"Difficult situation"

German media quake: RTL cuts 600 jobs!

Around 600 RTL Deutschland employees are losing their jobs. This is the broadcaster's response to declining advertising revenues in traditional television and to changes in the media market.(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

RTL, Germany's largest private broadcaster, is cutting around 600 of its 7500 jobs! "At all locations," emphasized CEO Stephan Schmitter on Tuesday. According to him, weak advertising markets and a difficult economy make the restructuring necessary.

"There are two major challenges that we have to solve in order to be successful in the long term," Schmitter told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. One of them is the profound change in the media market, the other is the difficult economic situation.

RTL Deutschland is part of the international RTL Group, Europe's largest commercial broadcasting group. In Germany, the company operates RTL, n-tv and Vox as well as the streaming service RTL+.

With the dynamic growth of RTL+ and the planned takeover of Sky, we have a strong basis for future success.

RTL-Deutschland-Chef Stephan Schmitter.

Around 600 RTL Deutschland employees will lose their jobs. This is the broadcaster's response to declining advertising revenues in traditional television and to changes in the media market.(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Focus on streaming
According to RTL, linear TV advertising revenues in Germany have fallen by more than 20 percent since 2019. At the same time, the Group has invested heavily in the expansion of the RTL+ streaming service, whose subscriber numbers have risen from 800,000 (end of 2019) to over 6.6 million. With continued dynamic growth in all key figures - revenue, paying subscribers, usage time - RTL+ is on track to become profitable in the 2026 financial year, the company announced. "This overall situation makes it imperative that we reposition ourselves structurally now," said Schmitter.

According to the broadcaster, the number of subscribers to the RTL+ streaming service has risen to over 6.6 million.(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Special severance program for those made redundant
According to RTL Germany, the 600 jobs affected include both full-time and part-time employees. The restructuring is to be implemented in a socially responsible manner. "The social plan that we have negotiated with the works council is intended to avoid redundancies as far as possible," said Schmitter. Instead, the affected employees are to be relieved through partial retirement, severance payments or other support offers.

No immediate cuts to the linear program
For viewers, the restructuring does not mean any immediate cuts to the linear program. "We will continue to broadcast 24 hours a day around the clock and want to defend our market-leading positions among 14 to 49-year-olds and 14 to 59-year-olds accordingly," said Schmitter. At the same time, he announced that program budgets will increasingly be shifted from linear TV to high-quality streaming content. "We plan to continue investing over one billion in our content every year, but to redistribute the budgets in favor of high-quality streaming content."

RTL Germany buys Sky
"With the dynamic growth of RTL+ and the planned acquisition of Sky, we have a strong basis for future success. Our content and our journalistic responsibility remain at the center of our activities - with targeted investments in entertainment, sports and news as well as new technologies for our audience of today and tomorrow," added Schmitter.