RTL Group boosts its streaming business
Deutsche Telekom and RTL Deutschland to renew their cooperation in streaming until at least 2030. RTL+ Premium automatically included in most price plans of Deutsche Telekom’s TV offer, Magenta TV. RTL+ exceeded six million paying subscribers mark in Germany at the end of 2024.
Deutsche Telekom and RTL Group’s largest business unit, RTL Deutschland, today announced an agreement to renew their cooperation in streaming, which started at the end of 2020, for another five years.
Under the terms of the agreement, RTL+ Premium is automatically included in most price plans of Deutsche Telekom’s TV offer, Magenta TV, without additional fees for MagentaTV customers. Bundling RTL+ Premium and Magenta TV gives viewers access to more than 55,000 hours of programming on all devices and across all genres – from live sport such as the Uefa Europa League and NFL to award-winning drama series and reality shows, news and documentaries.
Magenta TV customers can further upgrade to RTL’s all-inclusive entertainment offer, RTL+ Max, which also includes music and audiobooks. In addition, Magenta TV customers have full access to RTL Deutschland’s portfolio of ten free-TV channels and four pay-TV channels in HD quality.
In 2024, RTL+ in Germany continued to grow rapidly: paying subscribers exceeded the six million mark at the end of 2024 (end of 2023: 4.9 million paying subscribers). The leading German streaming service generated a total usage volume of 649 million hours – an increase of 66.6 per cent year-on-year.
Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group, says: “Our streaming businesses in Germany, France and Hungary continue to grow dynamically in all key dimensions: number of paying subscribers, viewing hours, subscription and advertising revenue. We have defined a clear path to reach profitability with our streaming business in 2026. Renewing the successful cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and RTL Deutschland for another five years contributes significantly to our strategic goals. We will continue to invest in first-class content and start the migration of RTL+ in Germany to the Bedrock streaming technology platform in 2025.”
RTL Group has defined the following strategic targets for its streaming services RTL+ in Germany, M6+ in France and RTL+ in Hungary: by 2026, the Group aims to reach around 9 million paying subscribers and around €750 million of streaming revenue. RTL Group plans to increase the annual content spend for its streaming services to around €500 million and to become profitable in streaming by 2026.
