[citation needed] The NIR/INR and BRT (French: Radio-Télévision Belge; RTB) had each been single state-owned entities with separate Dutch- and French-language production departments.

[1][2] However, in 1977, as part of the ongoing state reform in Belgium broadcasting became reserved to the language communities rather than the national government in 1977.

[citation needed] The final renaming of the VRT, on 1 January 1998, followed a change in the organization's legal status.

[citation needed] As successors to the NIR/INR, the VRT and its counterpart in the French Community of Belgium, RTBF, share the Belgian membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

With the ending of its television monopoly – marked by the creation of VTM, a commercial television company that initially captured more than half of the VRT's audience – the public broadcaster has been compelled to fight back, and part of its successful response has been the use of external production houses such as Woestijnvis, the creator of such formats as De mol and Man bijt hond.