision to merge was definite.^[2]

On 1 September 2018, existing members of BNN and VARA were converted into members of BNNVARA,^[3] thus ending the separate member associations that still existed.

Network

After the merge, BNN and VARA kept using their separate branding, but on 24 August 2017 it was announced that as a new broadcaster, BNNVARA (formerly BNN-VARA)^[4]^[5] would start to show programs though VARA, and for radio later the following morning on 28 August.^[6]

In 2017, controversy arose when the documentary Jesse, about the leader of the GroenLinks party Jesse Klaver, was aired by BNN-VARA. The documentary was seen as too biased towards Klaver, fuelling accusations that BNN-VARA lacked journalistic integrity.^[7]

References

^ "Coalition partner opposes broadcasting merger". Expatica. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
^ "Die fusie, hoe zit dat?" [Merger? What's Up With That?]. BNN. 8 February 2012. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^ Goossens, Rob (4 September 2018). "Bnn en Vara verleden tÿd" [BNN and Vara past time]. De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 September 2018.
^ "The merger of two well-known Dutch Broadcasters". DAY. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
^ "The successful merge of two Dutch Broadcasters – Brand strategy, brand story and brand architecture for BNNVARA". DAY. 1 August 2018. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
^ Tates, Tom (24 August 2017). "Gefuseerde omroepen BNN en VARA door als één merk BNNVARA" [Broadcasters BNN and VARA merge as one brand BNNVARA]. Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 September 2017.
^ Weijers, Marco (27 August 2017). "Directeur Bnn-Vara: niet gezwicht voor kritiek" [Director Bnn-Vara: did not yield to criticism]. De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 27 August 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2017.