How RTL Group's Hungarian Family of Channels Maintains Its Market
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week 5 / 30 January 2014 STRONG BRANDS How RTL Group’s Hungarian family of channels maintains its market leadership Luxembourg North America France Australia Euronext American Idol Les Princes de Aussie drama introduces votes with Google L’Amour to become renewed for stock options and Facebook the kings of access second season on RTL Group prime time on W9? week 5 / 30 January 2014 STRONG BRANDS How RTL Group’s Hungarian family of channels maintains its market leadership Luxembourg North America France Australia Euronext American Idol Les Princes de Aussie drama introduces votes with Google L’Amour to become renewed for stock options and Facebook the kings of access second season on RTL Group prime time on W9? Cover Montage with Hungarian programmes 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 Euronext introduces stock options on RTL Group RTL Group p. 9–10 American Idol votes with Google and Facebook FremantleMedia North America p. 11 Hungarian RTL channels: Market leaders RTL Klub Les Princes de L’Amour p.4–8 to become the kings of access prime time on W9? W9 p. 12 Aussie drama renewed for second season Big Picture FremantleMedia p.14 Australia p. 13 SHORT NEWS p. 15–16 PEOPLE p. 17–19 How the strategy of FAMILY building families of channels effectively meets the needs of viewers and advertisers. VALUES Hungary – 30 January 2014 RTL Klub Dirk Gerkens, CEO of RTL Klub 4 In a challenging European macro-economic RTL Group’s Hungarian family of channels environment, RTL Group’s Hungarian subsidiary is the market leader in Hungary adopted a viable business plan by building a 38 All day strong family of channels. In 2012, the Hungarian Prime time 30.2 company entered into the subscription market by making acquisitions to strengthen its cable portfolio, 18.3 thereby diversifying its source of revenue. On the ad 15.6 sales front, the Hungarian family is now in a position 9.2 to offer attractive packages targeted to specifi c 8.6 demographic groups. The RTL 3 commercial package was launched to meet this demand. In a Hungarian TV2 Group Public channels declining TV advertising market, the Hungarian RTL RTL channels Audience share of the top three channel groups in Hungary family gives advertisers complementary services, Target group: 18-49 simultaneously airing their brands on three different channels to maximise their visibility. audience share decreased slightly to 23.9 per cent In today’s fragmented Hungarian TV landscape, (2012: 24.7 per cent), but the channel maintained investing in a strong family of channels has proven its prime-time market leadership in Hungary, to be a key strategic decision. In a country with outscoring its main commercial competitor TV2 by a population of under 10 million, the Hungarian 8.4 percentage points. broadcast industry offers more than 100 TV channels. By offering a total of eight channels RTL Group’s Hungarian cable channels also (RTL Klub, Cool, Film+, Film+2, Prizma, Sorozat+, topped the cable market rankings. In 2013, Cool and Muzsika TV and RTLII), RTL in Hungary is strongly Film+ were the most-watched cable channels with audience shares of 5.5 per cent in the commercial target group. Launched in October 2012, RTL II saw its viewership rise from 0.1 in 2012 to 1.3 per cent in 2013, consolidating its position in the Hungarian market. True TV lovers In 2012, average daily TV viewing time in RTL Group’s Hungarian family of channels Hungary was 286 minutes, while the positioned to face the challenges arising in this European average was 235 minutes. heavily fragmented ecosystem. RTL Klub’s CEO Dirk Gerkens explains the current challenges: “The biggest challenge we currently face is changing to the free-to-air TV business model in Hungary, by starting to collect cable fees for our main channel In this highly competitive market, RTL Group’s RTL Klub. This is simply a must considering the fact Hungarian subsidiary has maintained its market that digitisation has erased the advantage of being leadership for the thirteenth consecutive year, free-to-air compared to cable. One of our growth mainly thanks to its solid production line-up. Dirk objectives must also be to fi nd new viable digital Gerkens explains: “RTL Klub has always been models.” successful because of its own productions. During the years of fragmentation, these In 2013, the combined prime-time audience share productions became even more important. We of RTL’s Hungarian family of channels in the key have always had local developments as well as demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds increased big international formats such as I’m A Celebrity – to 38 per cent (2012: 37.3 per cent). Last year Get me out of Here!, Survivor, Temptation Island, (and for thirteen consecutive years), the fl agship X-Factor and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. channel RTL Klub was the most-watched channel Hungarian viewers expect us to entertain and tell in Hungary in the commercial target group on 342 stories, and we strive to fulfi l these wishes in many out of 365 evenings and broadcast 18 of the 20 ways.” most-watched fi lms. RTL Klub’s prime-time Next > 5 Getting acquainted with the strong local brands X-Faktor Éjjel-Nappal Budapest (Budapest Day and Night) X-Faktor Éjjel-Nappal Budapest In 2013, season four of X-Faktor became the Éjjel-Nappal Budapest, the Hungarian version most-watched programme on Hungarian TV. of the daily series Berlin – Tag und Nacht, Broadcast on RTL Klub, the 22 September launched on RTL Klub on 11 February 2012 was episode attracted 2,390,564 viewers. The talent quickly embraced by Hungarian viewers. show’s success came as no surprise, as it has been Gerkens sheds light on the factors that led to the Hungary’s favourite programme since its launch. series’ introduction to the Hungarian market: “In a way Berlin and Budapest are quite similar because Barátok Közt (Between Friends) of their history and also the way youngsters live Premiering in October 1998, Barátok közt’s story in these capitals. We always knew that we would began almost thirty years ago, in an orphanage, have to make some changes to the original scripts where a group of children vowed everlasting since Budapest Day & Night is being broadcast on friendship to each other. Viewers follow the lives, our main channel, so we have to cater for an even adventures, loves, disappointments, sadness and wider audience than RTL II in Germany. The main happiness of the already-grown-up old friends, concept however was the same: to produce a new fi ve days a week in prime time. The series, which daily fi ction centred around a big apartment full of has been broadcast for 16 consecutive years, is a young people from all over the country who arrive in great success among audiences and remains the Budapest to live and fi nd happiness in the big city.” country’s number one daily television show, scoring an average audience share of 29.2 per cent in 2013. Való Világ Barátok Közt Való Világ On 12 January 2014, the Hungarian channel RTL II launched season six of the reality show Való Világ in prime time. The premiere attracted 15.6 per cent of RTL Klub celebrated its 15 year anniversary, since it was fi rst viewers aged 18 to 49, making it the most-watched launched in October 1997. TV programme in its time slot. Previously aired on Video showcases the channel’s the Hungarian fl agship channel RTL Klub, the sixth successful track record. season of Való Világ scored an average audience Next > 6 share of 11 per cent (viewers aged 18 to 49), while As far as Corporate Responsibility (CR) is concerned, the cable channel’s average share among the same RTL Klub is very committed. It pulls out all the target group is 1.3 per cent. stops to support good causes and acts as a responsible member of Hungarian society. For example, on World Diabetes Day in November 2013, RTL Klub news anchors Antónia Erős and István Szellő were the hosts of an awareness-building event organised by the Egy Csepp Figyelem foundation and featuring performances by X-Faktor contestants. Házon Kivül High ratings are not the only indicators of the local productions’ success. In 2012, the most widely read Hungarian magazine Story gave X-Faktor its 5 stars prize as the country’s ‘Best TV Show’ – an award that it has received for the last X-Faktor contestant performs in a CR initiative four years running – while X-Faktor’s presenter Ördög Nóra was elected by the same magazine as In the digital realm, RTL’s Hungarian ‘The Best Presenter’ in Hungary. Furthermore, in websites are by far the most-watched TV the Hungarian ‘Kamera Korrektúra’ competition for websites in the country, always ranking among high-quality programmes, both RTL Klub the top three local online video content providers. productions X-Faktor and XXI Század were RTL Most generated 53,164,736 long-form video crowned winners in their respective categories. views, while the Való Világ app has generated 100,000 downloads, since its launch at the In the News genre, RTL Klub’s info magazine beginning of 2014. The development of digital Házon Kivül won Kamera Korrektúra’s ‘News services also enhance viewers’ interactive TV and Background’ special prize. In 2013, experience.