The streaming service RTL+ continues on its growth course and has now recorded the most successful first half-year in its history. The total video-on-demand (VoD) usage volume increased by 6.5 percent to 356.92 million hours in the first six months of this year. At the same time, the average cumulated total streaming net reach grew to 10.69 million people (plus 4.8 percent). In streaming, RTL+ remained the clear number two behind Amazon Prime Video in the 14-49-year-old and the 14-29-year-old target group. In linear TV, RTL defended its top position as the market leader in the 14-49 age group and the strongest private broadcaster in the 14-59 age group. In June, the first month together with Sky Deutschland, RTL Deutschland achieved a net reach of 68.92 million users across all its TV and digital offerings.
“We grew in the first half-year – even with the Olympics, Handball World Championship, and the FIFA World Cup boosting reach on ARD and ZDF,” said Inga Leschek, Chief Content Officer RTL Deutschland. “That’s an extraordinary achievement and confirms our planning and strategy. Our success has a very solid and clear-cut foundation: the country’s most popular best brands combined with suspenseful sports broadcasts and the backbone of our news and journals. But new offers are also winning over our viewers: With ‘Wer weiß wie wann was war?’, we have managed to land one of the most successful launches of a new German show in recent years in collaboration with Barbara Schöneberger and Stefan Raab. We are very proud of that – because behind every success are people, who work every day with enormous passion, creativity, and great team spirit in order to captivate our audience.”
RTL Deutschland broadcasting group is also growing in linear TV
The most successful linear TV broadcast of the RTL Deutschland broadcasting group in the first half-year was the international football match between Germany and the U.S. on June 6 on RTL: 8.61 million viewers watched the sports highlight in total (audience share: 39.6 percent). In the key target group of 14-59-year-old viewers, the audience share amounted to 50.2 percent. The first joint super sports weekend of RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland with Formula 1, the DFB international football match US-Germany, the French Open final, and the Oktagon MMA reached a total of 25.03 million viewers across RTL, Nitro, and Sky Sport.
RTL was the Number One among the private TV broadcasters in the first half-year with an audience share of 9.4 percent in the 14-59-year-old target group. Despite the Olympic Winter Games and the FIFA World Cup presented by public broadcasters, RTL remained at the previous year’s level. RTL was the only broadcaster to pass the 10 percent mark in the 14-49-year-old target group (audience share: 10.1 percent). With regard to the total viewership, RTL was also at the previous year’s level with 8.2 percent audience share. Vox remained at the previous year’s level with an audience share of 5.5 percent in the 14-59-year-old target group, as did Nitro with 2.0 percent, and NTV with 1.4 percent. The RTL Deutschland channels achieved a combined audience share of 26.7 percent in the 14-59-year-old target group – equaling an increase by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year.
