New TV show Expaterience for and by expats premieres Saturday, May 24

Unique media project highlighting expats’ lives, successes, and challenges in The Hague region

The Hague: Monday, May 19, 2025

A brand-new TV talk show will launch on Saturday, May 24 on TV platfoms in The Hague region and online, live and on-demand.

Aptly titled Expaterience, the show will focus exclusively on everyday experiences of expats living in Greater The Hague, on their successes as well as the challenges they may encounter in their personal and professional lives abroad.

Expaterience is the first English-language TV program and online & social media presence produced by RTV Discus, the community access public service TV producer in The Hague region, for almost thirty years. As such, the launch of Expaterience heralds the expansion of RTV Discus’ current line-up, signifying its third TV production, alongside the long-standing Dutch-language programs: social issues talk show, Zaterdag Live, and current affairs news magazine, Escampjournaal.

In a notably short span of time, in less than three months this Spring, a complete new Expaterience team of twenty international volunteers was formed from scratch, with more to follow shortly — all under RTV Discus’ seasoned crew members’ guidance, and on a monthly rotating roster of hosts and editors.

Host of Expaterience’s maiden episode, Sanjay Sharma: “I am truly thrilled to be presenting Expaterience’s very first show, working together with a great group of fellow team members. Being expats ourselves, we aim to showcase real-life stories and experiences while building bridges and fostering deeper connections with the local community of The Hague and Dutch society at large.”

The novel idea of a dedicated TV show for and by international volunteers in The Hague and vicinity was conceived upon the insightful recommendation shared with RTV Discus’ Board by Gert-Jan Aleman, Director of PEP Den Haag, last year.

In symbolically coming full circle, Gert-Jan will be Expaterience’s first guest, looking back at PEP Den Haag’s successful volunteer job fair at Amare, earlier this month, as well as highlighting activities in support of internationals seeking meaningful volunteer opportunities.

Says Gert-Jan Aleman: “I feel very honored, not only to be the very first guest of Expaterience, but above all to witness how quickly this dedicated team of new volunteers have developed this new media project, exemplifying the growing ties between international and local communities, exactly as is the case within RTV Discus, fantastic!”

Guest line-up of episode #1 ‘Experiences of/with expat volunteers’:

• Gert-Jan Aleman, Director of PEP Den Haag
• Tetyana Benzeroual, Project Lead of Volunteer The Hague
• Anita Ham, medical anthropologist & cultural sociologist, The Hague University of Applied Sciences
• Matthew Beckmann, copywriter and art historian, US expat living in The Hague

Completing this first episode’s on-air team, joining Sanjay Sharma (host), are Nicoletta Pisanu (Expaterience News anchor) and Anupama Srivastava (stand-up comedy/opinion contributor).

How to watch Expaterience:

Saturday, May 24
11:00-12:00        LIVE BROADCAST and on-demand
online:                  expaterience.nl / Facebook / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

18:00-19:00        REPEAT / SEMI-LIVE BROADCAST
online &                Den Haag TV
cable TV:              on Ziggo ch. 40, KPN ch. 1312, Caiway ch. 12, Odido ch. 829 and other providers,
                               more viewing options and more information on expaterience.nl

Expaterience On-Air Team:

Media contact:

Dennis Kokkelink
+31 6 2294 8806
press@rtvdiscus.nl

Other press releases:

June 18, 2025:
Theme show Expaterience on expats living in The Hague on Saturday, June 21
web version | .PDF version