week 24 - RTL Group

week 24
the RTL Group intranet
Newsletter
Finance
Meeting
2007
Interview with
Elmar Heggen
News
Germany
RTL Television extends its contract for
Domino Day
Teamworx to film the hijacking of the
Landshut
People
Belgium
Birgit Hönsch appointed new
head of RTL Enterprises
Keen interest in RTL TVI's election
coverage
North America
FremantleMedia and @radical.media form
alliance for the distribution of content
Germany
the RTL Group intranet
week 24
“Reinforcing close cooperation and
fostering common understanding between
the various Finance teams”
On 4 and 5 June, 100 finance executives from RTL Group companies and the
Corporate Centre met in Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxembourg) for the RTL Group Finance
Meeting. In an interview with Backstage, Elmar Heggen, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
and Head of Corporate Centre, explains why the meeting was not only about figures
and financial guidelines, but also about networking and team spirit.
Luxembourg - 07.06.2007
100 RTL Group finance executives
Elmar, you were appointed the new CFO of
RTL Group last September. Was one of your
first decisions to hold a RTL Group Finance
Meeting?
Yes. It's been several years since RTL Group's
last Finance Meeting, and since then the Group
has changed significantly. My overriding priority for this meeting was to reinforce the close
co-operation and common understanding between the various Finance teams throughout the
Group.
Why do you think this is important?
At RTL Group, we all operate in a decentralised
environment, often physically far apart from
each other. If the Group is to continue to thrive
by developing new synergies and enhancing
existing ones, our executives need to be able to
pick up the phone or send an e-mail to colleagues operating outside of their profit centre,
and feel comfortable doing so. So in a fun way
the conference also concentrated on making
sure that our executives met new faces and
established new contacts. The first day of our
meeting ended with a team-building event in
which all 100 executives came together to
create a giant samba percussion band. In less
than two hours, professional percussionists
managed to teach the different groups the
basics for each instrument and blend them into
an explosive samba performance. The response to this exercise was very positive.
What was on the agenda of the meeting?
We had a mix of presentations by our profit
centres and Corporate Centre, covering a
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the RTL Group intranet
variety of finance issues. For example,
Alexander Glatz, the head of RTL Group's
Controlling and Investments department, presented the planned improvements for our
monthly management report, one of our key
reporting instruments. In future, the management report will become a tool used by top
management, on the one hand to monitor the
performance of local operations, and on the
other hand to gain a more aggregated, comprehensive overview of the Group's figures. JeanMarie Bourhis, deputy CFO responsible for
consolidation accounting, transactions and
reporting systems, gave an overview of the
expected changes in accounting rules. As M6 is
clearly a leader in the domain of diversification,
its deputy CFO, Jean-Marc Duplaix, reported
on the financial challenges arising from managing diversification businesses,
taking as his example the business particularities associated
with his group's running of the
football club Girondins de
Bordeaux. I'm convinced that
this kind of information-sharing
across the Group's various profit centres is essential and
benefits the whole Group.
So the presentations were all
about financial issues?
Not at all. Our CEO, Gerhard
Zeiler, gave an update on RTL
Group's corporate strategy,
and Luxembourg Minister for
Communications Jean-Louis
week 24
Schiltz briefly addressed the participants before lunch. We also invited two external speakers
to challenge us and provoke a debate about the
future of broadcasting.
Here's our last question: How about RTL
Group's new intranet Backstage? Do you
like it? If so, what's your favourite feature of
the new site?
The new Backstage is outstanding! I really like
the many new tools and services it offers, especially Backstage Messenger, which is already
very keenly used by many members of my
department. They find the Messenger a quick
and easy way to communicate. I'm confident
that people will even use it internationally,
throughout the Group, to keep in touch. And as
I said before, that's very positive and important.
Gerhard Zeiler
Elmar Heggen
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Jean-Louis Schiltz, Luxembourg
Minister of Communications
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week 24
Keen interest in RTL
TVI's election coverage
Viewers were attracted in their droves to RTL
TVI programmes reporting on the general election in Belgium, giving the channel very high
ratings.
Belgium - 13.06.2007
On 10 June 2007, a new parliament was elected in Belgium. RTL TVI covered the event in
several special programmes, and the way that
viewers responded proved once again that for
most Belgian viewers RTL TVI is their preferred
source of news and information, both in its preelection and special election-day coverage.
Between 18.30 and 22.30, a total of 335,275
viewers (a market share of 22 per cent) tuned in
to RTL TVI's election specials, beating the
ratings achieved by its rival and public broadcaster RTBF and making RTL TVI the clear market leader during this timeframe.
The special editions of the news programme Le
Journal broadcast at 13.00 and 19.00 on the
day of the election scored impressive market
shares of 42.5 per cent and 35.4 per cent respectively.
In the run-up to the election, RTL TVI's biggest
success was the programme Face aux Belges
(Facing the Belgians), shown on 8 June. In that
programme, Elio di Rupo, the head of the
French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) and
Minister-President of Wallonia, spontaneously
answered questions put by the public. That
programme gained the channel a market share
of over 25.8 per cent.
RTL editorial staff “Fédérales 2007”
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week 24
Teamworx to film the
hijacking of the
Landshut
Nico Hofmann
Many years of research by the famous documentary filmmaker Maurice Philip Remy, who
unearthed spectacular new findings about the
hostage drama on board the Lufthansa passenger aircraft Landshut, have borne fruit in the
shape of the script to the TV film Mogadishu
Welcome.
Germany - 12.06.2007
Mogadishu airport in Somalia was the setting for
one of the most spectacular hostage rescues of
all time. On 18 October 1977, 30 men from
Germany's legendary GSG 9 antiterrorism unit
stormed the Landshut.
Mogadishu Welcome will be a highly emotional
reconstruction of the nightmare experienced by
the 86 innocent passengers on board the
hijacked aircraft. The film will trace the aircraft's
odyssey from its start in Majorca to Rome,
Cyprus, Bahrain, Dubai, Aden and the dramatic
showdown in Mogadishu.
The film provides a realistic portrayal of international terrorism, with good winning emerging victorious for once. It will delve into the true events
behind the hijacking for the first time.
The producers of Mogadishu Welcome will be
Gabriela Sperl, Nico Hofmann, Jürgen Schuster
and Christian Rohde; the responsible editors will
be Hans-Wolfgang Jurgan, Carl Bergengruen
and Manfred Hattendorf; the director will be
Roland Suso Richter and the cinematographer
Holly Fink.
The shooting of the 90-minute TV film will probably begin in September 2007. The film's release
will be accompanied by the publication of a
book and also a documentary by Maurice Philipe
Remy. The film will be produced by Teamworx,
acting on behalf of ARD Degeto and SWR.
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the RTL Group intranet
week 24
RTL Television extends
its contract for Domino
Day
Domino Day will continue to be shown on RTL
Group channels over the next few years, after
acquiring exclusive rights to the programme in
an all-inclusive package for the Group's entire
family of channels (except in the Netherlands).
Germany - 11.06.2007
Jörg Graf, Head of RTL's Business Affairs
Department, who led the negotiations, said:
"I'm delighted we succeeded in acquiring
exclusive rights to Domino Day for all RTL
Group's channels. In addition to the TV rights,
for the first time ever we also pre-negotiated
the production packages for the channels
involved".
RTL Head of Entertainment Tom Sänger said:
"I'm really happy that we'll be continuing to
work with Endemol and the creative mind
behind Domino Day, Robin Weijers. Domino
Day is definitely one of the top brands among
RTL's event programmes and its success over
many years proves viewers' strong interest in
this unique record show".
Over the past few years, the major event show,
in which domino world records are regularly
set, has attained an average market share of
over 30% in the target group of 14 to 49-yearolds for RTL Television in Germany.
The next Domino Day will be broadcast on RTL
Television in Germany in November, as in previous years. Jörg Graf (joerg.graf@rtl.de) is at
the disposal of all RTL Group partners as the
person to contact in connection with the acquisition of TV rights.
Domino Day is also a great success for
RTL Group’s channels in Belgium,
Hungary, Croatia, Russia and the UK.
The last show in November 2006 commanded for example a market share of
22.1 per cent on RTL TVI (target group:
18-54-year-olds), 39.1 per cent on RTL
Klub (target group: 18-49-year-olds)
and 45.8 per cent on RTL Televizija in
Croatia (target group: 18-49-year-olds).
Jörg Graf
Tom Sänger
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week 24
Legendary show host
Bob Barker bows out
FremantleMedia's game show The Price is Right
has been wildly successful in the USA for decades now. And one of the reasons for its runaway
success is definitely the show's host, Bob
Barker, who has finally called it a day, after 35
years on the job.
Bob Barker
North America - 11.06.2007
In the USA, The Price Is Right is unthinkable
without Bob Barker. The 83-year-bowed out in
style on 6 June 2007, and CBS will broadcast
his final appearance on the programme on 15
June. For weeks, his fans had been camping
out in front of the TV studio's gates. Tickets for
the show were already sold out long ago.
Bob Barker started working on The Price Is
Right on 4 September 1972, and his face soon
became synonymous with the show. In an
impressive career, Bob Barker won 17 Emmy
Awards, including 12 as best show host. In
1999 he was given a Lifetime Achievement
Emmy Award, and in 2004 he entered the Hall
of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences. This year he was again nominated
for two Emmy Awards.
FremantleMedia's
The Price Is Right is the
top-ranking daytime TV
show in the USA.
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the RTL Group intranet
week 24
104.6 RTL gave away
the first ever wedding
in Berlin's Olympic
Stadium
Jörg, Petra and Marlitt Hielscher, radio presenter 104.6 RTL
Football fans Petra and Jörg from Berlin
swapped rings, not football shirts, as they
were the first couple to marry in Berlin's
Olympic Stadium, thanks to 104.6 RTL!
Germany - 11.06.2007
The starry-eyed couple have been together for
over 12 years, and were finally set to tie the
knot at the home ground of their favourite football team at 14.00 on 9 June.
104.6 RTL, Berlin's hit radio station has arranged to make the love-struck pair the first
newly-weds to emerge from the stadium's chapel after a wedding billed as the most original
of the year.
The stadium chapel was opened in May 2006,
just before the World Cup, and was originally
open only to visiting teams and their support
staff. The chapel is now open to visitors taking
part on a guided tour through the facilities.
Sports fans from Berlin and elsewhere may also
use the chapel to attend mass, get married,
christen their babies, say their prayers or hold
commemorative services.
FremantleMedia and @radical.media form
alliance for the distribution of content
Under the terms of a development-oriented deal concluded between
FremantleMedia and @radical.media, the two companies will cooperate
on worldwide content distribution across all platforms.
North America - 08.06.2007
The new arrangement is expected to bring at
least two new television programmes to
audiences worldwide in 2008.
The deal was prompted by the two companies’
joint success with the interview series
Iconoclasts, which is poised to start its third
season. FremantleMedia has already distributed the series developed by @radical.media in
39 countries.
@radical.media is known for its entertaining
productions and know-how in graphic and
interactive design and photography. Some of
the company’s recent successful branded
series include the reality shows The Gamekillers and Fast Cars and Superstars: Gillette
Young Guns Celebrity Race. Also credited to
@radical.media are the Emmy Award-winning
series 10 Days That Changed the World, the
Academy Award-winning The Fog of War and
the Grammy Award-winning Concert for
George.
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the RTL Group intranet
week 24
Filming starts on gripping
thriller about attempted
assassination of the
Pope
Piazza San Pietro (Vatican) today
Phoebus Film, a UFA company in Germany,
is currently filming Das letzte Aufgebot (The Last
Call) for RTL Television with a cast of international stars.
Germany - 08.06.2007
The Pope is about to visit Cologne. The
German security services are not the only ones
working all out in preparation for the event due
to be attended by thousands of believers.
Alongside the Vatican's secret service, two officers from the German Federal Criminal Police
Office (BKA) are also responsible for protecting
the Holy Father.
Additional scenes will also be shot in southern
Spain. The cast includes Heiner Lauterbach,
Gesine Cukrowski, Jürgen Tarrach, Jean-Yves
Berteloot and Gottfried John.
Das letzte Aufgebot (working title) is a Phoebus
Film production commissioned by RTL.
Markus Brunnemann is the producer.
This is no easy task as evidence mounts
indicating that an assassination attempt is
being planned. An exciting development
of connections between the individual
characters creates a gripping thriller in
which belief in oneself comes into conflict
with the power of the Catholic church.
The production will be filmed with a cast
of stars in Cologne from 14 June.
Heiner Lauterbach
Jean-Yves Berteloot
Piazza San Piedro (Vatican) in 1909
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the RTL Group intranet
week 24
RTL TVI / Plug TV:
more programmes for
PlayStation Portable
users
RTL's Belgian family has expanded its
cooperation with Sony Benelux.
Belgium – 07.06.2007
Four daily RTL TVI news bulletins and numerous programmes broadcast by Plug TV can
now be watched by viewers at any time on their
PlayStation Portable (PSP).
RTL Digital’s celebrity magazine RTL Stars and
numerous programmes shown on Plug TV,
including Blog Buster, Plug Hi-fi and Plug
Paparazzi.
As from 6 June, it is possible to download
these programmes from a PC to a Sony
PlayStation Portable. All the viewer has to do is
surf to the www.rtl.be or www.plugtv.be website and then watch these programmes anywhere they choose, thanks to Sony technology.
RTL Belgium is happy to have expanded its
offer and said in a press release: "This agreement shows that RTL is offering its viewers the
choice to watch what they want, when they
want, how they want".
The news bulletins available for
downloading are the 10.00, 12.00,
15.00 and 18.00 bulletins. Until now,
the only news programme that
could be viewed in this way was the
19.00 bulletin. Other programmes
available in the same way include
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the RTL Group intranet
week 24
Record ratings for D&CO on M6
With an audience share of 37.4 per cent in its target group, the lifestyle
magazine D&CO is one of M6's biggest draws.
France - 13.06.2007
Phoenix Film to shoot a movie about Romy Schneider's life
Together with broadcasting corporation SWR, Phoenix Film, a German
subsidiary of UFA, is planning to make a TV film about the iconic actress
Romy Schneider.
Germany - 13.06.2007
Super RTL's website Element Girls is causing
a furore on the Internet
In May 2007, Super RTL's elementgirls.de website scored a
sensational 33,449,340 page impressions. The site is aimed at girls
between 10 and 15 years old and contains news, fun items and tips
to guide the girls on their way to adulthood.
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Germany - 13.06.2007
Super RTL download portal offers new audio
books for children
The freshly launched Geolino extra audio book library is now available
for downloading from Super RTL's Internet platform toni.de, marking
the start of a joint venture between Geolino and the most successful
children's audio book portal.
Germany - 12.06.2007
Advantage Club RTL !
Club RTL in Belgium will be broadcasting the famous Grand Slam
tournament, Wimbledon, from the very first serve on 25 June to the
winning shot in the last match on 8 July 2007.
Belgium - 08.06.2007
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the RTL Group intranet
Birgit Hönsch
week 24
Birgit Hönsch appointed
new head of
RTL Enterprises
Germany – 12.06.2007
Hönsch will be stepping into the shoes of
Holger Strecker, who after seven years in the
post will henceforth be in charge of developing
the new RTL Interactive subsidiary RTL Games,
which will focus on the growth market of computer and video games.
Hönsch has been in the music and TV business
since 1968, working as a product manager for
the music companies EMI and Mercury
Records, among others. She also ran the TV
Department at the music publishing house Kick
music and served as marketing manager at
Sony Music, where she was responsible for the
group's Columbia Records subsidiary.
Between 1998 and April 2001, Hönsch was
Head of Merchandising & Music Production at
Grundy UFA TV Produktions GmbH. Since April
2001, she has been in charge of FremantleMedia Licensing Group's licensing business in
Germany and its worldwide music publishing
activities.
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