At mid-year, all six channels from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will be streamed live on the internet platform Zattoo.
RTL Television, Vox, N-TV, RTL Nitro, Super RTL and RTL II will be added to Zattoo’s HiQ package and will be viewable in TV quality as an over-the-top service.
Andre Prahl, the Cologne Broadcasting Center (CBC) board member in charge of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s programme distribution, said: “The dissemination of our programmes by Zattoo gives viewers another way to receive our linear free-TV offerings online. We’re opening up another alternative, especially for users who want to watch our programmes on wireless devices like tablets or smartphones.”
Zattoo CEO Nick Brambring added: “This is a milestone. The German market for live TV on the Internet has enormous growth potential. We appreciate RTL Television’s confidence in us and our product. This cooperation can be groundbreaking. Zattoo is a reliable and attractive partner for broadcasters. Of course, the other winners in this are the users, who can now watch live television on all major devices with Internet connectivity. ”
Users with HiQ access can watch the channels on all platforms onw hich Zatttoo is available, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs (Samsung and LG), the Xbox 360, VideoWeb TV Box, and Zattoo.com.
Broadband TV Views. The agreement between RTL and Zattoo is groundbreaking, as it one of the first times that a big private broadcaster chooses to distribute its portfolio of linear channels to an OTT linear platform.§
The decision by RTL Deutschland follows its withdrawal from the DTT market, as it claims the costs of terrestrial distribution are too high to support a viable business model.
By opting to go the OTT route, RTL will make its channels available to people with a proper broadband connection as an alternative to DTT. people in rural areas, and usually without a fast broadband connection, continue to have access via the DTH platform.
RTL’s decision to go with Zattoo is also good news for Swedish Magine, that hopes to roll out yet another streaming live TV service in Germany later this year.
