RTL Group Sells Dutch TV Operation to DPG Media for $1.2B

RTL Group has signed a deal valued at $1.2 billion (1.1 billion euros) to sell its Dutch television operation RTL Nederland to European group DPG Media.

The deal comes after Dutch authorities blocked RTL’s original plans to merge its Dutch TV operations with Talpa Networks, the TV group controlled by TV mogul and The Voice creator John de Mol.

As part of the sale, RTL Group and DPG Media will enter into a strategic partnership sharing technology and collaborating on ad sales and content. For the three years after closing of the deal RTL Group’s
broadcasters in Germany, France and Hungary will have first-look rights for all new programs developed by RTL Nederland. DPG Media will continue to use the RTL brand name in the Netherlands until December 2034.

RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe said the sale was part of the company’s overall strategy to consolidate its European operations to better compete with global streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon.

“After our in-country consolidation strategy was blocked by the competition authorities in January 2023, the sale to DPG Media is the best strategic option for RTL Nederland and all its stakeholders,” he said.

RTL Nederland is the largest broadcasting group in the Netherlands, operating five free-to-air TV channels, three digital pay-TV channels and Videoland, the country’s leading local streaming service, with 1.3 million paying subscribers. Total revenue at the group last year was 636 million euros ($697 million).

“We are very pleased that we have reached an agreement with RTL Group to acquire RTL Nederland, the undisputed market leader in commercial TV broadcasting, and the owner of the highly successful streaming platform Videoland,” DPG Media Group executive chairman Christian Van Thillo said in a statement. “Together with our leading TV brands VTM and RTL Belgium, we will be able to build a group that has the necessary scale to invest in the digital transformation of television.”

DPG Media, which also operates in Belgium and Denmark, booked revenues of 1.8 billion euros ($1.97 billion) in 2022.

The RTL Nederland sale still needs to be approved by Dutch competition and national authorities.