A new era of creativity and innovation

At RTL Group, we can already count more than 100 AI use case applications, focusing on content, marketing, sales and process efficiency. To drive long-term performance and value creation, we are investing, partnering and co-operating more than ever before. And it’s paying off; we are transforming our businesses and progressing across the three pillars of our strategy: core, growth and alliances and partnerships.

With over 6.3 million paying subscribers at the end of June 2024, RTL Group’s streaming services – RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and M6+ in France – grew their subscriber base by 25% year on year. The continued dynamic growth is due to significant investments in content, technology and marketing.

In Germany, we launched the country’s first multimedia app RTL+ in August 2023. With video, music, audiobooks, podcasts and magazine content available in one app and in one subscription, RTL+ has established a truly unique selling proposition. 

AI was used to bring back the voice of Hans Clarin in Pumuckl's New Adventures.

An example of AI-aided content creation at RTL+ is Pumuckl’s New Adventures, which we launched at the end of 2023. In the revived children’s series, AI was used to recreate the voice of original actor and voice artist Hans Clarin. The series, which has already been renewed for a second season and a film for cinema release, connects with two target groups: adults who remember the original series from their childhood, and children discovering Pumuckl. 

By 2026, we will migrate RTL+ in Germany to the Bedrock technology solution. Bedrock, which was co-founded by RTL Group and Groupe M6, developed and operates the services for RTL+ in Hungary and M6+ in France. Our goal is to bundle our resources in streaming technology to create a unified, flexible and state-of-the-art solution for all streaming services across RTL Group. By joining forces, we are creating a true European champion in streaming technology while reducing our tech costs. 

In France, M6+ was launched in May 2024. With twice the volume of programmes and a better customer experience compared with the previous service 6play – including an AI-powered search engine and interactive player – M6+ is growing dynamically in all dimensions: active users, viewing time and advertising revenue.

Another strategic priority is the expansion of our global content business Fremantle. As part of our target to achieve revenue of €3 billion by 2026, Fremantle has grown organically and via acquisitions across all genres – entertainment, drama and film, and documentaries. 

In March 2024, we fully acquired Asacha Media Group, following an 80% acquisition of Asian production company Beach House Pictures in February. Asacha owns stakes in eight European production companies and is diversified in terms of geography, genre and customer base, while Beach House Pictures is one of Asia’s largest independent TV and film production companies.

Fremantle has celebrated major creative successes in 2024, winning 114 awards in the first half of the year alone. The dark comedy film Poor Things won a total of 34 awards, including four Oscars, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs and Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion award. 

Like our other businesses, Fremantle is exploring ways in which AI can be used to transform workflows, reduce costs and improve accessibility. AI is used to dub shows such as The X Factor and Got Talent into Arabic, and for subtitling social media clips. Last Christmas, AI was used to create content, language and visualisations for a special Christmas film of the daily RTL series Unter uns.

Emma Stone starred in the Oscar-winning dark comedy Poor Things

Alliances and partnerships are the third pillar of our strategy. 

RTL Deutschland expanded the partnership with Deutsche Telekom, which began in 2020 with the integration of RTL+ in Magenta TV, into a production partnership this year. Deutsche Telekom broadcast all 51 matches of the UEFA Euro 2024 on Magenta TV, 12 of which were additionally broadcast on our flagship channel RTL as part of a sublicensing agreement. RTL Deutschland also started a content partnership with pay-TV provider Sky Deutschland, which includes Formula 1 races and English Premier League football as well as fiction formats. 

In the advertising technology space, RTL Deutschland announced a partnership with ProSiebenSat1 to bundle the services of our ad-tech company smartclip and Virtual Minds on a contractual basis to enable advertisers to book advertising campaigns across all inventories – linear and non-linear, including the streaming services RTL+ and Joyn. The service will be data-driven and powered by AI and machine-learning technologies, offering real-time optimisation opportunities for our advertising clients. 

Together with the German news agency dpa, RTL Deutschland has developed ‘the newsroom of the future’ – an AI editorial tool for journalists at news channel, ntv. The “Hot Topic Discoverer” analyses news trends and prioritises emerging topics, while the text generator and editor drafts text, enabling journalists to spend more time producing high-quality, unique content.

We are investing in AI, training our workforce and entering into partnerships with AI companies. But first and foremost, we will continue to be the partner of choice for creative talent. We know that human creativity is, and will remain, the foundation of our success, and, combined with AI, will continue to thrive at RTL Group.