24 February 2011 week 08 The reinvention of Club RTL How RTL Belgium’s number two channel is being modernised United Kingdom France FremantleMedia and Random Destination RTL heads House produce children’s formats for southern Spain Netherlands Belgium Radio 538 looks for RTL-TVI portrays Guus Meeuwis’ supporting act the ‘real’ Dr House the RTL Group intranet week 08 24 February 2011 week 08 Cover: Stéphane Rosenblatt, Director of Television, RTL Belgium The reinvention of Club RTL 2 How RTL Belgium’s number two channel is being modernised United Kingdom France FremantleMedia and Random Destination RTL heads House produce children’s formats for southern Spain Netherlands Belgium Radio 538 looks for RTL-TVI portrays Guus Meeuwis’ supporting act the ‘real’ Dr House the RTL Group intranet week 08 “As strong and diverse as possible” RTL Belgium’s Director of Television Stéphane Rosenblatt talks about the evolving Belgian family of channels. Club RTL’s new slogan: Make your choice! Belgium - 17 February 2011 What is the strategy of RTL Belgium? Over the years RTL Belgium has created a strong, tight-knit, complementary family. Strong, because it is the clear leader in the French-speaking market in Belgium, which may be small at 4 million people, but is fiercely competitive because it is also open to French channels. Consequently, the Belgian market poses a real challenge, but this did not prevent RTL Belgium from proudly attaining a combined prime time audience share of 34 per cent in 2010. Tight-knit because our family is full of team spirit. All our teams, whether involved in production or programming, have a transversal culture. In Belgium, RTL happily switches between radio and television and back again. Put simply, we multitask. Just like our dynamic presenter Jean-Michel Zecca, who for the past 20 years has presented a famous radio programme, Beau Fixe, aired on Bel RTL, but is entirely at ease combining that with fronting the TV game show Septante et Un, which airs at 18:30 every weekday evening on RTL-TVI. And complementary, because RTL Belgium sets out to reach a wide audience and appeal to all kinds of viewers across its family of channels. So we have to try and satisfy everyone, and the job I and my fantastic team face is to offer viewers programmes they will really enjoy and keep them glued to their sofas. Consequently, the range of programmes we offer must be as strong and diverse as possible. So every year we make an optimal effort for our viewers. Sandrine Dans, presenter of 100% Club 3 the RTL Group intranet week 08 Tell us about your channels. For this reason, we decided to modernise Clearly, RTL-TVI is our flagship channel, Club RTL, to ensure that it is strong enough to occupying a dominant position: it is our general- retain its standing as a major channel, behind interest channel for family viewers. It weathered RTL-TVI. Specifically this means that today, the 2008 crisis very well and is flattening its more than ever, we are strengthening our rivals at all levels and in all target groups. So partnerships and counting on our major brands, RTL-TVI is the heavyweight on the Belgian which have great added value. By way of an audiovisual scene, both in news and example, we are shoring up our historical entertainment. Alongside it and complementing partnership with Disney for cartoons and with it we have the channels Club RTL and Plug the Champions League in sport. Where comedy RTL. Plug RTL is aimed primarily at 15 to is concerned, The Simpsons is a key brand for 34-year-olds. Club RTL, forming an integral part of our identity. Today, since we must So we are going to never rest on our refocus on the core laurels, we are on elements of our the way to strategi- success: the brands cally repositioning our and partnerships that channel Club RTL and make us what we are. are launching a new In other words, there slogan: “Club RTL – will be no revolution Make your choice!” here, but a reaffirma- Actually, at the end of tion of what and who 2010 we decided to we are. That said, we freshen up Club RTL, have also set to work which is why at the 100% Club, an in-house production, in two areas: access start of the year we designed to modernise the access prime time prime time and started slowly piecing together our new pro- evenings. During access prime time we are gramming strategy. Since we do not want to dropping the US series like Hanna Montana scare away our viewers, we merely tweaked the and replacing them with our own production, schedule, introducing a few new programmes 100% Club, a magazine by Sandrine Dans, who for them. Now, though, we are stepping up our is very highly rated in Belgium. Every weekday promotion of the channel by launching a major at 18:30, 100% Club covers events and devel- marketing campaign. opments that are shaping society and impacting on daily life. Lined up for 100% Club are reports Can you tell us a little more about Club RTL? on well-being, practical aspects of life, beauty, Complementing RTL-TVI, Club RTL’s destiny unusual topics, cookery and the very latest has never been to be a small channel: right trends. As for the evening, we are updating the from the outset it sought to bring its full weight fiction on offer. to bear on the market and also become a big channel with attractive programmes. Its morning How have viewers responded so far? schedule includes children’s programmes, Well, we have made these changes gradually, while its afternoon fare comprises accompanied and remember we are not altering anything viewing, for example programmes watched by fundamental about the channel, just moving adolescents together with their mothers. In the in a new direction. We are communicating evening, Club RTL either airs major sporting this shift over the next few days via a screen- events, such as Champions League football, or based self-promotion campaign, as well organises themed evenings of fiction. as via an image campaign on the radio, on television, in the cinema and in the press. For years this model has worked very well, but It will be impossible to miss it! today – having been hit by the crisis – some changes need to be made because our rivals, especially AB2 and the second public channel, have started to attack us on our own territory. 4 the RTL Group intranet week 08 A RTL veteran Stéphane Rosenblatt is a ‘home-grown’ talent who has been with RTL Belgium for over 25 years already. He joined RTL as a reporter back in 1985, then went off to open the company’s Paris office in rue Bayard, where he became RTL Belgium’s resident Paris correspondent, covering the 1988 presidential election. In 1991 he returned to Belgium to participate in the launch of the general-interest radio station Bel RTL and become its editor-in-chief. In 1993, he returned to the world of television to head the editorial team at RTL-TVI. In 2002, he added the job of editor-in-chief of the 13:00 and 19:00 news broadcasts and also became director of information. He was in charge of the news when the paedophile story centred around Marc Dutroux made waves worldwide. He also has very clear memories of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, for it was at that moment that RTL-TVI overtook its state-run rivals to become the leading news broadcaster – a leadership it has retained ever since. This firmly established Rosenblatt’s reputation, and backed by a team of professionals he lent his pedigree to RTL-TVI’s TV news. First and foremost, that news is independent, the word for which the “I” in RTL-TVI Stéphane Rosenblatt stands for. Being a massive fan of television as a medium in the broader sense, Rosenblatt says he adores content of every kind. In 2003, he was appointed director of television. Being a master programmer, he likes reiterating that RTL-TVI as the first French-speaking channel to take the risk of broadcasting US series during prime time. But the source of Rosenblatt’s greatest pride is having successfully scheduled docu-fiction films like Auschwitz and Hiroshima during prime time, obtaining an audience share of 35 per cent. 5 the RTL Group intranet week 08 German Federal Cartel Office verdict on the video platform The Federal Carter Office has issued a negative provisional verdict on plans for a central Web-based platform for TV content Germany - 24 February 2011 In August 2010, Backstage reported on plans Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will now avail for a joint video platform run by Mediengruppe itself of the opportunity to draw up a detailed RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat1. opinion on the Federal Cartel Office’s verdict by The intention was to establish the service 10 March and then await the watchdog’s final alongside existing video-on-demand portals like decision. The parties involved reserve the right RTLNow.de, VoxNow.de and SuperRTLNow.de. to subsequently ask the courts to rule on the matter. Late in the afternoon on 23 February 2011, the Federal Cartel Office sent its provisional In the meantime, the timeframe for the project’s verdict on the planned project to set up a consideration was extended with the agreement technical service provider for Mediengruppe of the Federal Cartel Office so that further, more RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat1 Media to detailed discussions could take place.