German media powerhouse RTL Group and the country’s Deutsche Telekom have signed a pact to renew their cooperation in streamer RTL+ until at least 2030, signalling their determination to continue to undermine Amazon and Netflix’s strong presence in the territory.
Under the terms of their bundling agreement – which started in 2020 – RTL+ Premium is automatically included in most price plans of the telecom’s TV offer, called MagentaTV, without additional fees for MagentaTV customers. Bundling RTL+ Premium and MagentaTV “gives viewers access to more than 55,000 hours of programming on all devices and across all genres – from live sport such as the UEFA Europa League soccer and NFL football to award-winning drama series and reality shows, news and documentaries,” an RTL statement noted.
RTL+ content offerings currently comprise Marvel’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” crime series “Mocro Maffia,” Celine Dion-starrer “Love Again” and hit kiddie film series “PAW Patrol.”
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RTL+, which launched in full in 2022, has since been on a steady growth trajectory reaching more than 6 million paying subscribers at the end of 2024, up from 4.9 million pay subs in 2023, the statement said.
That makes RTL+ the top local German streaming player, but still pales in comparison with Amazon Prime – which leads the German market – and Netflix that both command double digit numbers of subs in Germany.
Besides RTL+ in Germany, RTL also owns streamer M6+ in France and RTL+ in Hungary.
“Our streaming businesses in Germany, France and Hungary continue to grow dynamically in all key dimensions: number of paying subscribers, viewing hours, subscription and advertising revenue. We have defined a clear path to reach profitability with our streaming business in 2026,” said RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe in a statement.
“Renewing the successful cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and RTL Deutschland for another five years contributes significantly to our strategic goals,” Rabe added.
RTL’s strategic targets are to reach roughly 9 million paying subscribers and around €750 ($777 million) in streaming revenue on the group’s three streaming services and to become profitable by 2026. To reach these goals RTL Group plans to increase its annual content spend for its streaming services to around €500 million ($518 million).