RTL Deutschland yesterday presented its strategy, along with highlights from its upcoming programming, sports, and ad sales lineup, at the “Screenforce Festival 2026” in Düsseldorf. The event centered on the vision of a new national media player that combines the strengths of RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland to set new standards for viewers, advertisers, and Germany’s media landscape. The merger of RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland has created a company with more than 12 million paying subscribers. According to RTL Deutschland, the company is now Germany’s local No. 1 across linear TV, streaming, and pay TV. The company said the merger also strengthens its investment capacity and lays the foundation for further growth in content, technology, and artificial intelligence.
New content across all genres
The Screenforce Festival is Germany’s largest industry event for television and video content. It combines major program presentations by broadcasters and TV sales organizations with a festival program. RTL Deutschland unveiled numerous programming highlights for the months ahead. Among the highlights of the 2026/27 TV season are new entertainment shows including “Gladiators – The Show of Giants,” the longest-ever seasons of the hit franchises “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!” and “Let’s Dance,” a new season of “The Traitors,” as well as the fiction event productions “Heidi” and “Goethe & Schiller.”
RTL Deutschland is also expanding its long-term partnership with Sebastian Lege. Beginning in January 2027, Germany’s best-known product developer and food expert will work exclusively for RTL Deutschland. Barbara Schöneberger will host this year’s “German Television Awards,” which will air on RTL. Entertainer Stefan Raab will take live event entertainment to a new level with RTL’s first “Jet Ski Star World Championship.” At the same time, RTL+ is expanding its reality portfolio with “Virgin Island – Untouched in Paradise,” “Prominent Relatives,” and “Bad Boyfriends – Time for Payback.”
Combined sports expertise
Sport will play an even more prominent role going forward. By combining the sports expertise of RTL and Sky, the companies are creating a new home for sports fans in Germany. From the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal to the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, the NFL, and Formula 1, premium sports coverage will become even more widely available across all platforms.
Beyond content, RTL+, Sky, and WOW are combining their strengths in an integrated video infrastructure. As what the company says is the leading local competitor to international streaming platforms, the new company will connect content across all platforms while making premium content easier to access. The company is investing more than €2 billion annually in independent news, premium entertainment, fiction, and live sports.
‘We’re playing in the top league – with home-field advantage’
“The merger of RTL and Sky is an important signal for the future of Germany’s media landscape,” said Stephan Schmitter, CEO of RTL Deutschland. “At a time when competition with global platforms is becoming increasingly intense, we are creating a media company with a European perspective and a scale unlike anything previously seen in the German-speaking market. With our unique combination of free TV, streaming, pay TV, journalism, entertainment, and live sports, we are opening up new opportunities for our audiences, our partners, and the entire advertising market – with significantly more advertising touchpoints than any other competitor. We’re playing in the top league – with the decisive home-field advantage: our close connection to people, the strongest local content across every genre, our deep understanding of the German market, and our ability to deliver reach, relevance, and impact from a single source.”
Inga Leschek, Chief Content Officer of RTL Deutschland, said: “RTL and Sky are creating a unique content universe. We are bringing together the country’s strongest entertainment brands, most relevant news offerings, most compelling live sports portfolio, and most popular on-air talent under one roof. The result is an offering that inspires, connects, and creates the moments everyone in Germany is talking about. With this concentrated content power, we can elevate content like no one else.”
A stronger offering for advertisers
The merger also marks the beginning of a new era for the advertising business. Frank Vogel will oversee the company’s combined advertising business as well as international sales activities through RTL AdAlliance and the company’s ad-tech investments. This will bring the new company’s sales activities across platforms and markets even closer together. “With RTL and Sky, we’ll also be playing in the top league when it comes to advertising sales – with home-field advantage,” said Frank Vogel, CEO of Ad Alliance. “We combine linear television, streaming, and premium video more consistently than any other provider in the German-speaking market while leveraging our unique proximity to the local market. In an increasingly fragmented video landscape, convergence is becoming the key driver of advertising effectiveness. That’s why we are bringing audiences, data, and advertising solutions even closer together while developing scalable total video offerings that make campaign planning easier and more effective for advertisers. This further strengthens our position as the leading local partner competing with the global platforms.”
The integration of Sky will expand Ad Alliance’s advertising portfolio with additional premium reach, new target audiences, and a significantly larger streaming and connected TV inventory. At the same time, the company will continue advancing the convergence of TV and digital advertising while developing new Total Video offerings for advertisers.
