How Geo Television Takes Viewers on Voyages of Discovery

week 20 / 15 May 2014 FASCINATION AND CURIOSITY How Geo Television takes viewers on voyages of discovery Germany North America United Kingdom Positive responses American Idol will “The future of television for Team Wallraff continue in the US relies on digital and traditional TV-makers working together” week 20 / 15 May 2014 FASCINATION AND CURIOSITY How Geo Television takes viewers on voyages of discovery Germany North America United Kingdom Positive responses American Idol will “The future of television for Team Wallraff continue in the US relies on digital and traditional TV-makers working together” Cover Photo taken from Die Reise der Pinguine broadcast on Geo Television Publisher RTL Group 45, Bd Pierre Frieden L-1543 Luxembourg Editor, Design, Production RTL Group Corporate Communications & Marketing k before y hin ou T p r in t backstage.rtlgroup.com backstage.rtlgroup.fr backstage.rtlgroup.de QUICK VIEW Positive responses for Team Wallraff RTL Television p.7–8 American Idol will continue in the US FremantleMedia North America p.9 Geo Television: “Noble, helpful, good” “The future of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland television relies p.4–6 on digital and traditional TV-makers working together” FremantleMedia p.10 Big Picture p.11 SHORT NEWS p.12 PEOPLE p.13–14 “NOBLE, On 8 May 2014 at 20:15, Geo Television, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s new pay-TV HELPFUL, channel, took to the airwaves. Backstage presents a portrait of the new station. GOOD” Germany – 15 May 2014 Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland Klaus Holtmann, Head of Pay-TV Channels at Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, Anke Schäferkordt, CEO of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and Peter-Matthias Gaede, Editor-in-Chief of Geo magazine 4 A high fence surrounds the grounds of the ESA in right partner for successfully transferring our brand Cologne. It is a bit remote, near the airport, across to television. Practically all of the formats have from the airbase. Offi cially, the area is not part of managed to replicate the visual strength of the Germany: it is an extraterritorial area, which means magazine on screen. Last not least, we like the your ID gets checked at the entrance. The area is design our RTL colleagues have come up with: in fact European. This is the home of the European noble, helpful, good.” Astronaut Corps, where astronauts prepare for their six-month missions to the International Space Peter Kerckhoff, Head of Content & Portal at Station ISS. This is where childhood dreams come Deutsche Telekom, said: “We are delighted that true. And this is also where the latest addition to two strong brands – two fl agships – have teamed Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s family of up to give birth to Geo Television. It gives us an channels made its on-air debut. opportunity to intensify the business relationship we’ve had since 2007 with the digital channels Passion, RTL Living and RTL Crime. We can only distribute content if it is well made. You have a team that works with passion and knows what it’s doing.” Right on cue at 20:15, Geo Television went on the air. Like the evening at the Space Centre, the launch-day programming revolves around science and technology. The documentary Hawking kicked things off with a unique insight into the world of the British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous scientists of our time. Space enthusiasts were then treated to the Klaus Holtmann documentary Im Schatten des Mondes (In The Shadow Of The Moon), a retrospective of the Klaus Holtmann, Head of Pay-TV Channels at US space programme in the 1960s and 1970s. Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, welcomed the guests: “Channel launches are often celebrated with big parties and lots of celebrities. But that wouldn’t fi t with Geo. We’re here today because we have something in common: Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, Geo magazine and space travel are all about amazement, inspiring people, and making a difference. “ He talked about his own fi rst experiences with Geo magazine – looking through back issues in his uncle’s attic: “Even as a little boy I went traveling with the green Geo magazines – from the Sea of Tranquillity on the moon, to Ancient Troy with Schliemann. It fascinated me, amazed me and made me curious for more. And that is exactly the point of Geo Television, too.” Peter-Matthias Gaede, Editor-in-Chief of Geo, was excited about the launch of the new television channel: “Geo has moved with the times, evolving continuously. Today, I am proud to say that Geo is Germany’s number one monthly magazine in terms of circulation. There was only one thing missing: television. I am convinced that in Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, we have found the The launch of Apollo 11 featured in In The Shadow Of The Moon Next > 5 Reinhold Ewald Peter-Matthias Gaede (front) and Hans Demmel, Managing Director of N-TV, in the Soyuz simulator – with Anke Schäferkordt curiously watching the exercise The guests in Cologne were given an impression The channel offers excellent documentaries with a of the world of space travel as it is today – focus on nature, technology, exploration, adventure accompanied by the lively narrative of Reinhold and world history. During its fi rst month of Ewald. Now 57, Ewald was part of the “Mir-97” broadcast, Geo Television will show more than mission and spent about three weeks in space. He 40 programmes for the fi rst time on German TV. gave a fi rst-hand account of how it feels to look at The new special-interest digital channel is available the Earth from above. in HD quality from launch. It complements Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s existing pay-TV A “space walk” on the grounds of the European offerings RTL Crime, RTL Living and Passion, which Astronaut Centre offered guests unique insights into were launched in 2006. the various stages of training budding astronauts undergo. They were given access to the training Geo Television’s fi rst distribution partner is models of the European space freighter ATV Deutsche Telekom. From now on, the channel is and Columbus laboratory, and allowed to try included in Deutsche Telekom’s Entertain range in their hand at docking a Russian Soyuz capsule the ‘Documentary’ package – in High Defi nition, if to the ISS in a simulator. Visitors also were able the HD option is booked as well. to take a look at the Eurocom communications centre, where constant contact is maintained with the astronauts at the International Space Station. The fascination of space technology was made tangible – a fascination that inspired many subsequent conversations at the event and that many of the guests took home with them. As of now, Geo Television brings this fascination to living room screens across Germany. For more information, see Geo-Television.de Geo Television will feature high-quality documentaries, such as Frozen Planet 6 POSITIVE RESPONSES FOR TEAM WALLRAFF RTL Television On 12 May 2014 RTL Television aired the third episode of Team Wallraff, and 3.81 million viewers tuned in. The format was well received not only on television, but also online and by the press – and is now the talk of the nation. Germany – 14 May 2014 Günther Wallraff in Team Wallraff In the fi nal episode of Team Wallraff for now, two reporters and their mentor, the investigative journalist Günter Wallraff, took a close look at the security industry, earning a market share of 15.3 per cent in the 14- to 59-year-old target demographic on 12 May. Thus, the season has had a very successful track record on RTL Television, with an average 4.07 million viewers watching each of the three episodes. The average market share among 14- to 59-year-olds was 16.9 per cent. Team Wallraff – Reporter Undercover is also one of the most requested videos on the VoD site RTL Now at the moment. Over the past two weeks, the programmes have generated 800,000 video views. Team Wallraff was also one of the most popular topics on RTL.de and in the social networks. Next > 7 Frank Hoffmann, Managing Director Programming at RTL Television, says: “We announced that we would be taking a more journalistic approach in our real-life formats as well, and have succeeded at this both with Team Wallraff and, earlier, with Das Jenke-Experiment. The editors pulled together with various departments to do a remarkable job – and the response from the public has been accordingly huge. Congratulations to the team, and also big compliments to our viewers for being open to such diffi cult topics.” Michael Hanfeld wrote on 13 May 2014 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “Günter Wallraff and his research team from RTL last did quite a bit of damage to Burger King (...) That’s what we call a direct hit.” Burger King has since responded by taking action: the managing director in charge of the franchise in question was let go, and further measures are being drawn up. Hanfeld goes on to describe Günter Wallraff’s modus operandi, and why the accusation that he had let McDonald’s use him as a ‘PR man’, which had previously been Frank Hoffmann, Programme Managing Director of RTL Television raised by an article in Der Spiegel, is groundless. On 8 May, Hans Hoff had written in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “What’s going on in German television when a commercial station has to show public-service television how to expose injustice and really cause a stir?” The DPA press agency concluded: “RTL is running an editorial quality campaign with investigative elements” and asked directly whether RTL Television is pursuing an image shift: less entertainment, more journalism.

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