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Close-Up on the Luxembourgish Media Market

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Close-Up on the Luxembourgish Media Market week 47 / 19 November 2015 CLOSE-UP ON THE LUXEMBOURGISH MEDIA MARKET How key player IP Luxembourg operates in a unique media environment Luxembourg / France France Belgium RTL Group’s profit RTL Radio invests in Special screening of centres at the forefront start-up AlloVoisins Deutschland 83 for EU of information officials in Brussels week 47 / 19 November 2015 CLOSE-UP ON THE LUXEMBOURGISH MEDIA MARKET How key player IP Luxembourg operates in a unique media environment Luxembourg / France France Belgium RTL Group’s profit RTL Radio invests in Special screening of centres at the forefront start-up AlloVoisins Deutschland 83 for EU of information officials in Brussels Cover Montage with IP Luxembourg’s logo 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 “WE SERVE MORE AS A SALES ADVISOR THAN A MERE SELLER OF ADVERTISING SPACE” Lou Scheider, RTL Group’s profit Managing Director of IP Luxembourg centres at the forefront of information RTL Group IP Luxembourg p.9–10 p.4–8 RTL Radio invests in start-up AlloVoisins RTL Radio (France) p.11 Special screening of Deutschland 83 for EU Big Picture officials in Brussels p.17 RTL Group p.12–13 CEO Gabriella Vidus SHORT and Deputy CEO Peter Kolosi talk about the new season NEWS RTL Hungary p.18 p.14–15 RTL à l’infini anytime, anywhere PEOPLE RTL Belgium p.16 p.19 “WE SERVE MORE AS A SALES ADVISOR THAN A MERE SELLER OF ADVERTISING SPACE” Luxembourg – 19 November 2015 IP Luxembourg IP Luxembourg (IPL), a subsidiary of RTL Group, operates in the Luxembourg market since 1963. In order to pinpoint its specific characteristics, Backstage spoke to Lou Scheider, Managing Director of IPL. Lou Scheider, Managing Director of IP Luxembourg 4 The Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg is something of RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg, to which 195,200 listeners, a media stronghold, being home to international including 42,500 foreign nationals resident in giants like the world’s leading satellite systems Luxembourg (22 per cent of daily listeners), tune operator, SES, and of course RTL Group, with in every weekday. The RTL Lëtzebuerg group’s its interests in 55 TV channels and 29 radio other radio station, Eldoradio, is the second most stations, as well as being actively involved in popular, commanding an audience share of 18.8 per production in no fewer than 29 different countries. cent among listeners aged 12 and over, and mainly In the face of such impressive facts, this edition targeting young adults. It is worth noting that foreign of Backstage takes a close-up picture, looking residents account for 46 per cent of Eldoradio’s into the national media market of Luxembourg. listeners. Third place is taken by the German- Lou Scheider, Managing Director of IP Luxembourg, speaking radio station, RTL Radio – Deutschlands describes an uncommon media market. Hit-Radio. IPL’s core business is selling advertising space in multiple media, namely on radio and television, 21.3% cinemas, on the Internet and on so-called ‘out-of- 40.9% home’ media, like large-format advertising on public RTL RADIO 40.9% transport. According to Scheider, “this wide range of media enables us to adapt communications 2.9% LËTZEBUERG ELDORADIO solutions as well as marketing and production 3.0% services to advertisers’ needs, tailoring them to RTL RADIO-DEUTSCHLANDS HIT-RADIO 3.4% RSC 100.7 their objectives and the defining characteristics of RTL RADIO (FRANCE) the Luxembourg market. We exercise our activities 3.5% LATINA in close collaboration with advertisers, advertising FR. INTER OTHERS agencies and media agencies.” 6.2% So what defines the highly attractive Luxembourg 18.8% market? First of all, there are the country’s Audience share geographical and demographic characteristics. Mondays-Fridays/05:00 to 24:00/12+ demographic Luxembourg covers a total surface area of just 2,586 km2 and has a population of 563,000, Luxembourg’s TV sector, especially between including 258,679 non-Luxembourgers, making the timeslot 19:00 and 20:00, is dominated by it a surprisingly multicultural country. In addition, the channel RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, which has an every day some 164,000 cross-border workers from audience share of 33.2 per cent in the over 12-year- France, Germany and Belgium enter the Grand- old demographic. The weekly reach of RTL Télé Duchy for professional reasons. Lëtzebuerg culminates at 57.5 per cent in the over 15-year-old demographic of the country’s population In spite of the country’s multicultural and multilingual and the channel is watched every weekday by society, the vast majority of Luxembourg’s 144,200 viewers, including 33,700 foreign residents audiovisual media are broadcast in Luxembourgish, (23 per cent of daily viewers). which – contrary to popular belief – remains the main Next > language among the population. Indeed, according to the 2011 census results, some 55.8 per cent of the Grand-Duchy’s inhabitants cite Luxembourgish as 1 33.2% their first language . Furthermore, Luxembourgish is 33.2% understood and used by a non-negligible proportion RTL TÉLÉ of the country’s foreign residents. 41.7% LËTZEBUERG* The press reflects this multilingualism of TF1 RTL TELEVISION Luxembourgers, with some newspapers having PRO7 up to three languages (German, French, M6 Luxembourgish) on a single page. The leading TVI medium in the Grand-Duchy however remains OTHERS radio, where the undisputed leading station is 6.1% 5.2% 4.3% 4.9% 1 (source: STATEC - RP 2011) 4.6% Audience share Mondays-Fridays/19:00 to 20:00/12+ demographic *with Den 2. RTL 5 RTL.lu is Luxembourg’s most popular website, production arm can draw on its in-depth knowledge accounting for 42.9 per cent of weekly reach in the of the media landscape in Luxembourg, its technical over 15-year-old demographic. equipment, its proximity to RTL Group and also fall back on the know-how of Broadcasting Center Although Luxembourg does not have a Médiamétrie Europe (BCE) which is based in the same building ratings poll drawn up on a daily basis, owing to the on the Kirchberg Plateau in Luxembourg City. structure of the country, it uses Cati methodology (computer-assisted telephone interviews) to A further characteristic of the media market in calculate audience share statistics and cumulative Luxembourg is its extreme diversity, thanks to the audiences based on the mean values emerging strong presence of foreign media there, including from surveys and interviews carried out on a random practically all French, German and French- sample of more than 4,000 people, roughly a quarter speaking Belgian TV channels. Luxembourgers of whom are contacted via the Internet. This other can also receive broadcasts by Italian, Spanish and defining characteristic of Luxembourg enables Portuguese channels. IPL offers to sell advertising IPL however to gain a very accurate picture of the space on two international channels (RTP media set-up in the Grand-Duchy. This is how Lou Internacional and TV Internacional) in Portuguese to Scheider explains it: “Our in-depth knowledge of the reach the numerous Portuguese community in the media is based on the analytic tools at our disposal. Grand-Duchy. This concentration of foreign media This expertise is consolidated by targeted surveys ultimately results in an extreme fragmentation of that enable us to pinpoint consumers’ habits and these programmes. This fragmentation of the media behaviour with greater precision. Our know-how is landscape makes the dominant positions occupied also bolstered by constantly observing advertising by Luxembourg’s media all the more remarkable. trends, a task facilitated by our regular contacts with Furthermore it demonstrates the importance of media RTL Group’s European profit centers.” maintaining close relations with their audiences and of including local content. All the ads aired on RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg and Eldoradio have to be broadcast Nonetheless, far from being stuck in the past, in Luxembourgish. That is where IP Productions Luxembourg’s media market is constantly evolving, comes in, adapting existing advertisements into as evidenced by the fact that more and more of the Luxembourgish or producing its own, broadcast- media outlets are aiming at audiences originating ready original commercials, managing the process from outside the country. A perfect example of this from the original brainstorming session right phenomenon is the launch by RTL Lëtzebuerg through to the end product. In this connection, IPL’s of the website 5Minutes.lu, which targets Next > Activities of IP Luxembourg 6 French-speaking residents and cross-border international brands resort to using media agencies workers as well as anyone interested in news from in the neighbouring countries, primarily in Belgium, Luxembourg and the surrounding area, the so-called when they want to launch an advertising campaign Greater Region. in Luxembourg. Nonetheless, IPL deals directly with half the advertisers on the Luxembourg market for IPL Managing Director Lou Scheider says that the whom a suitable media plan has been drawn up. development of the Grand-Duchy’s national media “We serve more as a sales advisor than a mere market brings both opportunities and challenges: seller of advertising space,” Scheider emphasises. “Cross-media strategy will become increasingly important and will enable us to offer our advertisers In this singular environment, IPL benefits from its real value added, especially bearing in mind the collaboration with IP Network, Europe’s leading bumpy ride currently being experienced by the advertising sales house, which is wholly owned printed press sector. Anyway, IPL has decided by RTL Group.
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