week 25 the RTL Group intranet Newsletter 19 June 2008 Launching mobile TV Boudewijn van Schaik on the launch of DVB-H in the Netherlands France An incredible audience share for M6 Tune in to RTL Radio on iPhone Spain Antena 3 Foundation: two years of charity Europeans are hungry for the perfect dinner COVER: Boudewijn van Schaik re for M6 one ears of charity hftdi 2 week 25 the RTL Group intranet We have a unique selling point At the beginning of June, DVB-H was launched in the Netherlands. RTL Nederland is one of the participants, running two mobile channels: RTL 4 (the group’s flagship channel) and a new news channel called RTL 24. In Backstage, Boudewijn van Schaik explains RTL Nederland’s strategy. Boudewijn van Schaik The Netherlands - 19 June 2008 Since 5 June 2008, mobile users have been signed up. Several of them will also be utilising able to receive RTL 24 via KPN’s DVB-H mobi- the channel’s exclusive mobile banner feature. le technology. RTL 24 offers a wide range of formats, including RTL Nederland’s most popu- In Backstage, Boudewijn van Schaik, currently lar news programmes RTL Nieuws, RTL Z, Programme Director of RTL 7, explains the Editie NL and RTL Boulevard. RTL 4 has also strategic goals behind the new channel’s been broadcast live to mobile phones since 5 launch and affords an overview of the new June. technology for mobile TV. RTL Nederland CEO Bert Habets had the follo- wing to say about broadcasts by RTL 24 and RTL 4 using KPN’s DVB-H mobile technology: Boudewijn van Schaik “In the Netherlands there are now more mobile Boudewijn van Schaik (45) is currently telephones than inhabitants. This technology Programme Director of RTL 7, the male has now made it possible to watch television orientated channel of RTL Nederland. via this mass medium. Our aim is to follow vie- Prior to that he worked as Executive wers on the move and enable them to watch Producer at John de Mol Produkties our programmes anywhere. We anticipate where he produced the first three seasons mobile television taking off in the next few of Big Brother and big entertainment years, so we want to be able to offer our vie- shows in the Netherlands and Germany wers their favourite programmes via their mobi- (e.g. Traumhochzeit) le phones right from day one. That’s why we broadcast our most popular programmes live and it’s also the reason we developed RTL 24 specially for mobile viewers”. The KPN’s DVB-H technology means that mobile users will be able to view high-quality TV images at any given time when on the move. Via RTL 24, RTL Nederland is offering consu- mers and advertisers a unique tailor-made ser- vice, a special feature on RTL 24 being the mobile banner that enables advertisers to put their message across in an entirely new format. Even prior to RTL 24’s launch, a number of innovative advertisers, including Volvo, Nike, Logo RTL24 KPN, Samsung, Ford and LG, had already 3 week 25 the RTL Group intranet What do you expect from launching a new be able to add commercials between program- DVB-H channel? mes, though we can also schedule some ads instead of the ticker. DVB-H is a brand new medium in Holland, offe- red by KPN Telecom, the Netherlands’ biggest How many people do you reach via DVB-H? telecom provider. The quality of the audio and video signal is exceptional and, in my view, KPN Telecom launched DVB-H just two weeks could result in video broadcasts to mobiles ago, on 5 June, so for now the DVB-H commu- really catching on for the first time and beco- nity is very small. To become part of it you need ming hugely successful. Of course, users can a special mobile phone and have to subscribe watch TV programmes on their DVB-H device, to the service, paying KPN Telecom a fee of but DVB-H consumers are in a totally different EUR 9.95 per month. But, I’m convinced that mood and context than viewers tuning in at the community will grow to an enormous size home. DVB-H watchers may be waiting for a because the audio and video quality is truly bus, sitting in a train, eating their lunch in the excellent. Last week, I went to a restaurant with cafeteria, working a night shift or standing in a a friend and we followed the events unfolding in traffic jam. DVB-H is not the right medium to Euro 2008 on my mobile. He was so amazed broadcast a long film like The Good, the Bad and overwhelmed by the quality of the signal and the Ugly. DVB-H is perfect for programmes that the very next day he went to KPN to buy a between 5 and 15 minutes long. So news or DVB-H device. KPN Telecom was very smart to sport bulletins could work very well. launch DVB-H just before the start of Euro 2008 and the Olympic Games. And the latest infor- Why did you launch a new channel instead mation I got said that the DVB-H devices are of just broadcasting the existing ones? sold out. In the Netherlands, KPN Telecom started out Do you have any special offers for mobile with 10 channels. RTL 24 is the only new chan- ads that will only be broadcast via DVB-H? nel. The other channels are all existing televi- sion channels, like Nederland 1, Nederland 3, Yes. The system already works, but we are cur- RTL 4 and SBS 6. So, RTL 24 is totally unique rently putting the finishing touches to the com- in the Dutch DVB-H landscape. With RTL 24 we puter software. So I think by the end of the are offering something new, including extensive week we’ll be able to broadcast the first special news coverage. We have RTL 4’s morning mobile ads in the ticker area. And of course we news and from 9:00 RTL Z’s financial and busi- can also schedule full-screen ads between pro- ness news. Later, in the evening we bring the grammes. latest entertainment news, Editie NL (an RTL 4 show with Dutch news backgrounds) and For now you are only broadcasting RTL 4 updated bulletins from RTL Nieuws. There’s and the new channel RTL 24 via DVB-H. Will also a ticker providing the latest weather fore- other RTL Nederland channels follow? cast, traffic information and news headlines. Between programmes we can insert some Text KPN Telecom has allocated two frequencies to TV, so that the 22:00 news bulletin starts punc- each of the three main Dutch players, namely tually. RTL 24 is a news and information chan- the public channels, RTL and SBS. But RTL is nel that’s available anywhere, anytime, which the only one with a dedicated DVB-H channel. makes it a unique proposition which is itself a great selling point. Is there any difference between how a ‘nor- mal’ channel and a DVB-H channel is produ- ced? Yes, there is. Of course, you can use DVB-H to transmit existing conventional programmes one by one. But with RTL 24 we do something different by airing shorter programmes all of which are either news or news-related broad- casts. We’ve already added the ticker I mentio- ned above and in a couple of weeks we’ll also Logo RTL4 4 week 25 the RTL Group intranet An incredible audience share On 17 June, M6 beat its all-time ratings record when it broadcast the Euro 2008 clash between France and Italy, scoring the highest audience of the year achieved by any channel: 13.2 mil- lion viewers! Euro 2008 logo France - 19 June 2008 Never before since M6’s existence has a pro- The clash between Portugal and the Czech gramme solicited such interest. In fact, the Republic, which was shown on Wednesday 11 channel recorded an overall audience share of June at 18:00, attracted 4.3 million viewers (an 47.8 per cent and a share of 63.3 per cent overall audience share of 30 per cent). That day among men under 50 years of age. M6 was the most popular channel among vie- wers as a whole, with the audience peaking at The audience peaked at 15.4 million viewers at 7 million at 19:47. 21:18 despite the fact that to the great chagrin of French fans, the match ended with a defeat for Les Bleus, who caved in to pressure from Italy. The team’s loss sealed France’s elimination from Euro 2008. During the tournament, other matches covered by M6’s Euro 2008 commenta- tors, Thierry Roland and Frank Leboeuf, attracted very large audiences. The game between Austria and Germany, aired at 20:45 on Monday 16 June was watched by 5.2 million viewers, giving it an overall audience share of 21 per cent. Estelle Denis, Thierry Roland 5 week 25 the RTL Group intranet Europeans are hungry for the perfect dinner The cooking show, which has been a great success for Vox in Germany and M6 in France, is now being shown on Antena 3 in Spain as Ven a cenar conmigo. Spain - 16 June 2008 The concept in Spain is the same as in The French version Un dîner presque parfait Germany and France. Five complete strangers launched in February and has given M6 stellar meet for dinner every evening for a week.