Strategic realignment at RTL Interactive

the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Newsletter
Strategic realignment
at RTL Interactive
Johannes Züll
talks about
selling RTL Shop
and buying
Wer-kennt-wen.de
Croatia
A Good Cause:
RTL Televizija Helps Children In Need
United States
FremantleMedia is going to Disney World
Germany
RTL School of Journalism welcomes applicants
France
Nouvelle Star:
One programme, four platforms
People
Jean-Marc Dorangeon, RTL Radio France
COVER:
Johannes Züll, CEO of RTL Interactive
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Strategic realignment
at RTL Interactive
Matthias Büchs (left) and Johannes Züll (right)
RTL Interactive has spent the past few weeks
and months analysing its portfolio. Johannes
Züll and his team thoroughly reviewed the
question of which activities should be part of
RTL Interactive’s core business in the future.
What lines of business should be pursued with
investments because they promise future
growth? And what lines of business should be
given a critical review because they are not
living up to expectations?
The result of the revision: RTL Interactive will
dispose of RTL Shop. An investment bank has
already been commissioned to find a suitable
buyer for the business. At the same time, RTL
Interactive decided to step up its engagement
in the burgeoning “Communities” sector. To
this end, RTL Interactive has acquired a 49 percent stake in the platform Wer-kennt-wen.de.
Why is RTL Interactive selling RTL Shop?
Johannes Züll: About a year ago, RTL
Interactive initiated a restructuring process at
RTL Shop, with a new strategy, new target customers, and a new range policy. And yet our
analyses show that home shopping is more of
a core competency for retailers than for TV
experts, and that Germany – unlike places like
France – is not a good “windows market” for
direct-response television (DRTV). So we are
looking for a strategic lead investor with a retail
background to take on the management of RTL
Shop. In our analysis of core competencies, we
were able to show very clearly that a strategic
partner in the retail sector would be able to
create much greater added value for RTL Shop
Backstage spoke to RTL Interactive CEO
Johannes Züll and Matthias Büchs, head of the
Online department, about the sale of RTL Shop
and the acquisition of the social community
Wer-kennt-wen.de.
Germany - 20 February 2008
than we here at Mediengruppe RTL
Deutschland. Naturally, we wish to participate
in this value creation when we sell it.
Will RTL divest itself completely of
RTL Shop?
Johannes Züll: RTL will definitely hand over the
management of its operations. Depending on
the buyer, we can imagine holding a minority
stake. Our aim here is to ensure a successful
evolution of the business, and to participate in
the value created by selling all or part of it.
How would you describe RTL Shop’s
performance?
Johannes Züll: We firmly believe that we created value with the RTL Shop team. A good year
ago, we changed the strategy, increasing the
product range from 2,000 to around 7,000
items and increasing the number of customers.
Nonetheless, the restructuring process was
painful, and the losses for 2007 – not surprisingly for a massive restructuring – were in the low
eight-digit range. We had to acknowledge that
its performance didn't match our expectations.
RTL Interactive has just bought a 49-percent
stake in the social community Wer-kenntwen.de. How did this collaboration come
about?
Johannes Züll: We met its two founders Patrick
Ohler and Fabian Jager a few months ago and
at first mainly provided technical support for
their project. Since then, we’ve signed a permanent collaboration.
2
the RTL Group intranet
Why is Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland
buying a stake in Wer-kennt-wen.de?
Johannes Züll: Wer-kennt-wen.de is one of the
three fastest-growing social communities in
Germany. With its broad target audience focus,
Wer-kennt-wen.de caters to similar viewer segments as, for instance, RTL Television or Vox.
Besides, we were and continue to be very
impressed with the two young founders and
their management skills and innovative ability.
Wer-kennt-wen.de is a good match for the
strong channel homepages in our portfolio holdings and Clipfish.de, Wetter.de, Sport.de and
Vip.de.
Do you think that Wer-kennt-wen.de can
survive the tough competition in the social
communities sector?
Matthias Büchs: Yes, and the growth figures
bear out this opinion. StudiVZ and SchülerVZ
are focused on very specific demographics,
and in the case of Myspace and Facebook it
remains to be seen whether their American
offshoots will succeed in Germany –
Facebook’s target demographic is very similar
to that of StudiVZ. Wer-kennt-wen.de has learned from the mistakes made by Facebook,
StudiVZ and Xing, e.g. in the area of privacy
protection. The registration process shows
how carefully Wer-kennt-wen.de deals with this
issue. And thanks to its partnership with RTL
Interactive, the site doesn’t need to charge
users. Wer-kennt-wen.de has since surpassed
sites like Lokalisten and Xing; the number of
Page Impressions currently roughly corresponds to the sum of all sites currently published by Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland.
week 8
Do you believe that it is possible to make
money with social communities?
Matthias Büchs: Social communities are currently regarded as one of the major trends on
the Net. Although we feel the valuations and
hype are vastly exaggerated, as in the case of
Facebook, we do believe that we can operate
social communities at a profit, given a sensible
business plan and mainly based on advertising.
The management of Wer-kennt-wen.de will
have agencies pitch for handling its ad sales,
and IP Deutschland is bound to be one of them.
We would be delighted if IP were put in charge
of marketing, as this would push the company
to No.5 in the ranking of Germany's online ad
sales agents.
Wer-kennt-wen.de
The site’s users can send and receive
messages, set up photo albums, and participate in chats, blogs, forums and discussion groups. Registration is free of
charge. The Wer-kennt-wen.de community currently has around 1.5 million registered users, and records 250,000 new
registrations per month. 40 percent of
users log in daily. A 23 percent increase in
Unique Clients in a single month (1.336
million in January 2008 vs. 1.090 million in
December 2007 according to Nielsen)
makes Wer-kennt-wen.de the fastestgrowing German social network at this
point in time.
3
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
A Good Cause:
RTL Televizija Helps
Children In Need
RTL poma e djeci – the charity association
set up by RTL Group’s Croatian channel RTL
Televizija – looks back at a fruitful first year.
Croatia - 18 February 2008
In December 2006, RTL Group’s Croatian subsidiary RTL Televizija set out to put a smile back
on children’s faces by setting up a charity called RTL poma e djeci (RTL helps children) in
partnership with the Croatian daily newspaper
Vecernji list. The initiative primarily aims to
contribute to the well-being of Croatian children and give them a better future. RTL
poma e djeci provides support to existing
organisations that take care of ill, disabled or
poor children, focusing on organizations that
lack the funds to reach the public and need
financial assistance for implementing specific
projects. The initiative has amassed considerable achievements in the year that
has passed since its establishment.
and creative platform to communicate social
projects and raise funds. And our partnership
has proven extremely successful,” says
Mainusch.
The initiative started with a lottery organised by
the Croatian channel’s own employees.
Proceeds went to buy a laptop and special
software for children with communication
disorders in Zadar/Dalmatia. A “bicycle day”
organized by the Vecernji list newspaper and
several calls for donations by well-known TV
figures ensured that many children in Croatia
received much-needed funds in 2007.
“As the leading TV Station in
Croatia, it was a priority for us to
embrace our responsibility towards
the Croatian society and to give
back to the communities,” says
Christoph Mainusch, CEO RTL
Televizija and President of RTL
poma e djeci. “It was important for
us to demonstrate the sustainability
of our commitment and to build our
action on our business expertise
and core competencies.” To this
end, RTL Televizija not only reports
on deplorable social circumstances
to build viewers’ awareness for the
children’s needs, but also raises
donations for children’s relief organizations with quick, straight-forward
fund drives. “The idea of co-founding the association with Vecernji
list was to build the most efficient
Christoph Mainusch, CEO RTL Televizija
4
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
In under a year, RTL poma e djeci managed to
set up Croatia’s first charity fund and organize
the most successful campaign of the year. In
December 2007, with the support of Deutsche
Telekom, RTL Televizija initiated the Budi mi prijatelj (Be my friend) campaign: five children’s
relief projects were advertised in TV commercials and print ads for a whole month. Celebrity
project sponsors told TV audiences about the
initiatives and asked for their support. Budi mi
prijatelj culminated in a three-hour live show
starring the singer and RTL poma e djeci
ambassador Sanja Dole al and numerous other
celebrities. In all, the campaign raised around
€354,000 – an impressive tally for a country as
small as Croatia. For comparison: its population is just 5.4 percent of the German population, and per-capita income is 25.6 percent of
the German figure.
RTL poma e djeci has big plans for 2008 as
well. It intends to remain a major protagonist in
Croatia’s humanitarian aid sector, ensuring that
the aid provided is both effective and lasting,
and hopefully increasing the volume of donations even further. And of course, it aims to put
a smile back on the faces of as many Croatian
children as possible.
Sanja Osijek together with handicapped kids
A very active call center collecting viewers’ donations
The final show with celebrities and RTL Televizija’s staff
5
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
FremantleMedia is going to Disney World
In a landmark agreement between FremantleMedia and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts,
two juggernauts in American entertainment will combine forces to create one of the
most attractive theme park destinations in the world.
United States - 19 February 2008
Slated to debut in late 2008, an American Idol
themed attraction will take centre stage at the
Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, offering
visitors a small taste of the American Idol experience. Located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
theme park, the American Idol attraction will
follow the model of the high-energy show allowing Disney guests and prospective superstars
of all ages to take the stage, audition in front of
judges and then compete against others in a
daily recreation of the show itself. As the performers advance through successive rounds,
they will progress to hair and make-up, much
like the true Idols on TV, all the while setting
their sights on capturing the Idol crown. The
daily winners of that honour will receive an
automatic reservation, putting them in line for
the actual auditions for the TV show.
“The brand is owned by us, so we can extend
it in the off-air space however we want to,” said
Keith Hindle, FremantleMedia's vice president
of licensing. “It’s a very collaborative process,
Disney knows more about live stage productions than we ever will, and we know more
about our TV show than Disney ever will.
Exactly how this will manifest itself is something that will be mutually agreed by all parties.
We’re looking to Disney to see how their guests
like to be entertained”, Hindle said.
Application procedure under way for a new
intake of aspiring TV editors
The window for applications to the highly regarded RTL School of Journalism in
Germany for a coveted place on its TV editing course opened on 15 January and
will close on 1 March.
Germany - 15 February 2008
Just a few weeks into the application period,
600 enthusiasts have already registered on the
school’s website. Applicants are required to
send in a report along with a storyboard. The
top 100 candidates will be invited to Cologne in
June to take part in the application days in
Cologne. The final choice of budding journalists to be admitted to the school will be made
by a jury comprised of representatives from the
TV channel RTL Television, appropriate staff
from other media companies and a number of
media training experts.
The two-year course in TV editing will start in
January 2009 and will entail modules taught at
the school, numerous practical stints with the
news and magazine editing teams at RTL
Television, RTL II and N-TV, and on-the-job training in editing departments selected by the
students, e.g. in the print sector, at public-service channels or in production companies.
Participation in a workshop in New York under
an arrangement with the Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism will also give
the aspiring journalists a fascinating insight into
the workings of television in the USA.
When the RTL School of Journalism for TV and
Multimedia was set up in 2000, it was the first
training establishment of its kind. On 2 January
2001, the school opened its doors to students.
It has already established a solid reputation
among a very wide range of media companies.
6
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Successful debut for
Five News presenter
Natasha Kaplinsky
This week, Natasha Kaplinsky joined Five News
to anchor the 17.00 and 19.00 bulletins and
immediately achieved a market share of 7.5 per
cent for the teatime news broadcast.
Natasha Kaplinsky
United Kingdom - 21 February 2008
Before her move to Five, Kaplinsky had a successful five-year stint at the BBC, hosting
Breakfast and the Six O'Clock News. Her debut
on Five almost doubled the audience for the
channel's flagship news programme, with 1 million viewers tuning in at 17.00 and 400,000 at
19.00.
Natasha Kaplinsky said she joined Five News
because it gave her an opportunity to present
the news on her own. “A new show and team
was being put together and the opportunity to
be in a studio on my own was really exciting.
The team at Five had so many great ideas. It
was a big decision for me”, she said.
The new show was split into two bulletins, each
lasting 30 minutes. “We’ll be offering something
different to other channels’ news bulletins. We
want people to feel uplifted after watching the
news”, said the Strictly Come Dancing winner.
Kaplinsky said she likes presenting the news
because it’s highly addictive and she loves
being part of what is happening in the world.
“News presenting, however, is not just about
reading from an autocue. You get involved in all
kinds of aspects, such as the writing, style and
the way stories are told. It’s an incredibly hard
job. You have people shouting in your ear and
things going on around you, yet you have to be
as serene and calm as possible. It’s tough, but I
love the adrenaline”, she added.
Kaplinsky also conceded that she’d love to front
other programmes for Five in the future, though
for the time being she just wants to “concentrate on making sure the news goes well”.
Natasha Kaplinsky
7
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
One programme,
four platforms
Some rather eloquently call it the ‘strategy of
the cat with nine lives’. What the approach boils
down to is optimising the exploitation of content
by distributing it on several platforms. The way
in which the sixth season of Nouvelle Star is
being handled in France is a copybook example.
France - 21 February 2008
Nouvelle Star, the French version of Idols, is a
major highlight every Thursday at 20.50 on M6,
but the programme is also aired on W9 (M6's
‘little sister’, a DTT channel), and broadcast on
the Internet (www.m6.fr) and to mobile phones
(M6 Mobile by Orange). So fans of the show
can hardly fail to see every episode.
How does this work in practice?
First of all, when the studio lights go off on M6
at the end of the show, they come on again on
W9 with the live programme Nouvelle Star, ça
continue, presented by Alexandre Devoise,
which gives fans of the programme a peek
behind the scenes. How did the contestants
feel the evening went? How did the jury's criticisms go down with them? Do viewers agree
with the final outcome?
Secondly, the show is broadcast on the Web,
where the channel’s official website prominently features videos from the programme and
offers opportunities for user interaction. For
instance, as soon as the broadcast is over, visitors to the site can watch the highlights of the
programme for free, and the next day they can
chat online with the contestant who was eliminated the day before.
Thirdly, the show can be watched by mobile
phone users subscribing to M6 Mobile by
Orange, giving fans yet another chance to
watch videos taken from the show.
Finally, the icing on the cake is that Plug TV
also airs the show in Belgium.
www.nouvellestar.fr
8
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
New Top Model for
Holland
Sweating it out in luxury in the new, fourth
season of Holland’s Next Top Model on RTL 5,
full of unexpected changes.
The Netherlands - 20 February 2008
Nothing will be what it seems in the fourth season of the successful RTL 5 show Holland’s
Next Top Model. Starting on Monday, 31
March, 11 pretty young girls will compete for
the much-coveted title of Holland’s Next Top
Model. And this time around there’ll be more
surprises than ever before. Whereas the aspiring young models in the previous series had to
go without a lot of things in the remote hangar
that served as their home base, this time the
young ladies will be steeped in luxury, living in
a very comfortable apartment, the Top Model
Mansion, fitted out with every convenience.
Weekly assignments, challenges and photo
shoots will give the girls an idea of what awaits
them as a top model. But behind the apparent
glam and glitter of life on the catwalk, the
unsuspecting girls will have to face up to what
is actually a very tough reality. For the jury will
spring a fair few surprises on the young debutante models, sometimes when it suits them
and sometimes when it doesn’t. So is it all too
good to be true? It sure seems that way on an
evening photo shoot when the scantily clad
girls have to pose in outfits in terrible conditions...
RTL 5 Programming Director Remko van
Westerloo said: “We’re really looking forward to
the new series of Holland's Next Top Model.
Once again, there’ll be plenty of major surprises in store, both for viewers and for the young
lady contestants. In fact, the show’s fourth season promises to outdo all its predecessors”.
The winner will be awarded a modelling
contract worth EUR 75,000 from the renowned
modelling agency ModelMasters the Agency.
She will also grace the cover of the glossy weekly magazine Grazia and serve for four months
as the face of the Ici Paris XL Beauty Channel
at Ici Paris XL.
This season’s show is once again in the capable hands of former top model and writer
Daphne Deckers, who will also chair the jury.
Her fellow jurors will include a number of other
well-known faces, including the journalist and
presenter Rosalie van Breemen, the catwalk
coach and model Mariana Verkerk, and top
photographer Philip Riches. New to the jury is
Hilmar Mulder, editor-in-chief of the weekly
fashion glossy Grazia. Another new face this
season is that of the Ici Paris XL’s chief beautician and beauty coach Thijs Willekes. Naturally,
style guru and freelance fashion director
Bastiaan van Schaik will once again be on hand
to give the girls some support.
Each week the jury will decide who will stay in
with a chance of being crowned Holland’s Next
Top Model and who will be sent home. Will the
models manage to meet the stiff requirements
placed on them, or will they wilt under the
constant pressures heaped on them?
Holland’s Next Top Model new season starts
on Monday 31 March, at 20.30 on RTL 5.
9
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Kids love Ufa Kids
German market research company GfK ranks
Ufa Kids, the children’s label of Universum Film,
as the favourite maker of fiction in the children’s film market, attributing it a market share
of 16 per cent.
Germany - 21 February 2008
The Ufa Kids success story began in spring
2004 with its own logo animation and a simultaneous market offensive. Within just four
years, the company managed to raise its 5-percent market share in the children's entertainment segment by over 10 percentage points.
“Naturally we’re proud at having multiplied our
market share and become the clear market leader within such a short time”, said Universum
Film CEO Tania Reichert-Facilides. “GfK's current statistics confirm our constant efforts in
the children’s segment of the market over the
last few years. And these efforts will certainly
continue unabated in the future”, she added.
Ufa Kids’ portfolio includes such popular and
well-known titles as Pippi Langstrumpf, Michel
aus Lönneberga, Heidi, Wickie und die starken
Männer, Black Beauty and Nils Holgersson.
Over the coming year, too, the company’s portfolio will be expanded further, to include titles
like Tao Tao and Alice im Wunderland.
10
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
The 100,000 euro man
has been caught
The innovative action by Clipfish.de, which
linked the Internet to the real world, reached
a spectacular climax when the ‘100,000 euro
man’ was discovered in a train on the way to
Magdeburg.
The 100,000 euro man
Germany - 15 February 2008
The 100,000 euro man set out on 6 February on
a mission to visit the capitals of all 16 German
federal states in 21 days and avoid being
unmasked while completing the challenge. But
after just 10 days, would-be ‘invisible man’
Matthias S. had to concede defeat, after being
photographed by Marcel K., one of more than
8,000 registered Clipfish.de users hot on his
trail. A delighted Marcel K. will now receive the
prize money of EUR 100,000.
Clipfish.de project manager Mathias Blüm said:
“We’re very happy with the action, which proved that we are capable of meeting our target
group’s expectations. We, an online platform,
made a foray into the real world, captured people’s imagination and attracted their attention”.
out for personal reasons, so
Matthias S. took up the challenge
instead. But travelling through
Germany without being recognised turned out to be a major
challenge.
out
Check
e/
pfish.d
i
l
c
.
w
nn
ww
uroma
e
0
0
0
ation
100
m
r
o
f
in
r
e
for furth
The candidate was equipped with
a mobile navigation and communication device. His GPS coordinates
were regularly updated and posted on a
map on Clipfish.de. That way, after just a
short time lapse, anyone playing the game
could see where he was on the Internet or on
their mobile phone and take up the chase. The
hunters were given additional help in the form
of riddles providing clues about the 100,000
euro man’s next destination.
The action was launched by
Clipfish.de, and within a few
hours of the start on 6 February
several thousand bounty hunters
had
registered
on
Clipfish.de and formed the first
posses to hunt down the
100,000 euro man, whose destinations and puzzles were the
subject of lively discussion on
various forums. Unfortunately
the first candidate had to pull
Marcel K. (on the left) caught the 100,000 euro man (on the right)
11
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
France bemoans the
loss of Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador
When it was announced on Wednesday, 13
February that the celebrated singer had died in
Paris at the age of 90, RTL Radio turned its
programme schedule upside down and
contacted various artists who had been friends
with Henri Salvador to pay final homage to this
exceptional master crooner.
France - 15 February 2008
On Wednesday, between 14.30 and 16.00, La
tête dans les étoiles, the programme presented
by Laurent Boyer, was devoted entirely to Henri
Salvador and featured tributes paid to him by
Parisians and people in the music business.
Culture and Communication Minister Christine
Albanel told RTL Radio: “I found him a very
endearing person and champion of the French
chanson. (…) He was with us for a very long
time. I’m deeply saddened, because I was a
great admirer.”
The mention of Henri Salvador’s name brings
many things to mind. First and foremost a singer with a voice as sweet as honey, but also an
inimitable laugh, cream-coloured suits and a
certain natural elegance and joking and horsing
around on TV, e.g. dressed up as Cleopatra or
a Juanita complete with braided hair. Once,
referring to a French version of the game of
bowls, he subtly and rather poetically summed
up old age by saying: “When you play pétanque, the balls get heavier.”
Henri Salvador led an exceptional life for a native of Cayenne in French Guiana. He arrived in
Paris in 1928 at the tender age of 11, finding a
metropolis alive with the sound of popular waltzes, dotted with open-air cafés, dance halls
and variety theatres: the home of the unforgettable Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier. There
he soon joined the orchestra of American jazz
violinist Eddie South. “I played with all thegreats. The Mills Brothers wanted to take me
back to America, Duke Ellington too, but I was
still a minor,” Henri once said.
Henri Salvador issued his album Révérence in
2006 and bade his farewell to the music scene
in December 2007. France will remember him
for classics like Syracuse, Une chanson douce,
Zorro est arrivé, Le lion est mort ce soir, Juanita
Banana, Le travail c’est la santé and many,
many more great songs.
Juanita Banana
12
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Awards for Antena 3
Antena 3 won four TP de Oros at the 36th prestigious TP de Oro television awards in
Madrid on Wednesday, 13 February.
Spain - 15 February 2008
In with the new in Luxembourg
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg’s second channel sports a new logo and offers viewers a whole new
programme schedule.
Luxembourg - 18 February 2008
Prize awarded to Deutschland sucht den Superstar Winner
RTL music artist Mark Medlock walked away with the Newcomer prize at the Echo Awards
on Friday 15 February. Up to 5.83 million viewers watched the ceremony live on
RTL Television.
Germany - 18 February 2008
Enjoying a high rate among opinion leaders
According to the well-known study by international agency network Edelman, N-TV is the
third most consulted news source behind Spiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Germany - 18 February 2008
Breaking Into Tesco
Five recently announced that it has commissioned Ricochet Productions to make a brand
new six-part feature series called Breaking Into Tesco.
United Kingdom - 19 February 2008
Gay community honours Alles was zählt
Over 5,000 readers of the nationwide gay magazine Blu voted RTL Television’s daily soap
Alles was zählt Best National TV Format.
Germany - 20 February 2008
13
the RTL Group intranet
week 8
Bravo Supershow back on RTL II
RTL II will be screening this year’s Bravo Supershow in Nuremberg on 3 May. It will be the
annual music event's first visit to the city. The chosen venue, the Arena Nürnberger
Versicherung, promises to be a great backdrop for the presentation of this year’s main
chart toppers and winning recipients of Bravo Otto awards.
Germany - 20 February 2008
The search for France’s sixth Nouvelle Star begins
Long lines of waiting, eager-faced young people. The excitement in the air is palpable as
they await their first big performance. And then, the panel of judges who will either listen
intently or shake their heads – that is Nouvelle Star.
France - 20 February 2008
People
Jean-Marc Dorangeon appointed management representative for entertainment
programmes on RTL Radio France
France - 15 February 2008
Jean-Marc Dorangeon’s appointment to this
post was based on a recommendation by
Director of Entertainment Programmes Frédéric
Jouve.
He was previously a representative of the general programme management team at RTL 2 and
Fun Radio. In 1996 he was involved in setting
up the research department of RTL Group’s
radio arm in France.
Jean-Marc Dorangeon’s main job will be to
develop the radio station’s marketing activities
and programmes, collaborating closely with the
respective teams of staff.
14
http://backstage.rtlgroup.fr
http://backstage.rtlgroup.com
http://backstage.rtlgroup.de
Publisher
RTL Group
Frieden
45, Bd Pierre
bourg
m
L-1543 Luxe
n
n, Productio
Editor, Desig
arketing
RTL Group
ications and M
un
m
om
C
te
Corpora