German commercial broadcaster RTL wants to set up a new video-on-demand (VOD) portal for young people.
RTL Next will provide news and entertainment and will be optimised for mobile usage via smartphones and tablets, Marc Schröder, member of the management board of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and managing director of RTL interactive, told German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“We see and feel the trend towards mobile becoming the main form of access. For many people, the mobile device is the first device to surf the net,” said Schröder.
The channel’s current website RTL.de will in future be restricted to inform viewers about RTL’s programmes. The news coverage not tied to the TV channel such as celebrity news will be transferred to the new site RTLnext.de which will launch between October and December 2015. The first drafts can be described as a sort of YouTube with additional text, writes the paper.
The platform which will strongly be connected to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to encourage sharing of the content will mainly finance through commercials screened before the videos. The target group comprises people between 20 and 39 years of age with a focus on women.
