RTL Group co-CEO Guillaume de Posch told French newspaper La Correspondance de la Presse that the company is looking at launching a rival to Netflix.
De Posch said that while he feels the Netflix business model has yet to prove itself, he believes it is a shame that US companies are coming to mark the territory in Europe without Europeans able to mobilise themselves. “We’ve already lost the distribution battle, we can’t afford to lose the battle over content.”
While Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has predicted the death of traditional TV within the next 20 years, De Posch firmly believes there is a bright future for linear TV, “because it is free”. During the next five years, linear TV will still make up 80% of all viewing time, he said.
In the Netherlands, RTL is already active in the premium SVOD business after having acquired a majority stake in Videoland, a VOD platform that offers both T-VOD and S-VOD. RTL Nederland also participates in the common paid-for S-VOD platform NL Ziet, which offers catch-up programming and previews from all three major Dutch broadcasters, RTL, SBS as well as public NPO.
