OutTV (European TV channel)

OUTtv
Country	Netherlands
Broadcast area	Netherlands; Belgium; Luxembourg; Germany; Austria; Sweden; Spain; Israel;
Headquarters	Utrecht, Netherlands
Programming
Picture format	1080i HDTV; (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	OUTtv Media B.V. ; (Marc Putman)
History
Launched	2 April 2008; 17 years ago
Links
Website	www.out.tv
Availability
Streaming media
Ziggo GO	ZiggoGO.tv (Europe only)

OutTV (stylized as OUTtv) is a European-based television channel which can be viewed via cable television/digital television as a premium channel in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Israel and Spain. OUTtv reaches more than 10 million households in Europe and Israel. OUTtv was launched on 2 April 2008 by OutTV Media B.V. and has been available on cable since 4th April 2008.

OUTtv was initiated by Marc Putman, who started the channel thanks to a business background in the digital television industry and by various private investors, whereby the brand was registered in Europe independently. The channel was launched on Wednesday 2nd of April in Amsterdam, initially for the Netherlands only, but there was an interest from other distributors outside the Netherlands. The first the channel outside the Netherlands was launched with a Swedish version in Sweden in 2010 at Comhem (now Tele2). Afterwards followed new expansions, in 2010 in Belgium and the OUTtv Deutschland channel was launched in 2012 and in Luxembourg in 2014. The Spanish tv-channel started in 2016 at Orange ES. In Israel, the channel was launched at HOT -named PRIDEtv- with a Hebrew subtitles in 2018.

At the initial launch in 2008 the OutTV Canada channel also was with the same name launched a couple of years earlier in Canada. Some of the programmes were licensed initially with support of OUTtv in Canada.^[1] Nowadays, none of the programs of the Canadian channel are no longer shown on the Dutch channel. The two companies are not connected and work individually.^{[citation needed]}

An HD-simulcast started through Ziggo in the Netherlands on 30 November 2017.^[2]

Programming and Audience

OUTtv is a lifestyle and entertainment channel which offers a broad range of programs, such as drama, comedy, talk shows, documentaries and films, which are mostly targeted towards the [LGBTQ community], though it's main audience are gay male with a high percentage of 40% female (mainly straight) viewers].

Series and films

OUTtv differentiates itself with a varied programming of quality shows and qualitative art-house films.

Several well-known shows which are or were broadcast on OUTtv are:

Queer as Folk, (US edition) the first major gay-tv series showing a gay lifestyle
RuPaul's Drag Race - multiple Grammy Award winning series - being broadcast first in Europe by OUTtv
Six Feet Under - premium HBO tv-series
The Golden Girls- classical tv comedy from the eighties and nineties, highly popular among the gay-audience]]

[[In 2022 premium ATRES MEDIA series - La Veneno - the tv-series that stimulated the adaptation of the transgender law in Spain]
[Award winning LGBTI+ arthouse films - daily broadcast on the channel provided by its film distribution daughter CINEMIEN]]

OUTtv also broadcasts their own productions, such as the current affairs programmes OUTtv News and OUTtv Reports; and the travel show Travel Experience, hosted by Ian van der Putten. It has shown specials covering several pride celebrations and the Eurovision Song Contest. OUTtv supports via its film distribution daughter to produce film productions.

Availability

Country	Provider
Netherlands	Caiway
	Delta
	Odido
	KPN
	Ziggo
Belgium	Telenet
	Orange Belgium
	Proximus
Sweden	Tele2
Spain	Orange
Spain	Tivify
Israel	[ under brand name PRIDEtv]]
Israel	Hot
Luxembourg	Post Lux
Germany	NetCologne
	MagentaTV
	Waipu

OUTmusic

On March 1, 2010, OUTtv started its own internet radio station under the name OUTmusic. This channel mostly targets gay men and “like-minded” listeners and primarily brings new and well-known hits of the 1990s and 2000s. In the evening lounge music can be heard and in the weekend well-known Gay Classics. Next to the standard programme blocks, OUTmusic also offers room for pop divas, well-known DJs of famous gay clubs, new artists and the Eurovision Song Contest.

OUTmusic Award

Since OUTmusic's launch in 2010, OUTtv has presented the OUTmusic Award, an award given annually honoring the favorite Eurovision Song Contest entry by viewers. The winner of the award is determined through a large-scale online poll conducted every year in March and April and is announced before the start of the contest in order to avoid influencing the voting patterns of the contest's LGBT audience. The prize is personally awarded to the winner during OutTV's annual Eurovision Calling programme.^[3]

Table key
1	Winner
3	Third place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Points	Host city	Ref(s).
2010	Germany	Lena	"Satellite"	1	246	Oslo
2011	Sweden	Eric Saade	"Popular"	3	185	Düsseldorf
2012	Sweden	Loreen	"Euphoria"	1	372	Baku	^[4]
2013	Denmark	Emmelie de Forest	"Only Teardrops"	1	281	Malmö
2014	Sweden	Sanna Nielsen	"Undo"	3	218	Copenhagen	^[5]
2015	Sweden	Måns Zelmerlöw	"Heroes"	1	365	Vienna
2016	Russia	Sergey Lazarev	"You Are the Only One"	3	491	Stockholm	^[6]
2017	Italy	Francesco Gabbani	"Occidentali's Karma"	6	334	Kyiv	^[7]
2018	Israel	Netta	"Toy"	1	529	Lisbon	^[8]
2019	Netherlands	Duncan Laurence	"Arcade"	1	498	Tel Aviv	^[9]
2020	Bulgaria	Victoria	"Tears Getting Sober"	Contest cancelled^[a] X		~~Rotterdam~~
2021	Malta	Destiny	"Je me casse"	7	255	Rotterdam	^[10]
2022	Ukraine	Kalush Orchestra	"Stefania"	1	631	Turin	^[11]
2023	Sweden	Loreen	"Tattoo"	1	583	Liverpool	^[4]
2024	Switzerland	Nemo	"The Code"	1	591	Malmö	^[12]