Sportainment Rules How RTL Television Produces TV Events from Sports Competitions
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16 June 2011 week 24 Sportainment rules How RTL Television produces TV events from sports competitions Russia The Netherlands RTL Group becomes shareholder Rochelle has in National Media Group the X Factor Belgium Belgium ACT underlines importance IP Belgium reviews of commercial broadcasters impact of advertising at the Digital Assembly on sales during crisis the RTL Group intranet week 24 Cover: Montage with Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko (right) and Manfred Loppe (bubble). 2 the RTL Group intranet week 24 “Added value from scarcity” With the contract extension for broadcasting their fights, the Klitschko brothers will continue to be a strong sporting event on RTL Television. Backstage spoke with Manfred Loppe about the contract extension, Formula 1 racing and other sports. Manfred Loppe Germany - 16 June 2011 At the beginning of June 2011, Bernd Bönte, people who watch Klitschko fights are female. CEO of the Klitschko Management Group At the same time, their position as multiple world (KMG) and RTL Television Sports Director champion heavyweight title winners is of course Manfred Loppe signed a TV contract in the very valuable and commands a lot of respect Austrian town of Going. The contract extension from men. This puts a TV channel in an excellent continues the highly successful partnership position. of almost five years between KMG and RTL Television. It includes a package of five more fights featuring the brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. WBC champion Vitali Klitschko’s first fight under the new contract is on 10 September in Wroclaw, Poland, against Tomasz Adamek. Backstage spoke with Manfred Loppe about boxing and Formula One in the channel’s programming. What makes boxing so interesting for RTL Television? A clear distinction must be made between boxing as a sport in general and Klitschko fights on RTL Television. The two brothers have a very special audience appeal: their aesthetics, their looks and their presence convey an age-old ideal of strength and invincibility. On the other hand, they are incredibly nice people. This mixture, together with their authenticity – they are honest, friendly and untainted by scandal – gives them great viewer appeal. The Klitschko brothers are beacons of professional sport and serve as role models to society. Their success with among in particular is phenomenal: up to 47 per cent of the Manfred Loppe, Wladimir Klitschko and his Manager Bernd Bönte 3 the RTL Group intranet week 24 Where did your reputation as a boxing channel originate? The Klitschko brothers’ boxing matches on RTL Television are “sportainment“ and are celebrated as major events. From the promotion to the fight itself, everything is scripted, including the dialogue and dramatic staging. RTL Television is the channel that launched boxing on its way to becoming the TV event as we know it today, and has continued to further develop it over the years. It all started with Henry Maske; today it’s the Klitschko brothers. And oddly enough – according to survey results – we continued to be perceived as the top boxing channel even when boxing wasn’t part of our programming. What is the underlying strategy? In a nutshell, we generate added value from scarcity. We turn the sport into a TV Sebastian Vettel event. RTL Television viewers know exactly what to expect. High quality pre-coverage, when Michael Schumacher announced his the event itself as a special show, followed return, we stuck to this approach and have by correspondingly intensive and up-to-date been rewarded. At the dream final last season, monitoring and analysis. Vettel drove his way straight into the viewers’ hearts. People are talking about Formula One What other types of sport would be once more and have a hero again. Last but not interesting? least, the rule changes this season did their part: In Germany, there are three sports that work races are really action-packed and exciting, and year-round: football, Formula 1 and boxing. Two sometimes are decided on the last lap. of these three are firmly anchored in our port- folio. But that doesn’t exclude football as a sub- Like the one last weekend in Canada? ject for us – witness our World Cup coverage in Exactly. So much can happen in a race like that: 2006 and 2010. We always act according to the weather changes, strategy changes, crashes, dictates of profitability: if the expected audience overtaking manoeuvres – and then the race figures don’t justify the price for the television termination with a re-start after two hours. You rights, we leave it alone. really have to be able to improvise in such cases. Ours is a very well rehearsed, Major tournaments are the pinnacle of the sports veteran team and can really rev up their skills landscape. If you are involved as a commercial in a situation like that. Believe it or not, these broadcaster and show what you can do, and are the big opportunities in this job – ones that then win multiple awards for your coverage, then we enjoy and for which there are fortunately the team has done a great job. The viewers are rewards. As many as 7.78 million viewers happy, the channel and the team are happy. watched the broadcast and stayed with it What more could you want? despite the interruption for rain. Why do viewers love these three sports above all? German viewers focus on heroes – outstanding figures in football, and in boxing, the Klitschko brothers. In Formula One it was Michael Schumacher for a long time. In the three years after his career ended, we nevertheless stuck by the sport and rebuilt from scratch. We believed in the highly promising next generation of German drivers, focusing mainly on Vettel and Rosberg. Even 4 the RTL Group intranet week 24 Other Sport highlights on RTL Group’s channels France M6 focuses mainly on football and broadcasts some of the away matches of the French National Team – for example against Bosnia and Herzegowina in September 2010 or against Luxembourg in March 2011. The next match to be broadcast is against Romania on 6 September 2011. Apart from that M6 covers the French Trophée des Champions and the finale of the Europa League. On Paris Première viewers can enjoy the Tennis Masters Series of Paris Bercy as well as European and World Championships in Ballroom Dancing. The Netherlands RTL 7 is the second biggest football TV station of the Netherlands, broadcasting the UEFA Europa League and Jupiler League competitions, but also football talkshows like Voetbal International, which is the most watched programme of RTL 7, and Barend&Barend. Also, other football related programmes like Voetbalfans (football fans) and Seat Mooiste Goals Ooit (overview of the best goals). In terms of motorsports, RTL 7 has the platform RTL GP. The best known disciplines broadcast are: Formula One and the Dakar Rally. Since January 2011, RTL 7 has all the PDC Darts tournaments, including its own tournament in Holland, the “RTL 7 Darts International Masters”. On July 2 RTL 7 will air a boxing match live for the first time: Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye. It’s the first time a world heavyweight title fight is live broadcast on a free network in Holland in more than 10 years. Belgium RTL Belgium focuses on three major sports: Football, Tennis and motorsport. In terms of football, RTL Belgium has rights to the Champions League for 33 evenings, the finale of the UEFA Super Cup and the matches of the French National Team, the Diables Rouges (Red Devils) for friendly matches and the qualification for the European Championship 2012. In terms of tennis, RTL Belgium covers two weeks of Wimbledon, the WTA Brussels Open, the Tennis Legends: ATP Champions Tour from Knokke and the “Best of Belgium” match between Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams. In motorsports, RTL Belgium covers the Moto GP, the Moto 2 and the 24 hours of Spa. Hungary RTL Klub puts its main focus on the Formula One races. Apart from that RTL Klub broadcasts some major events of the Hungarian national team and of the national leagues of handball as well as waterpolo. Occasionally, the channel also broadcasts World Championship fights of Hungarian professional boxers. Greece Alpha broadcasts the Formula One races live. Luxembourg RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is an official broadcaster of the Tour de France until 2013 and broadcasts the emblematic Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Flèche Wallonne. Additionnally, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg broadcasts the games of the Luxembourgish National Football Team. 5 the RTL Group intranet week 24 Share swap in Russia RTL Group becomes minority shareholder in the Russian media company National Media Group, the majority owner of Ren TV. Russia - 10 June 2011 As part of an agreement with the current shareholders of National Media Group (NMG), RTL Group will swap its 30 per cent share- holding in the Russian TV channel Ren TV for a 7.5 per cent shareholding in National Media Group. Andreas Rudas, Executive Vice President Regional Operations & Business Development Central and Eastern Europe at RTL Group, says: “RTL Group has swapped its minority share in one single broadcaster for another minority share in the rapidly expanding media group NMG. Through this agreement, RTL Group has interests in three major TV channels in Russia.” National Media Group was founded in 2008 and acquired its 68 per cent majority stake in Ren TV in the same year. Since then, the company has become one of the leading media groups in Russia, with holdings in the following assets: Ren TV (68 per cent), Channel 5 St. Petersburg (72 per cent), the Russian market leader Channel One (25 per cent) and the daily newspaper Isvestija (50.19 per cent).