German broadcaster RTL has created a new streaming package that aims to take on Netflix with content that goes far beyond movies and TV shows.
Earlier this month, RTL Germany debuted its new “super bundle” that offers live access to RTL channels and sports programming, including UEFA soccer matches and NFL games, along with more than 100,000 audiobooks from Penguin Random House and over 120 million songs and audio tracks from Deezer.
The package is intended to better compete with foreign streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, which have matured in the German market at the expense of traditional media brands there.
While its parent company is based in Luxembourgh, RTL Germany stands on its own thanks in large part to its high penetration of broadcast and cable networks that have been among the highest-rated linear channels in the country. Those channels include the flagship general entertainment network RTL, as well as family-focused Super RTL, secondary network RTL Zwei and news channel N-TV.
As more German television viewers gravitate toward streaming services, RTL Group forged plans two years ago to offer a super bundle of streaming services to take on its competitors. Those plans were delayed due to various macroeconomic conditions brought on by the two-year coronavirus pandemic and a slowdown in the advertising and pay television markets that has impacted media firms in other countries.
RTL Group feels that now is the best time to launch its super bundle, which it hopes will put it on parity with Netflix and Prime Video, if not eventually surpass them in terms of customers served.
“From recent studies, we know that users are picking a streaming service, they pay close attention to where they can get the greatest variety of content at the most attractive price,” Thomas Rabe, the CEO of RTL Group, said earlier this month.
For this reason, RTL plans to offer its super bundle for around €13 per month (about U.S. $13.75 per month).
“Everyone is talking about bundling, which is why we’re proud to this week be launching the first multimedia app,” Matthias Dang, the co-CEO of RTL Germany, said in a statement.
The new super bundle will exist within the RTL Plus app, which has around 4 percent of the streaming market in Germany, according to data from the marketing firm Kantar.
