Keystone-SDA
The German media giant RTL Group will acquire the activities of its European Sky rival in the German -speaking area, with the objective of establishing a European competitor to the world streaming giants.
(Keystone-ATS) RTL signed a final agreement on Friday to acquire the offer of the Sky group in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg, a statement said.
“By bringing together the RTL and Sky forces, the future company will be able to compete with continuous broadcasting platforms on a global scale,” added the company’s press release, a subsidiary of the German editor Bertelsmann.
The Sky sports offer, which notably holds the rights of the German and English football championship as well as Formula 1, will be added to the RTL Group information and entertainment channels.
With their respective streaming platforms, WOW and RTL+, the future company will bring together a total of 11.5 million subscribers.
The American Comcast, a mother company of Sky, will receive a fixed amount of 150 million euros, to which can be added within the next five years a variable part of up to 377 million euros depending on the performance of the RTL action.
At the opening of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, it took up 13.11%, at 35.90 euros while the MDAX index of the average values of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange which it is a part of 0.07%.
This acquisition is the most important in the history of the group based in Cologne. Related to 2024, it would have boosted the annual turnover of RTL by 30%, to 8.2 billion euros.
The two companies will remain independent from each other until the validation of the financial authorities, expected for 2026.
The European audiovisual sector wishes, for the moment without success, to develop a competitor in the face of the American Netflix and HBO streaming behemoths.
Prosiebensat.1, German rival of RTL, is currently suitable by the Czech PPF and the Italian Mediaforceurope, who also have the project to create a large European media group.
