RTL Group has announced a strategic partnership across advertising and streaming technology, international advertising sales and content with DPG Media after agreeing to sell RTL Nederland.
DPG Media will pay for €1.1 billion for the business that includes five free-to-air TV channels (RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7, RTL 8 and RTL Z), three digital pay-TV channels (RTL Lounge, RTL Crime, RTL Telekids) and an independent news organisation. Also included is Videoland, the country’s top streaming service, with 1.3 million paying subscribers. DPG already owns VTM in Flanders and RTL Belgium in Wallonia.
RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe described the sale as the “best strategic option for RTL Nederland and all its stakeholders”.
Service agreements have been put in place for at least the next three years for streaming technology (via Bedrock), broadcasting operations (via RTL Group’s technical services provider BCE) and international advertising sales (via RTL AdAlliance). RTL Nederland will also continue to use the solutions provided by RTL Group’s ad-tech business, Smartclip. For three years after closing, RTL Group’s broadcasters in Germany, France and Hungary will receive first-look rights for all new programmes developed by RTL Nederland. Based on a separate trademark license agreement, DPG Media will also continue to use the “RTL” brand in the Netherlands at least until December 2034.
In August, RTL and Talpa accepted a ruling from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) that the two companies should not be allowed to merge. The Authority had previously cited concerns that an RTL-Talpa alliance might hold a dominant position in the Dutch advertising market.
“After our in-country consolidation strategy was blocked by the competition authorities in January 2023, the sale to DPG Media is the best strategic option for RTL Nederland and all its stakeholders. We are looking forward to the strategic partnership with DPG Media, working closely together on European solutions in advertising and streaming technology, international advertising sales and joint content development, added Rable.
“We are very pleased that we have reached an agreement with RTL Group to acquire RTL Nederland, the undisputed market leader in commercial TV broadcasting, and the owner of the highly successful streaming platform Videoland,” Christian Van Thillo, Executive Chairman of DPG Media Group. ”Together with our leading TV brands VTM and RTL Belgium, we will be able to build a group that has the necessary scale to invest in the digital transformation of television. I am looking forward to working with the outstanding leadership team of RTL Nederland, and I am also very pleased that we will build a strategic partnership with RTL Group.”
