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Luxembourg

RTL becoming a fashion accessoire

Germany

15 years of RTL Nachtjournal

United Kingdom

A new look for Five USA

The Netherlands

Revamping RTLNieuws.nl

Creative renewal Dawn Airey on her new approach for Five

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19 February 2009

2C ti l

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COVER:Dawn Airey

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United Kingdom - 19 February 2009

What’s it like to be back? What does Five standfor today? What are your plans for it? Howabout the current economic situation? Dawn,consummate TV professional that she is, tookall this in her stride. “We’d become a bitserious,” she suggests, “perhaps a bit obses-sed with war, history and criminals, with a lot offactual programming. We needed a bit of per-sonality.”

What sort of personality? “Well, we certainlydon’t want to be a ‘me-too’ channel”, Dawnreplies, “We’re soon going to be entering ourteens, so we need to be a challenger, someonewith a bit of energy. What you’ll see comethrough is a wry sense of humour, a channelthat likes stirring things up, and not afraid ofpoking fun, whether that’s at ourselves, or thetopic, or other broadcasters, even.”

As if to explain the last point, Dawn mentionsCowboy Builders as an example of how thechannel will take a well-known TV genre –home makeover shows – and capture the ima-gination by doing something a little bit different.In this case it’s tracking down and punishingbuilders responsible for inferior work – as wellas putting right their poor workmanship. Evenjust the title of December’s successful docu-mentary Ant & Dec – Where Did It All Go Right?

hints at the channel’s cheeky humour. Theshow tracks the breaks the pair got in theirjourney from relatively unknown child actors totwo of today’s highest paid British TV stars.

In Dawn’s words, “we are easy to watch, fun,self-confident, optimistic, provocative on occa-sion and, primarily, entertaining.” Another goodexample of the new Five is the ‘fast turnaround’documentary format such as the recent look atthe Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross contro-versy. It got lots of attention and a large audien-ce, and for Dawn, “it makes us feel alive as achannel and shows we’re aware of what’sgoing on. And it gives the showbiz commenta-tors something to comment on. So it works onmultiple levels – good for advertisers, good forjournalists and entertaining for viewers. I’d liketo do one a week but it’s more likely to be onea fortnight.”

The relaunch of Minder, an Eighties classicremade by Talkback Thames, is another suc-cess that captures the new personality well.“It’s done with fun, wit and energy and it’s gotpeople talking about the channel again,” saysDawn, “it’s got a big star with a loyal following,in Shane Richie, and we need more big stars onthe channel. And London itself stars as well, it’sbeautifully shot. It’s the first original drama on

Creative renewal Dawn Airey returned to Five last October. We gave her the customary 100 days to find her Five feet. Then to welcome her back wethrew a barrage of questions at her.

Dawn Airey


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the channel for some time – I can’t claim thecredit though, it was underway before I retur-ned.”

So, much more light-heartedness is the orderof the day. But is this right in the current econo-mic climate? “Oh yes,” says Dawn, “It’s parti-cularly important now, something that makesyou feel good is what’s wanted.” What aboutFive’s finances? “Times like these do focusyour mind on expenditure and value formoney,” Dawn answers, “There are things wecan do – suppliers are keeping prices down,and we’ve been more analytical about ourstock, the repeats we can use. We are alsointerested in producer or advertiser funded pro-grammes, after all, we have prime time slots tooffer.” She then adds, “Reappraising costs canallow you to do brave things, and come outstronger. To use a Darwin analogy in thisDarwin anniversary year, it’s not necessarily thefittest that survive, but the most adaptable.”

One area that shows this adaptability and flexi-bility is news. “News is something else we cando differently from others. Our five o’clocknews is a top-rated early evening news, and

has always been important for us.” explainsDawn, “We’ve got the agenda right for youngpeople. The idea is to lead with the story peo-ple are talking about. So it might be health,education or a celebrity story rather than whatis necessarily the main global or political item.We’ll also be starting a one hour, early evening(18:30, following the soap hour) current affairsmagazine show, covering all the day’s events inan open, relaxed, chatty style. I think we cancontinue to do well with a different approach tonews.”

Sport has always been an important part of themix at Five, and to add to the popular crickethighlights and the late night coverage of topAmerican sports there is a new UEFA packagestarting in autumn with a significant amount ofmatches. There’s also a fresh look to the familyof complementary channels, with the newnames of Five USA and Fiver, and both chan-nels growing steadily.

To sum up though, Dawn returns to the econo-mic situation: “Every free-to-air broadcasterneeds to be thinking about commercial survivalat the moment,” she says, “so as I mentioned,we are having to take an analytical approach toall our spending. But at the same time, we haveto plan for the long term, and ours is a clearstrategy of creative renewal.”

Shane Richie, star of Minder

UEFA Cup logo


RTL FashionsAs part of a vintage collection, Adidas is bringing out replica 1987 Olympique Marseillefootball shirts featuring the sponsor at the time– RTL.Luxembourg - 18 February 2009

The original Olympique Marseille shirt wasworn during the 1987 French cup, the Coupede France. With RTL as a sponsor the team rea-ched the final, where they were beaten 2:0 byGirondins de Bordeaux.

For the new collection, Adidas has selectedanother four European football clubs alongsideOlympique Marseille: Liverpool, AC Milan, RealMadrid and FC Bayern Munich.

“More than 20 years ago the letters RTL onfootball shirts have helped to further improvethe profile of our radio business. Today Adidasis using them with our permission for its fashioncollection,” said RTL Group’s Head ofMarketing Oliver Herrgesell. “RTL as a classic:this is a nice compliment, even for one ofEurope’s strongest brands.”

The vintage shirts are designed as streetwearrather than sportswear, and will be reissued aspart of the Adidas spring/summer collection.Adidas made a big point of making the shirts asauthentic as possible. So where no originalmodels were available – as was the case withthe Olympique Marseille shirt – they basedthem on pictures and the same material theywould have used at the time.

The Olympique Marseille shirt with the RTL logois now available in stores as a T-shirt, hoodie, orin long-sleeved and children’s versions.

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The 1987 Olympique Marseille vintage shirt


Late-night newshoundsFor 15 years now, RTL Nachtjournal has delive-red the most important news of the day at, thevery end of the day. Germany - 16 February 2009

The people behind the late-night news pro-gramme launched in 1994 have every reason tocelebrate, as the popularity of their showincreases by the year.

The idea of midnight news, long a matter ofcourse in the US, made its debut in Germanyon 3 January 1994. RTL Television hired HeinerBremer, a noted journalist and former editor-in-chief of Stern magazine, to conquer new TVterritory with the RTL Nachtjournal. Very soon,a million information addicts were regularlytuning in; young viewers in particular were veryreceptive to the late night news programme. Tothis day, RTL Nachtjournal is the clear marketleader in this slot, averaging 1.27 million vie-wers in 2008 (2007: 1.25 million): 14.4 per centof total audience, or 16.5 per cent of the 14 to49-year-old viewer market. In terms of marketshare, RTL Nachtjournal has prevailed againstthe competing late-night magazines HeuteJournal on ZDF (11.6 per cent of total audien-ce, 6.2 per cent of viewers 14 to 49), and ARD’sTagesthemen, which reach 10.6 per cent oftotal audience and 5.6 per cent of 14- to 49-year-old viewers.

Facts, backgrounders and opinions have madethe late-night show a hallmark of German TVnews journalism. “We research the story behindthe news announcement, and don’t just offerbackground, but also point out inconsisten-cies”, says Ilka Essmüller, who has moderatedRTL Nachtjournal for the past year. “Longer

features allow us to provide more comprehen-sive reports or systematically focus on indivi-dual aspects. This gives us the freedom – andthe aspiration – to offer our late-night viewersadded value on top of the pure news of theday.”

Christof Lang, Chief News Editor, plans toexpand on this approach in 2009, a big electionyear in Germany: the Nachtjournal-Check willtake a close look at the substance behind thepoliticians’ election promises. And inUnterwegs mit... Lang and Ilka Essmüller willportray decision-makers and trendsetters, fromthe chancellor herself to German captains ofindustry.

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The debut of RTL Nachtjournal in 1994 with Heiner Bremer

Ilka Essmüller


Business debates with Sabine ChristiansenFrom April, N-TV will air discussions between top business deciders and notedguests from politics, religion and society on, moderated by Sabine Christiansen.Germany - 13 February 2009

The global financial crisis, recession, excessivemanagement salaries – the economy and theresponsibility of businesses are getting unpre-cedented public attention. Swift yet wellthought-out and effective action is called for atthis time – and is at the heart of N-TV’s new dis-cussion series Agenda 09 – Werte und Märkte(Agenda 09 – Assets and Markets). Its modera-tor Sabine Christiansen looks forward to hernew assignment: “The panels have a top-notchyet surprising cast. We will discuss complexissues in lively and colourful debates citing lotsof examples, with the aim of providing food forthought for the future.”

Hans Demmel, Managing Director of N-TV,says: “Agenda 09 adds an exciting discussionround with an exceedingly competent andexperienced host and top-notch guests to ourtalk line-up. We very much look forward to wor-

king with Sabine Christiansen and to this talkseries. Agenda 09 fits perfectly with N-TV andaddresses urgent issues of our time.”

Sabine Christiansen worked as a business edi-tor and moderator for NDR from 1985 to 1987.She then moved to ARD, where she presentedthe Tagesthemen for ten years. From 1997 to2007, she had her own talk show, SabineChristiansen, also on ARD. Since 2005, SabineChristiansen has worked as a moderator andproducer for CNBC International, where shepresents the business forum Global Players –the only German to have ever moderated andproduced such a format featuring internationalbusiness VIPs.

Agenda 09 – Werte und Märkte will be produ-ced by TV 21 in six big German cities. The firstshow will be broadcast in late April 2009.

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More dynamic and edgyFive USA has unveiled its new on-air look to support the freshly-rebranded channel.United Kingdom - 16 February 2009

In conjunction with Dixon Baxi, Five’s CreativeServices have created an on-screen campaignwhich reflects the channel’s strong Americanprogramming with a bold and vibrant series ofbrand spots, idents and promos, much of it fil-med across major US cities including: LasVegas; New York; LA and Miami.

Nol Davis, Five’s Head of Creative Services,said: “We wanted to create a more dynamicand edgy look to showcase the new program-ming and the bolder channel identity. Therefreshed channel now perfectly complementsthe younger, faster, louder brand of its sisterchannel Fiver.”

Five USA launches with a set of nine identswhich travel from city to city, capturing the

energy and passion of iconic USAlocations. Supporting these are lon-ger form spots of up to three minu-tes each, taking the viewer on jour-neys including helicopter tripsacross the skyline to car rides with‘Elvis’ along Sunset Strip.

Aporva Baxi, Creative Director, DixonBaxi said: “The tone and pace of thenew identity is ‘Electric America’, an exci-ting, daring and distinct mirroring of the pro-gramming and channel ambition.”

The channel’s soundtrack was specially com-missioned from Simon Pyke at Freefarm SoundDesign and Music to capture the scale and spi-rit of modern, urban USA.

See one spot on

Backstage


Love and IntriguesSecret desires, hidden yearnings and majorintrigues are the hallmarks of Verbotene Liebe,the popular series that celebrated its 3333rdepisode on 18 February.Germany - 18 February 2009

What began long ago with the love affair bet-ween the young countess Julia von Anstettenand her brother Jan Brandner has since madeTV history. Today, excitement is provided notonly by the aristocratic von Lahnstein familyand the more down-to-earth Brandners, butmainly by the many other scheming charactersin the soap. Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love)revolves around love, fateful encounters andevents, dream castles and forbidden passions,and the appeal of the series lies in wanting,more than anything else, that which cannot andmust not be.

In the 3333 episodes aired during the past 14years, there have been 6800 kisses, 1250 ‘bet-ween-the-sheet’ scenes, 160 couples, 27 wed-dings and 20 divorces. The characters guzzleda total 60,000 litres of champagne, reflectingthe milieu the series is set in, Düsseldorf’s highsociety. The soap already celebrated last week-end at the Nachtresidenz, a nightclub inDüsseldorf, including an advance screening ofthe anniversary episode, in which theLahnsteins host a costume ball at KönigsbrunnCastle. As always, things don’t turn out asexpected, and Gregor’s dance with a beautifulstranger has unforeseen consequences.

Verbotene Liebe is produced by Grundy UFA inCologne-Ossendorf. The Königsbrunn Castleexterior location is also a permanent feature ofthe soap. In January 2005, the series markedits tenth anniversary and won Europe’s TVOscar, the ‘Rose d’Or’. Verbotene Liebe isbroadcast daily at 18:00 on ARD.

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The 3333rd episode features a costume ball at Königsbrunn Castle(Photo: ARD)

Mascha Müller celebrating 3333 episodes


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Filming begins on Genug ist nicht genugLast week, filming of the TV drama Genug istnicht genug began in Munich. The film tells thestory of a strike declared to draw attention tothe nursing sector’s predicament.Germany - 17 February 2009

Genug ist nicht genug (Enough is not enough) isset in the fictitious town of Freyling an der Isarin the near future. The recession and economiccrisis have come to a head and have resulted toever more drastic cuts in the welfare sectoramong other things. For lack of funds, moreand more full-time jobs are being handled byvolunteers.

Julia Holmer (Jule Ronstedt), a housewife andmother, spends her free time taking care ofpatients requiring long-term care. Deeply dis-tressed by the accidental death of a dementiapatient in her care, she organises a walkout todraw attention to the volunteers’ predicamentand the lack of acknowledgement of their work.Volunteers in other sectors quickly join themovement – and just as quickly, Julia encoun-ters resistance and criticism not only from localpoliticians but also from her own family.

The film is directed by Thomas Stiller based ona screenplay by Oliver Frohnauer. NicoHofmann and Benjamin Benedict are the pro-ducers. Genug ist nicht genug will shoot in andaround Munich until 19 March 2009, and isscheduled for broadcast on Wednesday 13May 2009 as part of ARD’s Ist dochEhrensache! – (Point of Honour) Theme Weekabout how people donate their time to theircommunity.

Genug ist nicht genug is a Teamworx produc-tion commissioned by Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Jule Ronstedt


Unabridged and always at your fingertips The RTL Nieuws website – RTLNieuws.nl – has been completely revamped, providing a compact, personal and highly accessible overview of current affairs and giving visitors the full story on any major news items.

The Netherlands - 16 February 2009

The overhauled website guarantees visitors aneven richer news experience, offering morethan headlines, explained RTL Nieuws Editor-in-Chief Harm Taselaar: “RTL Nieuws is a topnews provider, delivering exclusive images,interviews and background stories. It offersready access to all breaking news, and does sowith the speed and urgency people have cometo expect from RTL Nieuws. Frequent inputfrom experts like Conny Mus, Erik Mouthaanand Frits Wester gives RTLNieuws.nl its addedvalue. And such contributions are complemen-ted by columns, blogs, overviews and the bestinformation available on the Web”.

The RTLNieuws.nl website is extremely user-oriented, always asking how what’s happeningaround the world will affect ordinary people.The website’s presentation of major storiesmakes them easy to find, understand and use.What’s more, Internet users and viewers canget involved in compiling our news coverage.Past examples of this include the videos andphotos people submitted of this winter’s ‘bigfreeze’, participation in the poll on publishingthe private details of paedophiles, the viewers’questions that Conny Mus answered on the

conflict in Gaza, and the eyewitness accountsof the rioting in Greece that were submitted toRTL in words, sounds and images. Viewerswere also asked to submit their proposed solu-tions for the smoking ban via the website, andthe most original ideas were subsequentlyincluded in the associated RTL broadcast.

RTL Nieuws sets out to produce dynamic,contemporary news programmes that are puttogether by our own professionals, both in theNetherlands and around the world. Every day,over 120 editorial staff and reporters belongingto RTL’s breakfast news, RTL Z, domesticnews, foreign news, economic news, Editie NL,sports news, and parliamentary reportingteams – plus a large number of overseas cor-respondents – pull out all the stops to get newsto consumers. In addition, the website’s edito-rial team makes sure that consumers are provi-ded with the very latest accurate news viaRTLNieuws.nl, RTL Text and RTL Nieuws formobile phones. RTL Nieuws constantly endea-vours to inform viewers first and in an impartialand captivating manner about key develop-ments in the Netherlands and around the world.

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RTLNieuws.nl


A multimedia event Kill Your Darling is a thriller produced byPhoenix Film for ProSieben. The extraordinarything about the show is that 30 three-minute‘webisodes’ can be seen on the Internet beforethe show is even broadcast.Germany - 19 February 2009

Originally produced as episodes for a mobileTV soap, the webisodes of Kill Your Darling willnow serve to warm viewers up for the film: thehunt for the legendary serial killer known as the'Fratzenschneider’ (Face Cutter) begins on theProSieben.de website. The audience helps Tim(22), whose friends Mike, Nina and Jenny havedisappeared without a trace after a party at the‘Kill Your Darling’ club. Tim receives theirpanicked video messages from Berlin’s tunnelsystem on his cell phone: the “Face Cutter” hastied up his first victim and is beginning his bloo-dy work.

In the subsequent, self-contained, 90-minuteTV event thriller Kill Your Darling, Tim is sus-pected of being the “Face Cutter” himself. Inorder to prove his innocence and save hisfriends, he has to confront the brutal monster.

Thilo Proff, Managing Director at ProSieben,said: “This will be an entirely new experiencefor the viewers, who will be able to experiencethis multimedia project on different platformsfor the first time.” UFA subsidiary Phoenix Filmcreated the project. The executive producer isMarkus Brunnemann; the producer is MarcLepetit. Kill Your Darling stars promising new-comers Philipp Danne, Sylta Fee Wegmann andHannes Wegner (The Baader MeinhofComplex). It will be shot in Berlin until13 March. A broadcast date has not yet beenset.

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Kill Your Darling

Jenny and Nina with “The blind”


Grupo Antena 3 publishes its results for 2008On Thursday, Grupo Antena 3 – in which RTL Group has a 21.2 per cent shareholding –reported its full year results 2008 which were significantly impacted by Spain’s severeeconomic downturn.Spain - 19 February 2009

Grupo Antena 3’s net profit was down 54.5 percent to EUR 91 million (2007: EUR 200 million),while the company’s operating result (EBITDA)decreased from EUR 334 million in 2007 toEUR 164 million in 2008. Following the econo-mic downturn, the Spanish net TV advertisingmarket fell by an estimated 11 per cent in 2008.Grupo Antena 3’s revenue was down 18.0 percent to EUR 833 million (2007: EUR 1,016 mil-lion). As a result, the company’s profit margin,based on EBITDA, was 20 per cent.

Following the introduction of digital terrestrialtelevision (DTT) in 2005 and the launch of twonew general-interest channels in 2006 (Cuatroand La Sexta) audience fragmentation andcompetition on the Spanish TV market conti-nued to intensify throughout 2008. In this envi-ronment, Antena 3’s total audience share was16.0 per cent, compared to 17.4 per cent in2007. In the commercial target group of viewersaged 16 to 54, Antena 3 remained Spain’ssecond most watched channel (audienceshare: 16.8 per cent).

Antena Neox and Antena Nova consolidatedtheir leading position among the digital chan-nels in Spain. In households that receive digitalTV, Antena Neox and Antena Nova’s totalaudience shares ware 3.7 per cent and 2.2 percent respectively.

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The IT Crowd wins at Irish Film and Television AwardsTalkback Thames got an extra special gift on Valentine’s weekend when The IT Crowd’screator and writer Graham Linehan won the Irish Film and Television Award for TelevisionScript for his work on the Channel 4 sitcom.United Kingdom - 17 February 2009

Doctor’s Diary: Shooting starts on season twoDiana Amft is back in front of the camera as Dr. Gretchen Haase, the doctor menlove to trust, for seven new episodes of RTL Television’s hit series Doctor’s Diary –Männer sind die beste Medizin. Germany - 13 February 2009

A nightmare in the kitchenIn access prime time on Sunday, W9 broadcast the first two episodes of its all-new culinary docu-reality programme, a show ruled with a cast-iron pan by British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. An average of 3.8 per cent of the viewersunder 50 tuned in.France - 16 February 2009

Nominations worldwide Three FremantleMedia formats have been nominated for the prestigious Panasonic Awardsin Indonesia. In Germany, Deutsche Synchron was nominated for the German DubbingAward 2009.Singapore / Germany - 17 February 2009


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A cut aboveSundays at 19:15, Vox will be looking for Germany’s best coiffeur. Starting 15 March,Top Cut will have hairstylists washing, cutting, drying and styling for all they’reworth.Germany - 18 February 2009

M6 loves football and it shows After the broadcast of 15 matches of the Euro 2008 and a record audience of 13.2 millionviewers for the France-Italy game, M6 wants to repeat the experience by broadcasting twomatches of the UEFA cup in prime time.France - 18 February 2009

Standoff nominated for German Dubbing AwardThe Vox crime series Standoff has been nominated as an “outstanding series” for the ‘Deutscher Preis für Synchron 2009’ (German Dubbing Award 2009), which willbe presented in Berlin on 2 April 2009. Germany - 19 February 2009


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People

Changes at RTL NederlandThe Netherlands - 17 February 2009

Sven Sauvé has been named Business Director ofTelevision at RTL Nederland. Carla der Kinderenhas been appointed the Marketing Manager Sales,and Marion Kuiper will start on 1 March 2009 asManager of Marketing and Sales of New Media atRTL Nederland.

Sauvé (34) has spent the past two years working asBusiness Director at RTL Productions. Prior to that,he was in charge of corporate affairs at EyeworksHolding. RTL Nederland CEO Bert Habets isdelighted to welcome Sauvé, saying “Over the pastfew years, Sven has shown he’s a great managerialtalent, so the business management of our TVcompany will be in good hands.”

Carla der Kinderen (33) has worked in variouscapacities at RTL Nederland since joining the com-pany in 2002. In her new role as MarketingManager, she will be responsible for marketing,research and B2B communication. Paul Siero,Commercial Director of RTL Nederland, says:“Carla is an experienced businesswoman whocombines experience with knowledge of the mar-ket, so I’m particularly happy with her appointmentas our sales marketing manager.”

Marion Kuiper will be joining RTL from Ilse Media,where she has worked for many years, mostrecently as the company’s manager of sales anddevelopment. In that capacity, she was responsi-ble, among other things, for developing and laun-ching innovative advertising products, such asbehavioural targeting and video advertising. ArnoOtto, who will officially take up the post of DirectorNew Media at RTL Nederland on 1 March 2009,says: “Marion has gathered six years of experiencein various posts at Ilse Media and is one of themost highly valued digital sales managers in theNetherlands. When I joined RTL Nederland, Iimmediately knew I wanted her for the job. I’mconvinced she’ll make a massive difference to RTLNederland, working with my team.”

Carla der Kinderen,Marketing Manager Sales

Sven Sauvé,Business Director of Television

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PublisherRTL Group

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Editor, Design, Production

RTL Group

Corporate Communications and Marketing

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