RTL+ surpasses 7 million subscribers as Germany’s streaming race intensifies

RTL+ surpassed 7 million paying subscribers across the flip of the yr, in response to an announcement from RTL Deutschland. The milestone reinforces the platform’s place as the most important nationwide streaming service within the German market.

The streaming service reached a median of greater than 10 million month-to-month customers throughout 2025, representing a cumulative internet attain of 10.24 million folks monthly. RTL+ maintains standing because the fastest-growing streaming service in Germany, competing straight with worldwide platforms together with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.

Das Sommerhaus der Stars – Kampf der Promipaare led Census+ rankings within the third quarter of 2025 with over 3.3 million views for the opening episode, making it essentially the most streamed video of the month and RTL+’s most profitable format since measurement started. Different highlights driving subscriber progress included Euphorie (Euphoria), Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl (Pumuckl’s New Adventures), and Nationwide Soccer League broadcasts.

Profitability goal maintained for 2026

Stephan Schmitter, CEO of RTL Deutschland, emphasised the corporate’s willpower to compete with world streaming providers. “Reaching the milestone of seven million paying subscribers highlights the power of our content material, our providing and our groups,” Schmitter said within the announcement. “RTL+ is already one of many largest streaming providers in Germany – and we would like extra.”

The figures exhibit sustained viewers engagement in a market the place streaming surpassed traditional television viewing for the primary time in September 2024. In accordance with Bitkom analysis, 87 p.c of Germans aged 16 and above now stream movies, sequence, or tv exhibits by way of the web, in comparison with 86 p.c who watch broadcast tv.

Schmitter confirmed RTL+ stays on monitor to attain profitability in 2026. “We are going to proceed on this path with full willpower in competitors with world streaming providers, additional adapt our buildings and increase RTL+ in 2026,” Schmitter said. “With sturdy content material throughout all genres, investments in new applied sciences and distinctive partnerships, we’ll preserve RTL+ on monitor to change into worthwhile in 2026.”

The profitability dedication aligns with RTL Group’s strategic targets introduced in August 2025, when the corporate projected roughly 9 million paying subscribers by 2026 throughout streaming providers in Germany, Hungary, and France. Streaming income was anticipated to achieve roughly €750 million by 2026, supported by annual content material funding of round €500 million.

Content material technique emphasizes native manufacturing

RTL+’s progress technique depends closely on native content material that resonates with German audiences. The platform combines unique unique productions with licensed worldwide content material, sports activities programming, and intensive again catalogs of RTL Deutschland’s tv properties.

The “Mach dein Plus an” (change in your plus) model marketing campaign accompanied content material launches all through 2025, positioning RTL+ as a necessary leisure service for German households. The advertising and marketing emphasised the platform’s mixture of actuality leisure, drama sequence, youngsters’s programming, and dwell sports activities.

Nationwide Soccer League broadcasts represented a big funding in sports activities rights, offering appointment viewing alternatives that drive subscriber acquisition and retention. Sports activities content material historically instructions premium subscription charges and generates larger engagement charges than scripted leisure, in response to business analysis.

Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl demonstrated RTL+’s concentrate on family-friendly content material interesting to a number of generations. The sequence, primarily based on a beloved German youngsters’s character created within the Sixties, leverages nostalgia whereas introducing basic mental property to youthful viewers.

Market place strengthened by way of distribution partnerships

RTL+ advantages from extensive distribution partnerships that increase platform accessibility past direct subscriptions. Deutsche Telekom built-in RTL+ Premium into MagentaTV worth plans in January 2025, extending the partnership till 2030. The association routinely offers MagentaTV clients with entry to RTL+ Premium content material with out extra charges.

The Deutsche Telekom partnership contributed to RTL Group’s subscriber progress from 4.9 million in December 2023 to six million by December 2024, representing a 22.4 p.c improve year-over-year. The distribution settlement positions RTL+ alongside worldwide rivals whereas sustaining differentiation by way of native content material choices.

RTL+ additionally grew to become available on Sky Stream’s IPTV platform in August 2024, increasing attain to roughly 200,000 clients in Germany and Austria. The mixing allowed Sky Stream subscribers to entry RTL+ content material throughout the unified interface, decreasing friction for potential subscribers hesitant to handle a number of streaming purposes.

In January 2026, RTL+ announced an exclusive bundling partnership with HBO Max launching January 13, 2026. The association combines RTL+ Premium and HBO Max providers beneath single subscription choices, with advertising-supported tiers priced at €11.99 month-to-month and premium ad-free configurations at €17.99 month-to-month.

The HBO Max bundle represents a strategic response to streaming market fragmentation, the place European analysis exhibits 57 p.c of viewers imagine too many streaming providers exist. By consolidating a number of content material libraries beneath unified subscriptions, RTL+ goals to scale back churn whereas capturing subscribers who may in any other case allocate budgets to competing platforms.

Expertise infrastructure investments assist progress

RTL Group continues investing in streaming know-how infrastructure to assist platform scalability and have enhancement. The corporate introduced in January 2025 that RTL+ in Germany would migrate to the Bedrock streaming know-how platform by early 2026, producing price financial savings whereas enhancing performance.

Bedrock, RTL Group’s streaming know-how firm, offers the technical basis for superior options together with customized suggestions, focused promoting capabilities, and complicated content material administration techniques. The know-how platform helps RTL+, M6+ in France, and different streaming providers throughout the RTL Group portfolio.

The migration to Bedrock permits improved digital promoting capabilities by way of enhanced concentrating on, measurement, and marketing campaign optimization instruments. These options show more and more essential as RTL Group’s digital advertising revenue climbed 27.1 percent to €230 million within the first half of 2025, whereas conventional tv promoting declined 6.9 p.c to €1,018 million.

Streaming platforms present subtle viewers information and concentrating on capabilities unavailable in conventional tv promoting. Advertisers can section audiences primarily based on viewing conduct, demographic traits, and engagement patterns, enabling extra exact marketing campaign supply and efficiency measurement.

Aggressive panorama intensifies in German market

RTL+ competes in an more and more crowded German streaming market the place worldwide platforms dominate subscriber counts however nationwide providers preserve aggressive benefits by way of native content material and language choices. Netflix stays the market chief with substantial subscriber penetration, adopted by Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

Warner Bros. Discovery launched HBO Max in Germany on January 13, 2026, ending a 15-year distribution partnership with Sky Deutschland. The platform entry provides one other worldwide competitor whereas concurrently partnering with RTL+ by way of the bundling association introduced January 8, 2026.

The aggressive dynamics replicate broader consolidation developments in European media markets. RTL Group acquired Sky Deutschland for €150 million in June 2025, combining roughly 11.5 million paying subscribers throughout the DACH area. The transaction offers RTL Group with premium sports activities rights together with Bundesliga, DFB Cup, Premier League, and Components 1.

Conventional broadcasters face strain to attain scale quickly to compete successfully in opposition to American know-how firms. The RTL-Sky Deutschland merger creates operational synergies whereas sustaining aggressive differentiation by way of premium content material acquisition and native manufacturing investments.

Promoting know-how partnerships complement subscription income. RTL Deutschland secured Warner Bros. Discovery partnerships in September 2025, creating El Cartel Brothers promoting gross sales home combining RTL Zwei and Warner Bros. Discovery Germany stock. The three way partnership permits unified marketing campaign administration throughout a number of media properties.

Monetary efficiency helps strategic investments

RTL Group reported sturdy monetary efficiency in 2025 regardless of difficult tv promoting markets. The corporate’s streaming providers generated 7.232 million paying subscribers by June 30, 2025, representing 15.3 p.c progress from 6.273 million subscribers in the identical interval of 2024.

Streaming income rose 27.0 p.c to €235 million within the first half of 2025, in comparison with €185 million within the first half of 2024. The expansion supported continued content material funding and know-how infrastructure growth required to compete with well-funded worldwide platforms.

Nevertheless, RTL Group reduced full-year 2025 adjusted EBITA guidance from roughly €780 million to €650 million on November 18, 2025. The revision mirrored weaker tv promoting markets in Germany and France that failed to realize momentum in the course of the second half of the yr as initially anticipated.

Thomas Rabe, Chief Govt Officer of RTL Group, acknowledged difficult market circumstances whereas emphasizing streaming efficiency. “The market surroundings stays difficult, with a discount of TV promoting income in our core markets and an accelerated shift from linear TV to streaming,” Rabe said in quarterly outcomes launched November 2025.

The accelerated shift from linear tv to streaming creates each challenges and alternatives for established broadcasters. Conventional tv promoting income declines strain profitability whereas streaming subscription and digital promoting income grows. The transition requires sustained funding in content material, know-how, and advertising and marketing throughout a interval when conventional income streams contract.

Promoting know-how permits income diversification

RTL Group operates Smartclip, an promoting know-how subsidiary offering programmatic promoting options throughout media properties. In March 2025, RTL AdAlliance launched AdManager platform for European video campaigns, enabling subtle programmatic marketing campaign execution with real-time bidding and superior viewers segmentation.

Digital promoting capabilities assist offset conventional tv promoting declines whereas constructing relationships with advertisers shifting budgets towards streaming platforms. RTL+ presents each advertising-supported subscription tiers and premium ad-free choices, maximizing income potential from various subscriber segments.

The advertising-supported tier technique mirrors approaches adopted by worldwide rivals together with Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max. Advert-supported tiers sometimes characteristic decrease subscription costs that cut back obstacles to entry whereas producing promoting income that dietary supplements subscription charges.

Advert Alliance, RTL Group’s promoting gross sales home in Germany, manages promoting stock throughout tv channels, streaming platforms, radio stations, and digital properties. The consolidated gross sales strategy offers advertisers with simplified entry to various viewers segments whereas enabling cross-platform marketing campaign optimization.

In September 2025, Ad Alliance partnered with Utiq for cookieless targeting throughout RTL’s digital properties. The partnership addresses privateness regulation necessities whereas sustaining subtle viewers concentrating on capabilities important for premium promoting charges.

Viewing hour progress demonstrates engagement

RTL+ achieved 346 million viewing hours within the first half of 2025, growing 17.5 p.c from 294 million hours within the first half of 2024. The expanded viewing time creates extra stock for digital promoting placements throughout the platform’s content material library.

Increased viewing hours per subscriber point out sturdy content material engagement, a key metric for streaming service well being. Platforms with larger engagement sometimes expertise decrease churn charges, as subscribers who frequently devour content material understand higher worth from subscriptions and exhibit lowered propensity to cancel.

The Census+ measurement system offers impartial verification of streaming efficiency in Germany, enabling comparisons throughout competing platforms. RTL+’s dominance of Census+ rankings within the third quarter of 2025, with Das Sommerhaus der Stars attaining over 3.3 million views, demonstrates aggressive content material efficiency in opposition to worldwide rivals.

Actuality leisure codecs historically generate sturdy engagement in German markets, combining appointment viewing patterns with social media dialogue that extends content material attain past direct subscribers. The style’s comparatively decrease manufacturing prices in comparison with scripted drama allow larger content material quantity whereas sustaining high quality requirements that drive viewership.

Strategic outlook emphasizes content material funding

RTL Deutschland’s dedication to profitability by 2026 will depend on sustained subscriber progress, managed content material funding, and operational effectivity enhancements. The corporate should stability content material spending that drives subscriber acquisition in opposition to monetary self-discipline required to attain constructive earnings.

Content material funding focuses on genres with demonstrated viewers attraction in German markets, together with actuality leisure, drama sequence, sports activities programming, and kids’s content material. The technique combines unique unique productions with licensed content material that fills programming schedules whereas sustaining subscriber curiosity between tentpole releases.

Sports activities rights signify important ongoing funding necessities, with competitors from worldwide platforms and conventional broadcasters driving rights prices upward. RTL+ secured UEFA Europa League rights as a part of broader RTL Deutschland sports activities technique that features DFB-Pokal broadcasting rights starting the 2026/27 season.

Expertise investments within the Bedrock platform migration will generate operational efficiencies whereas enhancing subscriber expertise by way of improved personalization, quicker content material supply, and expanded characteristic units. The know-how basis helps worldwide enlargement alternatives ought to RTL Group pursue streaming progress past present German, French, and Hungarian markets.

Advertising and marketing investments preserve model consciousness and drive subscriber acquisition in a market with substantial promoting spending from worldwide rivals. The “Mach dein Plus an” marketing campaign positions RTL+ as a necessary leisure service reasonably than supplementary platform, competing for major family subscription funds allocation.

Market implications for digital promoting

RTL+’s progress to 7 million paying subscribers creates expanded stock for digital promoting campaigns, offering entrepreneurs with entry to audiences more and more tough to achieve by way of conventional tv. The platform’s mixture of subscriber scale and complicated concentrating on capabilities positions it as a reputable different to worldwide streaming platforms.

German digital promoting market progress accelerated in 2024, with European digital ads reaching €118.9 billion with 16 p.c progress, in response to IAB Europe. Linked TV promoting represents a big progress alternative, with programmatic promoting progress reaching 72 p.c as entrepreneurs shift budgets towards linked TV platforms.

RTL+’s promoting know-how infrastructure, mixed with intensive first-party information from subscribers and viewers, permits subtle viewers concentrating on that matches capabilities out there on worldwide platforms. This technical parity proves important for competing in opposition to well-funded know-how firms with superior information science capabilities.

The shift from conventional tv promoting to streaming platforms creates challenges for advertisers accustomed to broad attain and easy shopping for processes. Nevertheless, streaming platforms supply superior concentrating on precision, measurable outcomes, and versatile inventive codecs that conventional tv can not match.

Cookieless concentrating on capabilities, developed by way of partnerships just like the Utiq integration, guarantee RTL+ can preserve subtle concentrating on whereas complying with European privateness rules together with GDPR. Privateness-compliant promoting know-how proves more and more essential as regulatory scrutiny intensifies and client privateness expectations evolve.

Conclusion

RTL+’s achievement of seven million paying subscribers demonstrates the viability of nationwide streaming providers competing in opposition to worldwide platforms by way of native content material methods, distribution partnerships, and know-how investments. The milestone positions RTL Deutschland as a big participant in Germany’s streaming market whereas highlighting challenges dealing with conventional broadcasters managing transitions from linear tv to digital platforms.

The profitability goal for 2026 requires sustained subscriber progress, managed content material spending, and operational effectivity enhancements. Success will depend on RTL+’s capacity to take care of aggressive content material choices whereas constructing sustainable enterprise fashions that stability subscription income, promoting revenue, and operational prices.

For advertising and marketing professionals, RTL+’s progress creates expanded alternatives for reaching German audiences by way of subtle digital promoting capabilities. The platform’s scale, mixed with superior concentrating on know-how and high quality content material environments, positions it as an essential part of cross-media promoting methods concentrating on German customers.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: RTL Deutschland, led by CEO Stephan Schmitter, operates RTL+ streaming service as a part of RTL Group’s portfolio together with tv channels, radio stations, and digital platforms throughout Germany, France, Hungary, and Luxembourg.

What: RTL+ surpassed 7 million paying subscribers across the flip of the yr, strengthening place as Germany’s largest nationwide streaming service whereas reaching a median of greater than 10 million month-to-month customers throughout 2025, pushed by native content material together with Das Sommerhaus der Stars, Euphorie, Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl, and Nationwide Soccer League broadcasts.

When: Introduced in early January 2026, the 7 million subscriber milestone was achieved across the flip of the yr between December 2025 and January 2026, following progress from 6 million subscribers in December 2024 and 4.9 million in December 2023.

The place: Germany serves as major marketplace for RTL+, with RTL Group additionally working M6+ in France and RTL+ in Hungary as a part of broader European streaming technique concentrating on roughly 9 million paying subscribers by 2026 throughout all markets.

Why: The subscriber progress issues for the advertising and marketing neighborhood as a result of it demonstrates viability of nationwide streaming providers competing in opposition to worldwide platforms by way of native content material methods, creates expanded digital promoting stock with subtle concentrating on capabilities, displays accelerated shift from conventional tv to streaming that reached inflection level in September 2024 when streaming surpassed broadcast viewing in Germany, and positions RTL+ for deliberate profitability in 2026 whereas RTL Group’s digital promoting income grew 27 p.c at the same time as conventional TV promoting declined 6.9 p.c in first half of 2025.