Wikipedia tells me it's mainly funded by tax money 800 millions euros, coming up to about 45 euro per Dutch citizen, with supplemental income from ads (200 million),

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_public_broadcasting_syst...

They are partly funded by people's taxes. Commercials have more restrictions on them than on non-public channels. A maximum of 10% of airtime can be a commercial (on a yearly basis), with a 15% max per day. Commercials can only be before or after a program, not within. And just like commercial channels, you cannot sponsor news programs.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/media-en-publieke-o...

Yes, but the government doesn't want to spend too much tax money on it, so it operates semi-commercially. I'd rather they cut commercials, cut one of the three channels, and focus on content that the commercial channels can't or won't broadcast with the same level of quality.

because otherwise we'd pay ourselves blue.

With 17 million citizens I think that's unlikely.