Bertelsmann is taking the next step after merging its television group RTL Deutschland and the Hamburg magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr and will bundle its media offerings on a joint platform from mid-2022.
Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe, who also heads the RTL Group, said in an interview with the FAZ on Thursday after submitting the balance sheet figures for the first nine months of this year, “Now is the right time”.
Carsten Germis
Business correspondent in Hamburg.
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RTL's streaming services, which are currently running in Germany under the name TV Now, are to be renamed RTL +.
"We are thus creating a new product that bundles all types of digital media," said Rabe.
Subscribers should then not only get films and series, sports and news programs, but also an extensive range of music, audio books and access to the digital magazines of the Gruner + Jahr publishing house.
"All you have to do is register to get comprehensive information and entertainment," said Rabe.
“Our idea is: One app, all media.” For the range of audio books, RTL is cooperating with the book publishing group Penguin Random House, which is also part of Bertelsmann; for the music range, RTL has entered into an exclusive partnership with the audio streaming service Deezer.
People are interested in offers from a single source
In an interview, Rabe said that market research shows “that people are very interested in getting different media offers from a single source”. Bertelsmann and its subsidiaries have all media under one roof - television, video, music, audio books, podcasts, books and magazines. "There is no second time in this form in the world," said the CEO. "Our goal is 10 million subscriptions by 2026 for RTL + in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands."
So far, RTL had planned with 5 to 7 million paying users for its streaming services by 2025. In 2020 there were 2.19 million. In the first nine months of this year, the number of paying subscribers rose to 3.4 million. From 170 million euros last year, revenues are expected to increase to one billion euros by 2026. Then the business should also be profitable. Rabe put the start-up losses for the new project at 250 million euros for the coming year. This year it is 150 million euros.
RTL + is expected to come onto the market in its expanded form in the second quarter of 2022.
Further steps could then follow and the offer expanded.
“We’re doing this in Germany for the time being,” said Rabe.
“That is currently not in the planning for other countries.” In August, Bertelsmann decided to merge the TV group RTL Deutschland and the Hamburg publishing house Gruner + Jahr into a new, cross-media media company with TV, radio, steaming services, online and magazines.