History Channel Netherlands Commissions AI-Powered Series Streets of the Past

History Channel in the Netherlands has commissioned Straten van Toen (Streets of the Past), a groundbreaking 10-part series that will use artificial intelligence to recreate historical settings. The show represents one of the first major broadcast applications of generative AI for educational programming, signaling mainstream media's growing comfort with AI production tools.

How the Series Will Use AI Technology

Straten van Toen will feature Dutch historian and author Corjan Mol traveling to various locations throughout the Netherlands. Generative AI tools will then digitally transform these modern sites to show how they appeared during different historical periods, from medieval times through the industrial revolution and beyond.

The AI-powered historical recreation allows the production to visualize past eras without the prohibitive costs of traditional period set construction, costumes, and props. This approach makes ambitious historical programming economically viable for broadcasters operating on typical documentary budgets rather than Hollywood feature film resources.

Hearst Networks, which partially owns History Channel, commissioned the series. The production company behind the project previously created Tilly Norwood, a controversial AI-generated "actor" that sparked debate about AI's role in entertainment and creative industries.

Mainstream Media Embraces AI Production Tools

The History Channel commission reflects a significant shift in traditional media's relationship with artificial intelligence. While Hollywood unions fought against AI replacement of actors and writers throughout 2023 and 2024, broadcasters are increasingly adopting the technology for specific applications where it delivers clear value without displacing human creative roles.

Historical visualization represents an ideal use case for generative AI in broadcasting. The technology can recreate settings that no longer exist or would be impossibly expensive to build practically. This enhances educational content quality while keeping production costs manageable, allowing more ambitious historical programming than traditional budgets would permit.

Unlike using AI to replace actors or writers, using the technology for visual effects and historical recreation has faced less resistance from creative professionals. The approach augments human expertise rather than replacing it, with historians and filmmakers maintaining creative control while AI handles technical visualization tasks.

Educational Programming Gets an AI Upgrade

Educational television has long struggled with the tension between historical accuracy and production budgets. Documentaries about ancient Rome, medieval Europe, or pre-industrial cities typically rely on limited period footage, still images, and talking head interviews because recreating historical settings is prohibitively expensive.

Generative AI potentially solves this constraint by enabling high-quality historical visualization at a fraction of traditional costs. This democratizes ambitious historical programming, allowing smaller broadcasters and production companies to create visually rich content previously accessible only to major studios with blockbuster budgets.

The technology also allows for rapid iteration and experimentation. If historians identify inaccuracies in AI-generated recreations, corrections can be made digitally without reshooting or rebuilding physical sets. This flexibility supports greater historical accuracy than traditional production methods often allow.

Questions About Authenticity and Accuracy

While AI-powered historical recreation offers clear production advantages, it also raises questions about authenticity and accuracy. Generative AI models create images based on training data and prompts, which may introduce anachronisms or inaccuracies if not carefully supervised by historical experts.

The success of Straten van Toen will likely depend on how transparently the production team communicates their AI methodology and how closely historians supervise the recreation process. Viewers will need confidence that AI-generated historical settings reflect genuine historical research rather than algorithmic assumptions.

The Future of AI in Documentary Programming

If Straten van Toen succeeds with audiences, it could establish a template for AI-enhanced historical programming across global markets. Other broadcasters may commission similar series using AI to recreate historical settings, archaeological sites, or vanished civilizations.

This application showcases AI's potential to expand what educational media can achieve within realistic budgets, potentially revitalizing historical documentary programming by making ambitious visualizations economically viable for mainstream television.