BNN

BNN (standing for Bart's Neverending Network) was a Dutch public broadcasting association supported by Netherlands Public Broadcasting, which aired two seasons of Dutch Robot Wars on Dutch television.

History
BNN was founded in 1997 by Bart de Graaff, Gerard Timmer and Frank Timmer and targeted teenagers and young adults. It produced entertainment and information television programming, radio programming, and feature films. BNN became a public broadcasting association as a part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system on 15 August 1997, replacing former member Veronica. While Dutch media in general is known to be liberal in coverage of sexuality and drugs, even BNN's programming has been considered controversial.

Robot Wars
Before Dutch Series 1 was filmed, there were originally going to be forty-eight competing robots, with at least ninety being known to have applied. However, by selection day, the number of competing robots was reduced to thirty-six machines.

Qualifiers for the series took place in Eindhoven. This took the form of a simple demonstration process, similar to the selections for UK Series 2 and 3. As there were so few robots available, every robot that was able to move, while being within the weight limit was automatically accepted for the series.

When the selection process was carried out, at least thirty-four robots were known to have attended. Selection criteria included decoration, with at least Pullverizer being known to have impressed due to having decorated plating. However, for unknown reasons the series was reduced to thirty robots, meaning that at least four robots from selection day were unsuccessful in their applications. Successful applicants received a phone call confirming their appearance in mid-July.

The first series was successful enough to warrant a second series with more robots. The first episode was originally broadcast on March 17, 2003 but the series was postponed soon after due to the war in Iraq. The series returned with two repeats of the first episode on June 16 and June 23, and the breaking news of Prince Johan Friso's engagement preempted the June 30 broadcast. The second episode was finally aired on July 7, with the remaining episodes being shown every week until the Grand Final on August 4.