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vrt.be
Public cable companies do not have a good live TV streaming service.
Well, that is up to you to decide. All I can say is that I have never come across a free live TV streaming site with this much going for it. If you want a dependable site that lets you stream live TV for free (as well as on-demand), offers an impeccable mobile experience, and comes with an enormous library of content (old, new, Belgian, and international), VRT Nu might be just the streaming site that you have been looking for.
History
VRT is the successor to 3 Belgian national media companies: Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep (1931-1960), Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (1960-1991), and Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep Nederlandstalige Uitzendingen (1991-1998). On January 1, 1998, VRT was renamed to reflect its current role.
On this date, the company's structure and legal status changed entirely. It went from being a semi-governmental entity (a parastatale) to a publicly owned corporation.
Since VRT is the successor to the NIR and INR, both the public corporation and its French Belgian counterparts have now shared Belgian membership within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This association of public media broadcasters oversees the world-famous annual Eurovision Song Contest.
The commercial TV company VTM took about half of VRT's viewership after the creation of VTM. This has forced VRT to greatly improve their programming in order to win back viewers. One way VRT has attempted to do this is by outsourcing production companies, like Woestijnvis, who are responsible for hits like The Mole and Man Bites Dog.
Another way VRT has competed with VTM is by developing online streaming services. Today, each of VRT's channels has their own free streaming site. Then, of course, there is VRT Nu, which combines all VRT programming for one of the best free live TV streaming experiences available on the web today.
Design
Personally, I really like VRT Nu's website design. This is a perfect example of an old company proving that they can still compete with the young guns. This is one of the best free live TV streaming sites, in terms of design, that I have seen in a while. It is cutting edge, modern, professional, user-friendly, intuitive, and immersive - all qualities that I look for in a great streaming site.
Once you land on the home page, VRT Nu may not look like much. It starts off, more or less, with your typical layout for streaming sites- a la Netflix or Hulu. The banner at the top of the page features a new or popular TV series, movie, or episode. Below that is a smattering of what?s popular, some more suggested titles to check out, and an arrangement of catalogs separated by interest and category - from culture, children?s entertainment, sports, news clips, and more. Each section offers a nice pacing with side-scrolling horizontal menus alternating with galleries of thumbnails.
Although there is nothing inherently new or innovative happening here, I will say this: VRT Nu makes great use of space, providing a user experience that never gets stagnant or stale - no matter where on the site you happen to be.
The free live TV section of the site is where VRT Nu really shines. Click on the "Watch Live" tab in the site menu bar to be transported to a fully dynamic and responsive TV guide that allows for quick and easy access to all of VRT's live streams by channel. Each currently live program comes up as an option (clearly and neatly separated from one another), each with an extra-large thumbnail of the program. You can also look to the right for a glimpse of what is airing next. This is the kind of free live TV streaming experience that you dream of (that not enough free live TV streaming sites, in my opinion, come close to offering).
If you're looking for a detailed TV guide, we have one available on our site. This one is all text, and is formatted in a smart and dynamic way. It has three main sections (Een, Canvas, and Ketnet), which you can scroll through every hour of programming in an intuitive and immersive manner. You can also easily toggle to tomorrow or the day after for a look at what's happening later this week.
Honestly, I don't know if I've ever come across a TV guide that is as much fun to use as this one is. And that's really saying something, isn't it? I mean, it's a TV guide we're talking about here, after all, not a drone or something.
I really dislike spending so much time on VRT Nu's website design, but one more feature deserves mentioning. It's a useful element of design that I think many other free live TV streaming sites (and premium ones alike) are often missing. And that is a section dedicated just to browsing categories. This functions much like a tags system, which makes for incredibly smooth and intuitive browsing; it also makes it much easier to find new programs based on your interests. Whether you prefer movies, human interest pieces, culture and the arts, humor, philosophy, classic shows, or anything else, VRT Nu saves you plenty of time by offering a superior browsing mechanism.
Content and Features
VRT Nu provides a variety of content, including TV shows that are currently airing on VRT's other channels. This means that users can watch their favorite shows without having to pay for them. Additionally, VRT Nu offers recent movies that aired on the other channels.
This website offers a variety of ways to watch premium television shows and movies for free. You can watch live TV, or you can catch up on episodes of shows that you've missed. There are also hundreds of hours of free streaming available, as long as you're living in Belgium.
Mobile and Desktop Experience
Not only does the VRT NU offer one of the best free live TV streaming experiences on your desktop or laptop computer, but it also has one of the highest-rated mobile apps for streaming live TV. On the Apple App Store, for instance, the VRT Nu app has an average user rating of 4.8 (out of 5). Users love the equally smooth and user-friendly interface of the mobile app just as much as they love that of the desktop site.
Unfortunately, Android users are not able to enjoy the VRT Nu app as there is no native app available for Android. However, there are several APKs available online that can be downloaded and transferred to a phone. It may be a little extra work to find, download, and install the APK, but if the Android APK is half as good as the native iOS one, I would say that it is definitely worth the trouble.
If you don't own an iOS device or you don't have the knowhow or interest in downloading the Android workaround app, fear not - VRT Nu's mobile site is fully optimized for mobile devices. Although it may not be quite as convenient as being able to utilize the immersive and extremely responsive app, accessing VRT Nu's mobile site will certainly get the job done. In fact, you may not even notice that you're not using an app at all!
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