An excellent year for Super RTL
“We are really pleased.” Super RTL CEO Claude Schmit was visibly relaxed on Tuesday evening as he spoke about the German children's TV market leader’s current situation and plans to a small group of trade journalists at his offices in Cologne. Schmit has every reason to be pleased. In the year to date, Super RTL has seen a year-on-year increase in its market share among the 3 to 13 age group, from 19.1% to 20.7%, again leading the German market ahead of the public-service broadcaster Kika. Its commercial competitors Disney Channel and Nickelodeon follow far behind with market shares of 9.6 and 8 percent, respectively. If you add in the time-shift channel Toggo Plus, which only launched in June, the channel actually has a market share of 21.1 per cent. Toggo Plus now has a monthly market share of about 1.2 percent.
Stronger than Disney and Nickelodeaon put together
“We're stronger than Disney Channel and Nickelodeon put together – and they are the two global market leaders in children's television,” said Schmit, Germany’s longest-serving channel boss, proudly. This evening he is flanked by his Executive Board colleagues Carsten Göttel (Programming), Sabine Kreft (Communications), Steffen Schwarz (Finance) and Jörg Nommensen (Sales & Marketing), as well as the channel’s Head of Media Research, Birgit Guth. Given this latest performance, Claude Schmit feels that Super RTL has definitively overcome the economic consequences of the launch of the German Disney Channel in 2014. “We did feel a Disney dip,” said Schmit on Tuesday evening. He expects that the channel will return to its pre-Disney audience share levels in the German market within the next two to three years.
Besides its market share, the channel can also be pleased with its financials. Schmit said that Super RTL’s gross revenue will probably exceed €300 million this year. The channel has around half of the German children’s TV advertising market. Thanks to revenue growth and cost reductions, the CEO expects an increase in net profit of around ten percent, which would put the profit margin “significantly above 20 percent and not far below Mediengruppe RTL’s as a whole.” Schmit said he is sure that the results will continue to improve, as large blocks of costs from the contract with the U.S. studio DreamWorks had been pulled forward and consequently a higher net income can be expected in the years to come. The Hollywood studio is Super RTL’s most important partner. The channel not only exclusively shows DreamWorks animation series; it is also the merchandising licensing agency for the Americans in the German-speaking countries.
Schmit repeatedly emphasized that Super RTL’s coffers are well filled. On the one hand, there will of course be investments in new programming. Program Director Carsten Göttel showed the journalists trailers for two new DreamWorks series: “Trollhunters” from Hollywood director Guillermo Del Toro, and “Spirit,” the series sequel to the Oscar-nominated movie. He also announced the return of a Super RTL classic: The game show “Super Toy Club” featuring the “Toy Race,” in which the winners have three and a half minutes in a toy store to load a shopping cart full of toys that they can then keep.
'Grizzy and the Lemmings'
Carsten Göttel also has great expectations for the series “Grizzy and the Lemmings” from the animation specialist Studio Hari, a format that like classics such as “Tom & Jerry” makes do entirely without the spoken word. And then Schmit and Göttel were able to report a very special program coup, which shows how strong Super RTL’s position is in the German market. The channel will show the Nickelodeon preschool format “Paw Patrol,” show, one of the most successful Nick formats worldwide, and it is also handling the merchandising business in the German-speaking countries.
In addition to new formats, Super RTL wants to use its well-stocked coffers to expand its digital activities. Although Schmit said there are currently no signs of waning enthusiasm for children’s television, the channel wants to be prepared. Schmit did not elaborate on how Super RTL specifically aims to expand its involvement in the digital world, as the channel is still in the decision-making phase. But in any case, he said its own video on demand portal Kividoo will be further expanded.
Children need to switch off
As Birgit Guth pointed out, children in the 3 to 13 age group currently spend an average of 82 minutes a day in front of the TV. “This figure has changed only slightly over the past few years,” said the expert on media usage. She said that linear children's television structures the day, creates a sense of community and draws children under its spell. It is relaxing, gives children an opportunity to just switch off – something that many parents today expressly want. While children’s enthusiasm for linear television seems undiminished, another demographic aspect plays a significant role for Super RTL: The number of mothers who know and like the channel, which was founded in 1995, from their own childhood is continually growing. This is currently 48 percent of mothers, and by 2020 it will be 65 percent. “These mothers are pretty relaxed about advertising on children's TV and think 'It didn't do me any harm, either’,” says Guth.
So, Claude Schmit and his team have many reasons to look confidently to the future. The CEO expects Super RTL to retain and even expand its market leadership in German children's television in the years ahead, and that the merchandising business will become increasingly important: “There are good times ahead for us in the programming and merchandising business.”
