German telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom has renewed its streaming pact with RTL Deutschland, extending the agreement for an additional five years, the companies announced this week.
The streaming agreement originally began in 2020, and allows Deutsche Telekom to include RTL Plus Premium (stylized as RTL+ Premium) in its Magenta TV service without any extra fees for pay TV subscribers. The bundle unlocks more than 55,000 hours of TV and film content for Magenta TV customers, the companies said.
“Our streaming businesses in Germany, France and Hungary continue to grow dynamically in all key dimensions: number of paying subscribers, viewing hours, subscription and advertising revenue,” Thomas Rabe, the CEO of RTL Group, said in a statement. ” We have defined a clear path to reach profitability with our streaming business in 2026. Renewing the successful cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and RTL Deutschland for another five years contributes significantly to our strategic goals. We will continue to invest in first-class content and start the migration of RTL Plus in Germany to the bedrock streaming technology platform in 2025.”
RTL Plus Premium goes beyond video content, unlocking access to music and audiobook content for subscribers or those who receive the service for free as part of Magenta Plus. In 2024, RTL Deutschland said it had more than six million subscribers to RTL Plus, though it wasn’t clear how many of those customers were paying for the service compared to those who were receiving it as part of Magenta TV.
Executives at RTL Deutschland said they hope to have around nine million paying subscribers by 2026, to include customers who pay for RTL Plus in Hungary and M6 Plus in France.
