RTL pay-TV plan

[BGonaSTICK]

Germany’s giant commercial television group RTL will enter the pay-TV market on 1 December with the launch of its first three digital thematic channels RTL Crime, RTL Living and Passion.

While the first two services are operated solely by the Cologne-based broadcaster, the third is a joint-venture with TV production company UFA Film & TV Produktion. The three channels - all of which are full 24-hour services - will initially be available on the pay-TV platform “tividiSAT” which cable operator Unity Media offers on Astra (19.2° East) to DTH households.

The package acts as a complementary service to the company’s premium channel Arena which shows all games of the German soccer league Bundesliga live. A monthly subscription to “tividiSAT” costs €9.90.

Shortly thereafter, RTL’s channels will join the “tividiFAMILY” package which Unity Media’s cable subsidiaries ish and iesy market to their customers for a monthly price of €7.90. Through “tividiFAMILY” the services will also be available with local cable operator Kabel BW.

The channels will also form part of the IPTV packages offered by Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia’s German subsidiary HanseNet on their broadband networks. “Exciting crime series, moving daily series and service-oriented reality formats are important for RTL and represent our family of channels. With these new digital channels we will consequently strengthen our digital offers around our free-to-air TV channels,” said Anke Schäferkordt, CEO of RTLTelevision.

Klaus Holtmann, currently Head of Projects at RTL will be heading the new division. With its move, RTL follows rival broadcasting group Pro7/SAT.1 which started two new channels, dubbed SAT1 Comedy and Kabel 1 Classics since 1 June.