1 October 2009

week 40

Share your senses Christoph Mainusch on Alpha TV’s new line-up

Germany The RTL Television and Teamworx RTL Nederland launches to film the Hindenburg disaster Spelsalon.nl

Finland FremantleMedia strikes RTL Radio France gathers major deal with MTV 3 22,000 jobs offers in one day COVER: Alpha stars celebrating at the programme presentation on 24 September.

2 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

“We are proud… and prepared” Alpha TV presented its new programming for the upcoming season. Backstage asked Christoph Mainusch, the new CEO of Alpha, what viewers can expect. Christoph Mainusch - 1 October 2009

Many of the famous faces at Alpha attended the Apart from its perennially popular shows, Alpha special event on 24 September at the Egli cinema has introduced some new ones, like Pano stin at the Zappeion. Presenter Katerina Karavatou, ora (On Time) and Deste tous (Tie Them) and will who usually presents the gossip show introduce some more in the future, such as the Kous-Kous, hosted the programme presentation. Chart Show and Ten, which will run alternately Many of the channel’s major and minor stars lent every Sunday and originated from the famous her their support, taking the stage to add their German TV shows Die ultimative Chart Show and own amusing touches to the evening. Die Zehn which are broadcast on RTL Television. Commercial Director Costas Charitsis and Alpha’s new CEO, Christoph Mainusch, touched Now, as the new season begins, Backstage took briefly on the goals the station has set for the the opportunity to ask Christoph Mainusch about 2009/10 season. Mainusch addressed the the future development of Alpha TV. audience in fluent Greek and stressed that the main objective is to cement Alpha’s position How does the Greek market differ from the among the three top TV channels, a standing Croatian market? which was achieved over the second half of last Greece and are both small TV territories, year thanks to the radical and highly effective but the Greek TV market is more competitive due changes that were made in the access prime to a larger number of channels. time slot (18:00 to 21:00), which meant moving the news from 20:00 to 19:00 and introducing the How would you rate the economic situation in brand-new Kati Psinetai (Come Dine With Me). Greece at the moment? Like in other European countries it’s a very Alpha TV’s audience share in the commercial difficult situation. But I believe the situation has target group increased each month from January bottomed out and we will see a slight recovery in 2009 (12.4 per cent) to June 2009 (15.8 per cent), 2010. finishing the first half of the year with an average audience share of 14.0 per cent (2008: 12.7 per What are Alpha’s strengths? Where is there cent). room for improvement? Alpha is a channel dominated by local light The channel wishes to maintain this course of entertainment programmes. We have three very action, by keeping key shows such as: Kafes me successful programme brands, Al Tsantiri News, thn Eleni (Coffee With Eleni), Kous-Kous, Fatus Pame Paketo and Kafes me thn Eleni. With the Olus, Mes stin kali hara (In A Good Mood) and introduction of international formats like Come Pame Paketo (You’ve Got A Package). Mainusch Dine With Me and The Farmer Wants A Wife we also made special mention of Lakis Lazopoulos, have sharpened our profile as a family-oriented thanking him for deciding to stay at Alpha TV for full-programme broadcaster. Rescheduling the two more years. Lakis Lazopoulos host the main news to 19:00 was the first step in famous Al Tsantiri News which regularly attract a improving our scheduling and programme flow. total audience share of 50 per cent. We are well on our good way and the channel increased its prime time ratings between January and June this year by 67 per cent. 3 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

Clément Schwebig, COO of Alpha TV, Lakis Lazopoulos, presenter of Al Tsantiri News, and Alpha CEO Christoph Mainusch (from left to right)

How are you planning to strategically position Samoilis and Agrotis monos psahni (The Farmer Alpha in the upcoming season? Wants A Wife) with Sissy Christidou, which will Keep the best and introduce the successes of run every Wednesday, as well as The Hotel tomorrow. We will sharpen our image as an Inspector and Beat Your Host as our event show entertainment programme built on our two pillars: from next spring. strong daytime shows and serious and reliable news but presented in a different way, to focus What is the competitive landscape like? Have on viewer interests. your competitors already reacted to Alpha’s repositioning? Early this year, several formats that are doing They are still in shock but I’m afraid they will well in were established with similar recover soon. Some will try to copy our success on the Greek market. Will they be successes. We are proud… and prepared. followed by others? Formats like Come Dine With Me and Kitchen What’s your first impression of your new Nightmares have changed the market place of work? completely. Actually we surprised our It’s a great company with very nice and competition with these enormous successes. So motivated people and has a good team spirit – all we will continue to introduce shows like Gia the prerequisites for success. It won’t be easy logariasmo sas (Get Out Of Debt) with Nikos but we will make it.

Alpha TV’s next season runs under the heading “Share Your Senses” 4 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

Four Emmy Awards for American Idol American Idol nabbed four Emmy Awards at this year’s ceremony – more than ever before. Also in September, Mogadischu was named best German TV movie, while Radio 538 was pronounced the best Dutch radio station. Luxembourg - 30 September 2009

For his work on American Idol, Bruce Gowers won for ‘Best Directing’ at the 61st Prime Time Emmy Awards on 21 September at Los Angeles’s Nokia Theatre. He prevailed over such productions as Late Show With David Letterman, Real Time With Bill Maher, With Jon Stewart and hosted by Justin Timberlake. Earlier, American Idol had won three awards in the categories ‘Outstanding Lighting Direction’, ‘Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Music or Non-fiction Programming’ and ‘Outstanding Technical Direction’ at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. This is the highest number of Emmy

Awards the show has received in a single year. The team of Mogadischu receiving the German TV Award

The Teamworx production about the October RTL Television’s Der Lehrer (The Teacher) 1977 hijacking of Lufthansa’s ‘Landshut’ prevailed against the series Franzi and Lasko – aircraft won the top German TV Award another RTL programme – in the “Best Series” (Deutscher Fernsehpreis). The nine judges category. Der Lehrer premiered at the bestowed the year’s most important prize on beginning of August. Finally, RTL Television Mogadischu. Apart from Teamworx CEO and won the award for “Best ” with TV- Executive Producer Nico Helden whose team prevailed over Oliver Hofmann and Mogadischu Welke’s Heute Show and Hape producers Gabriela Sperl and Kerkeling’s fictional character Jürgen Schuster, the award ‘Horst Schlämmer’. honors the movie’s director Roland Suso Richter, Meanwhile, Radio 538 was the Maurice Philip Remy big winner at this year’s Marconi (script), Holly Fink (camera) – Awards. Having entered the and of course its stars Thomas running with five nominations, the Kretschmann, Nadja Uhl, Jürgen Dutch radio station went home with Tarrach and Christian Berkel. three awards: for ‘Best Radiozender’, the ‘Best Programma’ in the Top 40, and for Moderator Edwin Evers as ‘Best Presentator’. The Marconi Awards are the Netherlands’ only radio awards and are presented annually in a number of categories. In 1998, Edwin Evers had received his first Marconi Award for Evers Staat Op.

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Nina Haun, Casting Director at UFA, receives the EUR 10,000 German Casting Award 2009 for her casting of five recent big-screen and TV films. The prize will be presented on 3 October 2009 at the Cologne Conference TV Film Festival. Haun was honoured for finding the “right” cast members for the films Alle anderen (Maren Ade), So glücklich war ich noch nie (Alexander Adolph), Hilde (Kai Wessel), Über den Tod hinaus and Willkommen zuhause (Andreas Senn in both).

RTL Television scored numerous nominations for the German Comedy Awards. Cindy aus Marzahn und die jungen Wilden and TV-Helden were both nominated for ‘Best Comedy Show’. Nominees for ‘Best Comedy Series’ include the series Der Lehrer, which recently won a German TV Award, and Doctor’s Diary. The RTL Television series 4 Singles is in the running for ‘Best Comedy Sketch’. RTL Television’s World of Comedy is nominated for ‘Best Comedy Event’. Böse Mädchen has hopes of winning an award for ‘Best Hidden Camera’, and two formats aired on RTL Television are in the running for ‘Best Comedy Show’: Schizophren – Ich wollte Nina Haun ‘ne Prinzessin sein by Cindy aus Marzahn and Verschmitzt, the stand-up routine by comedian Pietshow, a Grundy UFA production, was a Ralf Schmitz. Diana Amft, who plays the nominee at this year’s Festival Cinema Tous leading role in Doctor’s Diary, was nominated Ecrans, which administers a ‘Web Series’ as Best Actress. RTL will broadcast the award for innovative new-media formats. The glamorous gala event on 23 October from awards are presented in November. 21:15.

Two productions by the UFA subsidiary Teamworx have received nominations for this year’s Prix Europa, one of the foremost Continental European competitions for TV, Radio and Internet. The TV production Mogadischu was nominated for an award in the ‘Best TV Fiction Programme of the Year 2009’ category. The TV movie Einer bleibt sitzen starring the talented young actors Volker Bruch, Florian Jahr, Trystan Pütter and Karoline Schuch is a contender in the ‘TV Fiction’ category. The Prix Europa was called into being in 1987 by the Council of Europe and the European Cultural Trust. The award is presented in nine categories, and comes with EUR 6,000 and the official Prix Europa cup in each case. Pietshow

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The greatest aviation disaster of its time Teamworx is co-producing Hindenburg, a spectacular two-part movie about the Hindenburg disaster on 6 May 1937, with RTL Television and EOS Entertainment. Germany - 25 September 2009

Scriptwriters Johannes W. Betz and Martin the Cologne MMC studio, a cross-section of Pristl tell the moving, suspenseful tale of a the zeppelin will be reconstructed, including great love story and a gripping adventure the promenade deck, passenger cabins, bridge against a historical backdrop; Philipp and other sections. The film is being produced Kadelbach is the director. The drama of the with a record budget exceeding EUR 10 million. Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg, an engineering The producers have managed to recruit an masterpiece, burned itself into human memory unmatched line-up of German stars for this TV as one of the biggest technology disasters of event. The shooting, in Cologne, Nuremberg the 20th century. 35 people lost their lives in the and environs, will continue through the middle inferno. Anyone who sees the original footage of December. of the disaster will find it hard to believe that 62 of the 97 people on board survived. The The English version of the script was written by destruction of the Hindenburg put an end to Philipp LaZebnik. Hindenburg is a Teamworx zeppelins being used for air travel, and the production, co-produced with RTL Television reasons behind the tragedy have not been fully and EOS Entertainment, and sponsored by the cleared up to this day. Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine- Westphalian Film Foundation) and the Special effects experts will create FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (Bavarian Film & TV unprecedented scenes and images involving Fund). It is scheduled for broadcast in spring the biggest aircraft ever built and of its 2011. explosion. Under the 40-meter high ceiling of

Hindenburg’s crash in 1937 killed 35 people 7 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

Nature strikes back The countdown to the event miniseries Vulkan (Volcano), which airs at 20:15 on 18 October and 19 October on RTL Television, has begun with a large-scale campaign. Promotional poster Germany - 1 October 2009

Teasers designed by RTL Creation for the A special highlight of the campaign will be the year’s biggest in-house fiction production have distribution, between 8 and 21 October, of a been on air since Sunday. Other trailers for the free folding card that explores the possible star-studded movie about a volcano eruption in scenario of a volcanic disaster in the Eifel Germany’s Eifel region will follow next Sunday. region and provides a foretaste of the From the beginning of October, the on-air outstanding special effects featured in this campaign will be enhanced with additional remarkable film project. measures: mega light boards, Citylight posters, billboards and advertising pillars. In addition, the film will be promoted on info screens and in all the major TV listings and popular magazines.

Björn Klimek, Creative Director Promotion and Advertising at RTL Creation, says: “Like the film itself, the campaign for Vulkan plays with people’s primeval fear of a natural disaster occurring right her in our midst. Our campaign is designed to maximise viewers’ suspense in the lead-up to the two-part event movie.” Matthias Koeberlin plays Michael Gernau Visit < backstage > to watch the trailer

Vulkan examines what might happen if a vulcano erupted in Germany 8 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

50 years of making French kids laugh The delightful Petit Nicolas is coming to M6 with 52 13-minute episodes. Petit Nicolas France - 28 September 2009

“Goscinny arrived with a text in which a boy, Nicolas, talked about his life with his friends, all of them with strange names: Rufus, Alceste, Maixent, Agnan, Clotaire (…) and so it began. René had found the formula,” recounts Jean- Jacques Sempé. It was 29 March 1959 and, on that day, the very first story of Petit Nicolas appeared in the Sud-Ouest Dimanche. Childhood was put into words by Goscinny, who invented a “kids’s language”. Sempé took up his pencil and elegantly sketched out the gallery of sweet and funny characters… and a hero was born.

A timeless world that speaks to children today. Children are able to rediscover this amusing and mischievous character that is Le Petit Nicolas each Sunday on M6 Kid, the morning programme that is completely dedicated to them. It’s an M6 Studio and Method Animation production based on the work of René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé using innovative 3D technology. The series has already been sold internationally to many countries including Germany, , Latin American, and Greece.

With more than 11 million copies sold in more than 30 countries, Le Petit Nicolas became an international hero.

Le Petit Nicolas is also a film scheduled for theatrical release in France on 30 September 2009. 9 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

FremantleMedia signs major deal with MTV 3 MTV has announced a five year follow-up to the ever-popular Finnish Salatut elämät, which regularly attracts around 20 per cent of Finland’s population. Finland - 30 September 2009

The new season will be aired on MTV 3 and follows on from a hotly discussed cliff-hanger. It promises to be better than ever before. “It is now more important than ever to provide our viewers the chance to relax and enjoy our great stories and characters. This deal with MTV 3 means a lot to us and allows us to develop the series even further. It is an honour to keep producing such a long-running and widely watched show here in Finland,” states Executive Producer Eerika Vermilä, FremantleMedia Finland.

This season started with great success, with the opening episode attracting 1,045,000 viewers, or 61 per cent of total audience. The show will be aired in the HD 16:9 widescreen format from the start of 2010. Salatut elämät (“Hidden Lives”) is a Finnish soap opera broadcast on MTV 3, based on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. It was the first – and still the only – Finnish daily soap opera. Since its first episode aired in January 1999, it has been one of the most popular TV shows in Finland, regularly attracting around one million viewers – one fifth of Finland’s population.

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Fun and games RTL Nederland announces strategic partnership with Zylom, Skillpod and Spelpunt. The Netherlands - 29 September 2009

RTL Nederland launched the new Spelsalon.nl Spelsalon.nl offers a wide variety of games, portal, in a first step onto the burgeoning including ‘Three in a Row’, puzzles, brain market of online games. teasers, Mah-Jong and Action. For many games, players can choose whether they want Arno Otto, Managing Director Digital Media at to play against the computer (‘Snel’) or with RTL Nederland, says: “The demand for online other players (‘Samen’). There is also a games is growing by leaps and bounds. Now, premium option for selected games (‘Deluxe’). RTL is getting in on the action with Spelsalon.nl, in collaboration with strong The launch of Spelsalon.nl is accompanied by partners like Zylom, Skillpod and Spelpunt. a major advertising campaign on the RTL Combining these strong brands with RTL’s Nederland channels and the RTL.nl homepage. entertainment value will turn Spelsalon.nl into The commercials show RTL stars John the new star on the online gaming firmament.” Williams, Froukje de Both and Eddy Zoey having a good time on Spelsalon.nl.

Check out spelsalon.nl

Spelsalon.nl 11 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

22,000 job offers posted in one day RTL Radio France tries to remain close to its listeners and their concerns. For this purpose, RTL organizes a “Job Creation Day” on the last Monday of every month. France - 30 September 2009

In difficult economic times, this initiative In all of the news outlets, listeners found launched by RTL Radio is a windfall, a real reports with on-air testimonies from those who opportunity for those seeking employment. The found a position or an employee thanks to this formula is simple: put the people looking for initiative. The success of this seventh RTL Job work in touch with those who are offering work. Creation Day is undeniable, beating a new The least that can be said is that it’s working record, as the site registered 3,000 more quite well. Throughout the day, on Monday postings than the previous edition. The 22,000 28 September, a total of 22,000 offers of offers of employment will be available for employment were posted – a spectacular figure consultation until mid-October. As a reminder, that also covered a wide variety of positions: earlier RTL Job Creation Days respectively “There are jobs for every taste and in every collected 6,000 job postings in March, 11,000 region in France,” commented one journalist in April, 14,000 in May, 16,000 in June, 12,300 from the editorial department. in July and almost 19,000 in August.

Check out RTL.fr

Special dossier on RTL.fr 12 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

“Remembrance is not a given, it is often very hard-fought” An evening-long special on RTL-TVI recalled the Holocaust, with 14 per cent of viewers aged 18 to 54 tuning in. La Traque began with in-depth research in the archives - 25 September 2009

The evening began at 20:20 with the premiere “Should we forget? Should we let bygones be of La Traque (The Chase), a German-French- bygones?” The Klarsfelds answer such Belgian coproduction. The film is based on the questions loudly and clearly: “No. We owe it to true story of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, a the victims to bring the truth to light and married couple who have made it their life’s demand justice.” mission to take Nazi war criminals to court. “La Traque is a haunting reminder that it took a If ‘Nazi hunters’ Serge and Beate Klarsfeld great deal of controversy and discussion for the weren’t real people, they could easily be heroes Shoah to become part of our collective from a Hollywood thriller. Ever since the early consciousness. Remembrance is not a given, it 1970s, when the German-French couple is often very hard-fought,” said the producers decided to devote themselves to keeping the and co-producers (Elzévir Films, Terz memory of Holocaust victims alive, their life has Filmproduction, AT-Production, WDR, Arte, often resembled an edge-of-your-seat thriller. RTL-TVI) at the presentation of the film. Alone, against all odds and without financial backing, they tackled politicians in several At 22:15, the documentary De Auschwitz à countries, severely criticising legal systems and Jerusalem (From Auschwitz to Jerusalem) public opinion. Beate Klarsfeld became widely marked the second part of the theme evening. known to the German public in 1968, when she The film describes the years leading up to the slapped Germany’s then-Chancellor Kurt- formation of the State of , following the Georg Kiesinger at the CDU Party Convention, lives of several families from Europe and the calling out “Nazi! Nazi”. Kiesinger was a Middle East. member of the NSDAP from 1933 to 1945.

Through perseverance, the Klarsfelds managed to drag several wanted Nazi war criminals to court. The chase for Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’, who continued his murderous activities in South America after war, serves to illustrate their mission and its challenges. After twelve years of research, underground efforts and fights with the authorities, the Klarsfelds achieved their objective in 1983: Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia and faces a court of law in France before the year is out.

Franka Potente and Yvan Attal as the Klarsfelds 13 week 40 the RTL Group intranet

The book-loving radio station This autumn RTL Radio France serves up youth novels to make reading more appetizing to its younger listeners. France - 25 September 2009

The record prize has been won EUR 132,600 – the most money that has ever been won in the history of radio. Bertrand, a contestant from the Sarthe, won the Bonne Touche prize by correctly answering the questions on general culture posed by Jean-Pierre Foucault and Cyril Hanouna. France - 25 September 2009

Record jackpot finally hit on Punkt 12 After a record sum was given away on French radio, now a female viewer has hit the highest viewer jackpot ever on German TV by winning EUR 126,000 in the Punkt 12- News Quiz. Germany - 28 September 2009

Still number one after ten years The big, birthday-length Wer wird Millionär? anniversary special on 25 September earned RTL Television an excellent market share of 39.7 per cent among 14- to 49- year-old viewers. Germany - 28 September 2009

M6 continues to grow September was M6’s top month in 2009. The channel recorded a total audience share of 11.3 per cent – 0.6 percentage points more than the year before. France - 29 September 2009

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“We were treated to flawless diamonds” W9 in France and RTL-TVI in Belgium aired the very first show of a Belgian-French adaptation of the UK format The X Factor with 2.3 per cent of the viewers tuning in to W9 in France and a total audience share of 19.4 per cent for RTL-TVI in Belgium. France - 29 September 2009

Support for Bob Helps Kindergartens In the Bob Helps Kindergartens campaign, the popular animated character from Super RTL’s preschooler programming helps to ensure that his little fans have safe, stable playground equipment and facilities. Germany - 25 September 2009

More than 300,000 new listeners RTL Radio France published its summer audience figures: the station remains number one in all criteria measured and has moved even farther ahead of its competition, counting 995,000 more listeners than the number two radio station and 300,000 new listeners. France - 1 October 2009

Uefa Europa League live on iPhone Five released an application on the Apple App Store which allows football fans in the UK to watch the Uefa Europa League matches live in full screen on their iPhone and iPod touch devices. - 1 October 2009

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People Beate Mitschke Beate Mitschke Germany - 29 September 2009

Beate Mitschke (28) has been appointed to head the Marketing department in Super RTL’s Merchandising unit, including the responsibility for Artwork Approval.

Mitschke, who holds a degree in business administration, will help strengthen Super RTL’s license brands by designing and implementing promotions. She reports to Stefanie Engels, Senior Manager Marketing & Retail.

Her Super RTL colleague Jörg Ziemann (30) will succeed Mitschke as the channel’s Category Manager Merchandising. Ziemann, a business graduate, previously worked as Controller in the children’s and family channel’s Merchandising unit.

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