RTL Group and Sky Deutschland have agreed an extensive new partnership covering streaming and content.
RTL’s TVNow premium app will join the Sky Q platform from this summer with Sky Q customers being able to access the catch-up service from RTL’s free-to-air channels. A subscription is still required to access the full service, including pay-TV channels GEO Television, RTL Crime, RTL Passion and RTL Living.
As part of the two-year agreement, Sky will sublicense the rights to four Formula 1 races starting with Imola on April 18 and followed by Spain, Monza and Brazil.
Bernd Reichart, CEO of RTL Germany said the content found within the TVNOW app was at the core of its stragegy. “Through the partnership with Sky we can continue to speed up the growth of TVNow. Sky offers Sky Q a great entertainment platform for TV and streaming. At the same time, we will continue to present attractive live sports for an audience of millions through our free-TV partnership”.
Sky will continue to screen all of the races on its newly launched Sky Sport F1 in Ultra HD.
Devesh Raj, CEO Sky Germany, added: “Sky is the new home of motorsport in Germany. Only on Sky Motorsport fans can pursue all 23 race weekends. In order to specifically give the Formula 1 an even greater stage and thus for our great Formula 1 transfers, we make four selected races available in free TV to a million audience. ”
All of RTL’s free-to-air channels are available as part of TVNow with content then available for up to 7 days after the original transmission.
Other TV apps on the Sky Q platform include ARD, ZDF, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and DAZN. Disney+ will be added in April 2021.
