Get big or die trying has become the strategy of Europe’s traditional broadcasters. Merger mania is everywhere.
Last month, Comcast‘s Sky signed a $2.13 billion (£1.6 billion) deal to acquire British commercial broadcast giant ITV. Last year, MediaForEurope (MFE), the TV group controlled by the Berlusconi family, took majority control of German commercial network ProSiebenSat.1, adding to its pan-European conglomerate that includes Mediaset, Italy’s largest broadcaster, and Spain’s top commercial network Telecinco.
The reasoning behind this consolidation is simple. European TV companies, seeing a decline in traditional advertising and fierce competition from streaming companies and online video giants like YouTube, have realized scale matters. If they are not to be wiped out completely, legacy broadcasters need to shift their business online — to digital ad and streaming subscription models — while staying big enough to still be profitable.
RTL Group, Europe’s largest television company, is also playing the merger game. In June, RTL, which owns production giant Fremantle and is itself a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, closed its acquisition of Comcast’s German pay-TV operation Sky Deutschland, folding it into its RTL+ streaming service. The combined platform, with 12.4 million paid subscriptions, is now the third-largest streamer in German-speaking Europe, behind Netflix and Amazon Prime. In France, where RTL owns commercial channel M6, it is investing heavily in its streaming platform M6+.
First-half 2026 figures at RTL, released Tuesday, show how quickly the company is pivoting to streaming. Revenue growth in the division, up 27.2 percent to $345 million (€299 million) made up for the fall off in RTL’s traditional TV business. The shift to streaming is “already far advanced,” says RTL Group CEO Clement Schwebig, “Streaming is no longer an investment story for RTL Group, it is a profitability story.”
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Schwebig outlined RTL’s strategy for survival in a transforming TV business — and why he believes consolidation, combined with a hybrid model of free TV, pay TV and streaming, is the only way European media companies can build the scale to compete with the global platforms. “The future is not linear versus streaming,” he says. “The future is exclusive, local content distributed across every platform where our audiences want to spend their time.”
RTL is quickly transitioning its traditional free-to-air ad model to streaming. How rapid do you see this transition and what role do you see free-to-air playing in RTL’s business model in the future?
The transformation is already far advanced. Streaming is no longer an investment story for RTL Group, it is a profitability story. Our streaming businesses will contribute around €100 million ($115 million) to our operating profit this year. This is a turning point in our operation after years of carefully investing in content and “tech infrastructure,” streaming is now a high-margin contributor and high-growth segment at the same time.
Our strategy is to combine the strengths of free TV, pay TV and streaming, of advertising, subscription and distribution revenues into one powerful ecosystem with unmatchable reach. Following the acquisition of Sky Deutschland, we now have 12.4 paid subscriptions in the German-speaking region – this brings us in striking distance to Netflix and Amazon in this market. In June alone, our advertising sales house had a net reach of almost 69 million across all media, reaching 87 percent of all persons in Germany. Linear TV is and will remain the backbone to reach such mass audiences.
What are the content implications of this shift – what will the focus of RTL’s acquisition and production spending be going forward?
The future is not linear versus streaming. The future is exclusive, local content distributed across every platform where our audiences want to spend their time. That is exactly where RTL is positioned: no other European media company produces so much local content at scale as we do.
We have something that very few companies have: brands that speak to our local audiences and create an emotional connection with them – some of them even every day. Think of our news or long-running daily drama such as Good Times, Bad Times.
Investing in premium sports is key to strengthening our linear TV channels and gaining users for our streaming services. Just look at the football World Cup 2026: 94 percent of French people watched the competition on M6 or M6+, almost the entire population. A huge figure and powerful demonstration for the strength of our brands. In Germany, the Bundesliga and German Cup competition will continue to excite fans across Sky and [streaming platform] Wow – with some selected matches also broadcast on our flagship channel RTL.
The proposed sale of TF1’s production division Studio TF1 has reignited speculation that TF1 could make another bid for M6. How would you view such a bid, and how core is the French network to RTL’s business?
Groupe M6 is a highly valuable, strategic asset for RTL Group and one of the best-managed media companies in Europe. We have been one of the founders and a committed shareholder since the launch of M6 in 1987. The long-term success of the company is close to our hearts at RTL.
As we said repeatedly over the past years: we continue to believe that consolidation is necessary if European media companies want to compete effectively with global technology and streaming platforms. And we remain convinced that market consolidation will also happen in France sooner or later. Otherwise, the global players will dominate the European markets.
I am very confident that Groupe M6 will play a key role in any further consolidation in the French media industry. The management team has taken some big bets to gain audience shares, and they are working out well – most prominently Cyril Hanouna on W9 and the football World Cup this year with record ratings. M6 has the youngest audience among the major French channels, and this makes its programme brands very attractive for advertisers. It shows how successful the management transition to David Larramendy and his team has been.
That being said, any significant consolidation move requires a change of the current French media law – and positive signals from the regulators.
What is Fremantle’s M&A strategy – are ITV Studios and Studio TF1 (if put up for sale) potential targets?
Fremantle’s M&A strategy is very clear. We are focused on IP-driven acquisitions of small and medium-sized production companies that strengthen our position in attractive genres and geographies. We see only limited scale returns for large mergers in the content production space. Large transactions among content producers are often complex and produce limited synergies. As a matter of principle, we do not comment on specific companies or market speculation.
Fremantle is one of top three independent production companies worldwide. It combines scale, a highly diversified business model across genres, markets and customers with strong profitability, reaching its target of a 9 percent profit margin this year. With beloved, long-lasting IP such as Got Talent, Farmer Wants A Wife and Baywatch, Fremantle has a proven track record in creating long-term monetisation opportunities through distribution, local adaptations and digital platforms. We are also excited about pursuing new opportunities in adjacent businesses, for example with sports content and in the larger creator economy.
