Anke Schäferkordt

Co-Chief Executive Officer of RTL Group Member of the Executive Board of Management SE Chief Executive Officer of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland

Anke Schäferkordt: passionate, modest, successful Anke Schäferkordt combines excellent business leadership with an unerring flair and great passion for the core of her business: TV programmes. The successes that arise from this combination – in the company’s revenues and results as well as its scheduling and audience shares – have earned her the highest regard among international peers as well. Schäferkordt self-effacingly points out that Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland owes its strength first and foremost to teamwork.

Anke Schäferkordt was born in the town of Lemgo in December 1962, and attended school in East Westphalia. She studied business administration in Paderborn before joining Bertelsmann in 1988 through its Young Executives Programme. Three years later, she went to join RTL Plus in as an executive assistant for sales controlling and strategic planning. The very next year Schäferkordt was appointed Head of the Controlling department, and from 1993 to 1995 she headed the Corporate Planning and Controlling department.

In 1995, she left to join Vox as Chief Financial Officer. She served as the channel’s Programme Director as well as CFO from 1997 to 1999, and as its CEO from 1999 to 2005. During this time, she transformed Vox from a loss-maker into an enduringly profitable channel – and discovered her love for programme planning. When she took over at Vox in 1995, the channel had an audience share of 2.8 per cent among viewers aged 14 to 49. By the time Schäferkordt left Vox for its bigger sister RTL in 2005, the audience share was 6.4 per cent.

She would go on to deliver a similar performance in her new position. In February 2005, Anke Schäferkordt was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO of RTL, and by September of that year had been named CEO of RTL Television. So Anke Schäferkordt simultaneously took on the overall responsibility for RTL’s German family of channels with RTL Television, Vox, N-TV, and the shareholdings in RTL II and Super RTL, which together have done business as Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland since November 2007. Under her management, the company’s operating result has more than doubled, from an EBITA of €240 million in 2005 to a record result of €650 million in 2014.

Thanks to excellent crisis management, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland emerged from the economic and financial crisis of 2009 with new strength, not only from a business standpoint, but also in terms of its programming. Schäferkordt had, however, initiated the necessary measures as far back as 2005 – when there were few signs of an impending crisis. She revised the structure of the group, combined departments and combined the channels and service companies into an integrated content provider and then pooled them all under a physical roof as well, at the new state-of-the-art broadcasting centre in Cologne-

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Deutz. Investments were also made in structures and businesses beyond classical advertising.

“The important thing for an entrepreneur is not to frantically put together austerity packages during a crisis, but to use the good times to plan ahead for times that might not be so good,” says Schäferkordt. “And that’s exactly what we did.” The measures weren’t popular at first, but in retrospect turned out to be spot-on. At moments like these it is important that the management plans long term, has a clear vision and can assert it – if need be against resistance. Says Schäferkordt: “I see it as our duty as entrepreneurs to continually question and improve processes regardless of the macroeconomic conditions. Our goal is to establish RTL Television long-term as the channel with the highest market shares as well as the most efficient processes.”

Schäferkordt is a woman of action with a strong predisposition toward realism. She sets clear targets and is seen as direct and open-minded. “Television is teamwork. As long as I’ve known the company, RTL Television has always distinguished itself by the special passion of its programme makers. There is also the high level of expertise of the whole team – the experience to create hits, but also the ability to learn from flops,” Schäferkordt emphasises.

In November 2013, Anke Schäferkordt was honoured with the International Emmy Directorate Award. The jury explained its decision with this passion for programming, combined with Schäferkordt’s long-view strategic approach, which made her an outstanding leader in the international TV industry. Schäferkordt said: “I am very honoured to accept this prestigious award. Over the past 22 years, I've been very lucky to work with a really outstanding team at RTL – and this award recognises as much their work and creativity as it does mine.”

In September 2014, Schäferkordt also won the Mestemacher Award as (Female) Manager of the Year. In their statement, the judges commented: “Schäferkordt shines through with outstanding performances in the world of business and media, where there is a lack of female role models. This long-term orientation is also evident from a look at the channel’s market share. In 2011, RTL Television attracted 18.4 per cent of young viewers and 14.1 per cent of the total audience. In both categories, this put it in first place ahead of all commercial and public-service competitors; and in its target demographic it outperformed the runner-up by fully 6.7 percentage points. In view of the increasing fragmentation, Anke Schäferkordt expressed caution in an interview with the weekly paper Die Zeit: “Above all, we must remain realistic. In future the strongest channel will no longer command an audience share of 20 per cent. Digitisation has vastly increased the diversity of programming. We, too, will have construction sites in our programming and will have to learn from that. That’s what we’ve always been best at: learning from mistakes. We’ll be seeing all of this again, I have absolutely no illusions about that.”

In 2014, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s channels were once again well ahead of ProSiebenSat.1 in the target group of viewers aged 14 to 59, but the main channel RTL Television lost audience share year-on-year. "What we ourselves predicted has come to pass," said Schäferkordt. “Precisely because we had record years with above-average ratings and as a major broadcaster managed to grow against the market trend, this return to normal comes as no surprise to us. Some of our hit formats no longer reach the high audience shares they achieved in the past, and not all of the new formats have proven successful. RTL will continue to develop new formats on a large scale, because we want to remain the market leader, and we also want to maintain a decent lead.”

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Accordingly, Schäferkordt has also resolutely expanded Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s business model in order to lead the company into the digital age – “fragment yourself before the market fragments you,” is her credo. She is fully aware of the strength of the core business of advertising-financed free-to-air TV channels – and is supplementing this, step by step, with new offerings. In December 2006 Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland launched three digital pay-TV channels: RTL Crime, RTL Living and – as a joint venture with the production company UFA, which is also owned by RTL Group – Passion. With their clear profiles, the channels quickly became established on the major distribution platforms and are now operating profitably. On 8 May 2014, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland launched its fourth digital pay-TV channel: offers high quality documentaries and was developed in cooperation with the Geo magazine of Gruner + Jahr. Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s latest digital free-TV channel is RTL Nitro, which is aimed primarily at a male audience, first went on the air on 1 April 2012, and has steadily grown its viewer market share since. Since November 2009, the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland channels have also been available in HD on the HD Plus platform.

Online video plays a special role in Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s digital strategy. On the sites in the “Now” family, the individual channels offer their programmes for free on- demand viewing for seven days after broadcast. In addition, the Clipfish platform offers a wide range of professionally produced content. Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland uses the Smart TV standard HbbTV not only to offer additional information about the current programme, but also channels like Clipfish Music and Fitness & Yoga.

But it no longer makes sense to distinguish between digital and analogue activities in today's TV business, because in the medium, TV content will only be transmitted digitally across all platforms – cable, satellite, IPTV. And so RTL Group differentiates by type of use, this means by whether TV is consumed in a linear or non-linear fashion. Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland is relying on the strength of its established programme and format brands in the rapidly growing on-demand, non-linear TV world. The ‘Now family’ – RTL Now, Vox Now, RTL II Now, Super RTL Now, N-TV Now and RTL Nitro Now – lets users view complete programmes online after their TV broadcast and regularly reports record traffic. In 2014, the channel’s homepages and catch-up TV sites in generated 1.1 billion video views for the first time. "We can earn money with digital offerings," Schäferkordt said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Deutschland in spring of 2013. "Digital must not be regarded as a separate pillar of the business, but must be fully integrated into the rest of our range. We also need a single currency for the advertisers. A currency that reflects TV usage across all distribution platforms and devices – linear as well as non-linear.”

At the same time, Schäferkordt remains convinced that television will continue to be the number-one lead media in the digital world: "Even in 2020, families will still gather in front of the TV set. Television is still the media bonfire, it’s more fun to watch with others. The best proof of this is the popularity of public screenings of events like major football matches.”

She does see one problem, however, in the area of [governmental] media policy – or more specifically in the fact that regulation is not keeping pace with the use of media. "The shown on our channel N-TV is subject to whole different set of rules than an online news site that is watched on a Smart TV – i.e. on the same screen. In linear television, there are restrictions on advertising – but this is not the case for online videos. The rules about how often you are allowed to run ads, and for how long, should be greatly liberalized. Ultimately, audiences or users decide whether the advertising is too much for them or not. That is why

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we are demanding a lot more flexibility for linear television programming and a level playing field vis-à-vis the other providers."

She sees the strength of the German TV market primarily in the quality of the programmes on offer. She says: “There are few other television markets that offer this level of quality and diversity.” And on RTL Television’s positioning: “The audience expects us as the market leading channel to deliver both: the best entertainment as well as soundly researched, relevant information. The audience shares scored by our news programmes as well as our magazine and tabloid formats prove we are on the right track.” With an average audience share of 16.8 per cent in 2014, RTL Television’s RTL Aktuell is the most popular main news programme among young viewers in the 14 to 59 age group.

The importance of news for Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland is also demonstrated by the undisputed position of the news channel N-TV. Even in the crisis, Schäferkordt stuck by the channel. She says: “Information programmes in all their facets are essential for a diverse media landscape. It makes us particularly proud that Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s news and information programmes came through the recent economically difficult years without making any compromises on quantity or quality.” This courage to carry on as before even in difficult times has paid off: N-TV has been profitable since 2011 for the first time in years.

The company also believes in long-term commitment when it comes to training young journalists. Since 2001, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland has run the RTL Journalistenschule in cooperation with the State Media Authority of North Rhine- Westphalia. “The RTL Journalistenschule is a good example of how the self-interest of the private sector can be linked with socio-political engagement,” says Schäferkordt.

Since April 2012, Schäferkordt has served as Co-CEO of RTL Group in Luxembourg with Guillaume de Posch. In addition to her new role at RTL Group, on 19 April 2012 she took a seat on the Bertelsmann Executive Board. Despite the additional responsibility, she continues to run Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland – but has handed the responsibility for RTL Television’s programming to Frank Hoffmann, who previously served successfully as CEO of Vox, with effect from 1 February 2013.

The biggest joint project to date for the Schäferkordt / de Posch leadership duo? Bertelsmann’s sell-down of its RTL Group shareholding – the "re-IPO" was organised just like an initial public offering, including book-building and roadshows to the world’s major financial centres. The project commanded the full attention of the management team for several weeks and months, culminating with the public offering in Frankfurt on 30 April 2013: RTL Group free float increased to 24.1 percent, and RTL Group shares were listed for regulated trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and, since 23 December 2013, in the MDax.

How does Anke Schäferkordt manage to juggle all of these tasks? She makes it sound quite simple: “I just go to work a little earlier in the morning and leave a little later, and I have an excellent team to support me,” she says – another glimpse of Anke Schäferkordt’s characteristic understatement. And because she has remained very down-to-earth despite all her success, she is held in very high regard by an otherwise rather self-obsessed television industry.

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Curriculum vitae

Birthday 12 December 1962 in Lemgo Degree Business administration

Career stations:

1988 Young Executives Programme, Bertelsmann AG

1991 Executive Assistant for Sales Controlling and Strategic Planning, RTL Plus

1993 Head of Corporate Planning and Controlling, RTL Plus

1995 Chief Financial Officer, Vox

1997 Chief Financial Officer and Programme Director, Vox

1999 Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Vox

2005 Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO, RTL Television

2005 CEO, RTL Television and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland

since April 2012 Co/Chief Executive Officer, RTL Group

2012 Member of the Executive Board, Bertelsmann Management SE

2015 Member of the Supervisory Board of

Last updated: April 2015

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