RTL-Telekom partnership fuels spectacular streaming growth

RTL’s streaming partnership with Deutsche Telekom has continued to fuel spectacular growth for its RTL+ offering, which grew its base by 84.6% in the year to March to reach 3.172 million subscribers.

Taken together with Dutch streaming offering Videoland, which grew its base by 12.9% to reach 1.136 million subs, the RTL+ numbers mean that the group now has 4.31 million paying streaming customers, up 58.2% year-on-year.

RTL said that its strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom to bundle RTL+ Premium into the latter’s Magenta TV offering contributed significantly to the service’s growth.

Streaming revenue was up a somewhat more modest 23.1%  to €64 million. RTL believes it is on target to win 10 million streaming subscribers with annual revenues of over €1 billion by 2026.

Overall, RTL saw its first quarter revenues jump by 11.3% year-on-year to €1.404 billion, thanks to its acquisition of Grüner + Jahr and Super RTL in Germany, and a bump in deliveries from production outfit Fremantle.

Advertising revenues grew for the quarter to March grew from €745 million to €829 million, with the bulk still accounted for by TV advertising. Net TV advertising growth of 24.3% in the Netherland sand 7-8% in France contributed to the top line. Growth in German was a more modest 3.5-4.5%.

“RTL Group continues to deliver on its targets for its growth businesses of streaming, content and addressable TV advertising – and we have the resources and capabilities to further boost these businesses to create value for our viewers, clients and shareholders.,” said CEO Tomas Rabe.