German broadcaster RTL Deutschland launched an “all-in-one” streaming service on Wednesday, promising to bundle videos, live sports, music, podcasts, audiobooks and a range of digital magazines into a single monthly subscription.
Launched as part of the group’s RTL+ streaming service, the new package bundles RTL’s video content – more than 55,000 hours of drama, reality TV and sports programming, including UEFA Europa League championships and NFL games – with more than 100,000 audio book titles from Penguin Random House (a subsidiary of the RTL parent company Bertelsmann), around 120 million songs as part of a contract with the French music streamer Deezer and several thousand on-demand podcasts. In the coming weeks, RTL plans to add digital subscriptions to several magazine titles from the Bertelsmann subsidiary Gruner + Jahr, including the women’s magazine Brigitte and the entertainment title Gala.
RTL announced plans for its German all-in-one service back in 2021, but the launch was delayed by almost a year during which time the streaming market has changed dramatically. Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) business in Germany lags behind that of the US – Kantar Research Group estimates About 55 percent of German households have at least one SVOD subscription, compared to about 85 percent of US households — suggesting there’s still plenty of room for growth. But RTL pointed out one thing current survey by Cologne-based marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher, which found that as many as 30 percent of German subscribers want to cancel their SVOD subscription, with respondents citing cost savings as the main reason for the move.
The company says these tighter economic times are the ideal time to launch an all-in-one discount package. RTL’s “all-inclusive” package starts at EUR 12.99 per month, the same price as the normal German Netflix subscription.
“We know from current studies that when choosing a streaming service, users pay close attention to where they can get the greatest variety of content at the most attractive price,” said RTL boss Thomas Rabe. “That’s why our multimedia app, which offers all types of media in one app and at a price of 12.99 euros, comes at just the right time.”
“Bundling is a hot topic, so we’re proud to launch the first multimedia app this week,” said Matthias Dang, co-head of RTL Germany, adding that he’s convinced that RTL+ with the all-inclusive offer “secure one.” secure place among the top 3 streaming offers in Germany.”
In the first quarter of this year, according to Kantar figures, RTL+ ranked seventh in terms of monthly new SVOD subscriptions in Germany, with a share of just 3.4 percent of new SVOD subscribers. In contrast, new Amazon Prime subscribers accounted for 37.7 percent of the market, with Disney+ accounting for 14.6 percent and 12.8 percent of new subscribers subscribed to Netflix.
RTL needs to get its streaming strategy right. The company’s core business, advertising-financed television, is in the doldrums. First-half sales of parent company RTL Group, reported this week, showed a profit decline of more than 56 percent to 132 million euros ($145 million) and a decline in sales of more than 5 percent to 3.1 billion euros ($3.4 billion). U.S. dollar). SVOD is one of the few growth areas. The number of subscribers to RTL+ and its Dutch streamer Videoland recorded a 34 percent increase in subscriber numbers to 6 million in the first half of the year. RTL+ accounts for 4.5 million of these.
