week 24 / 13 June 2013 A DESTINATION CHANNEL How 6ter quickly earned a pride of place in the French DTT world Germany Germany Belgium India More than half Teamworx “A fairly intense year” Big RTL Thrill adds a million euros to produce English feed for flood victims unprecedented documentary about football’s ‘Kaiser’ week 24 / 13 June 2013 A DESTINATION CHANNEL How 6ter quickly earned a pride of place in the French DTT world Germany Germany Belgium India More than half Teamworx “A fairly intense year” Big RTL Thrill adds a million euros to produce english feed for flood victims unprecedented documentary about football’s ‘Kaiser’ Cover Catherine Schöfer, Deputy Managing Director at 6ter 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 More than half a million euros for fl ood victims RTL Television p. 8 “It’s essential to try things out, that’s how Teamworx to produce you learn.” unprecedented 6ter documentary about p.4–7 football’s ‘Kaiser’ Teamworx p. 9 SHORT “A fairly intense year” RTL Belgium NEWS p. 10 p. 13–15 Big Picture p.12 Big RTL Thrill adds English feed PEOPLE Big RTL Thrill p. 11 p.16–18 “IT’S On 12 December 2012, ESSENTIAL TO Groupe M6 launched its third Free-TV channel, the general-interest channel 6ter. TRY THINGS OUT, Six months later, Backstage caught up with its Deputy Managing Director, Catherine THAT’S HOW Schöfer, to find out how the channel was faring. YOU LEARN.” France – 13 June 2013 6ter To mark international Earth Day on 22 April 2013, 6ter interrupted its regular programme schedule and launched its fi rst day entirely dedicated to a single theme – a fi rst for a television channel in France 4 How have the ratings evolved over these past six months? How is 6ter doing compared with the other new channels? 6ter was quick to establish itself. Its fi rst ratings already refl ected a primetime audience of more than 300,000 viewers. Our strategy entailed getting off to a strong start, because we believed it was essential to attract viewers straight away and then work to secure their loyalty. Once that was achieved, the challenge to be met was to maintain that same level of performance. We succeeded in achieving that, and today we are even experiencing some growth. In fact, © Patrick Robert/6ter during May the channel notched up its biggest Mac Lesggy explores the secrets of Ancient Egypt in Xplora audiences of the year among viewers aged 4 and above. The other channels adopted a different strategy, starting off more slowly. Subsequently some of them saw their audiences increase afterwards, whereas others did not, but 6ter continued to perform steadily throughout, and recently its ratings began to rise. Would you thus describe the channel’s launch a successful one? Absolutely! Among the DTT channels what sets 6ter apart is its positioning. It is a general- interest channel that combines power and quality, focussing on a number of genres. Consequently, it is now a destination channel, a channel people consciously choose to watch. Like most larger channels, we attract our best audiences during primetime, as well as during access primetime and at lunchtime. The other new DTT channels tend to be complementary channels, which are watched mainly at specifi c slots when they air popular programmes. For instance, HD1 attracts large audiences in the afternoon, whereas RMC draws its biggest audiences on access and primetime. Which types of programmes draw the largest audiences on 6ter? Films. We’ve seen our audiences peak at up to 370,000 viewers. Magazines and documentaries also achieve high ratings, especially Xplora, C’est du propre and Norbert et Jean: Le Défi !. © Patrick Robert/6ter Top Chef season three fi nalists Norbert Tarayre and Jean Imbert Where series are concerned, our audiences ready for a new challenge in Norbert et Jean: Le Défi ! tend to fl uctuate from programme to programme. Broadcast in primetime, 90210 and Super Hero Family are very popular, the latter having already Are your advertising revenues in line with the attracted up to 291,000 viewers. On the other hand, channel’s audiences? we were disappointed with the poor performance When you launch a channel, advertisers wait for of Raising Hope, which may be due to the format. you to prove yourself. 6ter offers them a positioning Unlike the United States, French viewers are not and values they appreciate and with which they can very much used to 26-minutes-long primetime associate their brands. Given the good ratings I can programmes. However, we know it’s essential to tell you that we are actually doing better than we try things out. That’s how you learn. That said, our forecasted. ultimate aim is to excel in all genres. Next > 5 © CBS Studios Inc. 90210 Beverly Hills: Nouvelle Génération, performing well both offl ine and online What prompted you to schedule a day’s Do you envisage doing the same with other programmes around a specifi c theme, such programmes? as the Journée pour la Terre (Earth Day) Ultimately we will do the same for all programmes on 22 April? that permit it, because enriched content is a must if At 6ter we like to stand out from the crowd. it constitutes a real plus for viewers, as is defi nitely We constantly look for ways to create channel- the case with Norbert et Jean: Le Défi !. Viewers are based events and don’t hesitate to take risks that happy with this function and many of them make others would not dare to take. That’s why we use of it, either when the programme airs on 6ter or turned our programming upside down and also when it is repeated on M6. changed the channel’s visual identity for nearly 24 hours, to pay homage to our planet while remaining true to one of our fundamental values: discovery. We were very happy with the results of this initiative and will certainly repeat it next year, either taking up the same theme again or focussing on another one. We already have plenty of ideas. Where does 6ter stand as far as digital © JL Bulcao/M6 © JL is concerned? Spotless, Danielle and Béatrice in C’est du propre These days it is impossible to think of a channel without considering digital integration. For this Can we expect other programmes aired on 6ter reason, right from the start 6ter had a website, to have a second life on M6 or even on W9? a catch-up platform and an app. One week prior Yes, I would love that. Either because we produce to the channel’s launch, Web users could already formats that we can share and even co-fi nance watch presentation clips via a pre-play function. with other Groupe M6 channels, or because since Thanks to the app, which is now also available we don’t have the same pressure to perform on other platforms, those people who do not yet during primetime, we are more fl exible in our receive 6ter (Editor’s note: so far its coverage choices. Working on a different scale and having reaches less than 60 per cent of all French less demanding objectives makes us more households), can watch its programmes live. adaptable. Indeed, this is what enables us to indulge In the digital domain we’ve greatly benefi ted from by scheduling events like Earth Day. Groupe M6’s expertise and are continuing to do so today, thanks to cross promotion. For instance, When characterising M6, Thomas Valentin used part of 6ter’s digital consumption originates from the words “audacity” and “creativity”. Which other Groupe M6 online services. Finally, since words would you use to describe 6ter? 5 April fans of the cookery programme Norbert et “Sharing”, “pleasure” and “discovery” – because Jean: Le Défi ! have been treated to an enriched these words aptly sum up the channel’s core spirit. viewing experience. 6ter is a lively channel, offering conviviality and humanity, to viewers of all ages. Next > 6 RESULT OF THE ‘MÉDIASPHÈRES’ MARCH 2013 STUDY ON THE PERCEIVED IMAGE OF THE SIX NEW DTT CHANNELS. …is the most popular of these channels among viewers because of the quality of its programmes and is also the most attractive channel, judging by its ratings. …has a positive image thanks to its range of accessible, family viewing which enriches the types of programmes available on DTT in some domains (series, discovery, film). …offers viewers, first and foremost entertainment, but also enables them to discover and learn in a different, modern way. (The figures are based on an omnibus telephone survey comprising 1000 interviews carried out by the market research institute BVA in March 2013 on a representative French sample of individuals aged 15 and above). 6TER’S DIGITAL WORLD IN FIGURES: TERRAIN D’INVESTIGATION: 350,000 6ter apps downloaded 28,000 fans on Facebook 7,000 followers on Twitter 12 million videos watched (catch-up, live) including 3 million viewings of 90210 Beverly Hills (via catch-up TV) © Pascalito/DR/6ter Anicet Mbida hosts Terrain d’Investigation A new investigative society magazine launched on 25 May Airs during primetime every Saturday Has attracted up to 134,000 viewers Screenshot of the 6ter App to date 7 MORE THAN HALF A MILLION EUROS FOR FLOOD VICTIMS RTL Television For a week now, RTL Television has been calling on the viewers of its news and magazine shows to donate funds for fl ood victims in Germany.