RTL Group had 3.402 million paying subscribers for its streaming services RTL+ (formerly TV Now) in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands as of the end of the third quarter.
This, according to the company in its latest set of results, was 90.6% up year-on-year, with the total standing at 1.798 million as of September 30, 2020.
Paying subscribers for RTL+ more than doubled to 2.389 million compared to the end of September 2020 with 0.973 million. The strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom to bundle RTL+ Premium in Magenta TV and the growing number of original formats contributed significantly to the growth.
Meanwhile, paying subscribers for Videoland grew 24.8% to 1.013 million compared to the end of September 2020 with 0.812 million, which was largely thanks to the third season of the Videoland original series Mocro Maffia and the reality format Temptation Island.
RTL Group notes that the rapidly growing German streaming service today rebranded to RTL+ and will provide additional 17 originals until the end of 2021. In the first half of 2022, RTL+ will be expanded to a cross-media entertainment service, comprising video, music, podcasts, audio books and e-magazines, which will be a unique selling proposition in the German-speaking market.
As a consequence of these increased investments into RTL+ and following the strong growth of the Group’s streaming services, RTL Group has raised its streaming targets and will therefore grow its annual content spend in RTL+ and Videoland to around €600 million in 2026 (the previous target was around €3509 million in 2025). It will also grow the number of paying subscribers for RTL+ and Videoland to 10 million by the end of 2026 (the previous target was between 5-7 million by the end of 2025).
It has also raised its streaming revenue target to €1 billion by 2026 (previous at least €500 million by 2025) and aim of reaching profitability by 2026 (previous target: adjusted EBITA breakeven by 2025). The peak of the investments (streaming start-up losses) is expected in 2022, with around €250 million.
Streaming revenues from RTL+ and Videoland in the first nine months of this year were up 30.6% to €162 million (€124 million in January-September 2020) thanks to strong subscriber growth for both services.