RTL Streaming Business Closing in on Profits as Subscribers Surge

by

The European broadcasting behemoth, RTL Group, is almost reaching profitability within its streaming sector. Subscriptions and online earnings significantly increased last year, while initial costs associated with start-ups are dwindling.

In a report released on Thursday, RTL revealed that the number of subscribers to its streaming services – RTL+ in Germany and Hungary, as well as M6+ in France – increased by 21%, reaching over 6.8 million. The streaming revenue surged by 42% to €403 million ($437 million), primarily due to price increases for the RTL+ service in Germany. RTL’s German service holds the majority of the group’s subscriber base, with approximately 6.06 million active paying subscribers. The streaming division’s losses for start-ups decreased by around 22%, amounting to €137 million ($149 million).

In a positive announcement, RTL CEO Thomas Rabe declared these outcomes as a pivotal moment shaping the company’s digital destiny. He stated that their streaming services witnessed robust expansion and substantially decreased their initial losses in 2024. With this trajectory, he assured they are steadily progressing towards achieving profitability by 2026.

RTL’s advance into streaming was strengthened even more with a fresh collaboration deal with Deutsche Telekom, keeping RTL+ Premium integrated within MagentaTV until 2030. This move is predicted to bring in additional subscribers in Germany. Moreover, Rabe highlighted positive early outcomes in France, where the company revamped its streaming service (from M6play to M6+) and debuted last May. He mentioned that monthly users on the new platform have risen by 30% and streaming hours have increased by 35% compared to the previous version.

By the year 2026, RTL forecasts they will have 9 million streaming subscribers and generate a revenue of approximately €750 million ($816 million).

RTl’s free television segment, which forms the backbone of the company, showed a less optimistic trend. The collective viewer share of Rtl Deutschland’s German networks in their primary 14-59 age group decreased from 27.4% to 26.3% over the past year. Television advertising revenue remained stable at €2.35 billion ($2.56 billion). However, Rabe presented these figures in a more favorable light by comparing them with ProSiebenSat.1, stating that Rtl Deutschland’s audience share surpassed ProSiebenSat.1’s combined reach by 6.3 percentage points, the largest difference in over a decade.

RTL’s overall income remained steady at around €6.25 billion, while its total profit saw a slight decrease from €598 million to €555 million year-on-year.

Fremantle, the content production division of RTL, experienced an 8% organic drop in revenue. This decline was mainly due to the actor and director strikes in the U.S. scheduled for 2023, budget reductions from streaming services, and cuts from advertising-financed broadcasters. However, this decrease was partly offset by Fremantle’s acquisition of TV production groups Asacha Media and Beach House Pictures. Asacha, a group backed by private equity, owns various production companies in France, Italy, and the U.K., including Red Planet Pictures, the producers of Death in Paradise, Italian scripted groups Picomedia and Stand by Me, and French studios Srab Films and Mintee Studios. Beach House, based in Singapore, focuses on non-scripted content and produces shows like Mind Your Manners, Mr. Midnight, Masterchef Singapore, and local adaptations of global franchises such as Masterchef.

2024 was an exceptionally successful year creatively for Fremantle, as Yorgos Lanthimos’ film “Poor Things,” a production of Element Pictures (a subsidiary of Fremantle), garnered no less than four Academy Awards.

As a gamer, I’ve set a personal best score of €2.25 billion ($2.45 billion), but my ultimate goal is a whopping €3 billion ($3.26 billion). However, it seems RTL has just casually adjusted the finish line for this challenge. Instead of reaching it by 2026 as initially planned, they’re aiming to hit that €3 billion mark sometime in their mid-term future, giving themselves a bit more gaming time, so to speak.

Read More

2025-03-20 12:24