RTL-Deutschland renews FTA contract with SES
January 9, 2020
By Chris Forrester
RTL-Deutschland is maintaining its existing contract for Standard Definition broadcasting of its FTA channels with SES.
The complete package of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will continue to be available via SES’s ASTRA satellites at the prime orbital location of 19.2 degrees East, which reaches 118 million TV homes across Europe. The channel line-up includes RTL, VOX, ntv, Nitro, RTLplus, Supr RTL, Toggo plus and RTLZWEI, as well as the regional programmes. The new channel VOXup, which was launched on 1 December 2019, is also part of the agreement. All broadcasts will be transmitted in the MPEG-2 SD format till 2024. This is a major contract renewal for SES.
Andre Prahl, Head of Programme Distribution of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland said: “With this new agreement, we are ensuring that our free TV stations retain their high reach via satellite and can continue to offer the free-to-air programme portfolio in SD quality via satellite to our viewers. This agreement reemphasises that SD is an important distribution platform for the foreseeable future in German,” said Christoph Mühleib, Managing Director of ASTRA Deutschland GmbH. “We are pleased to continue supporting Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland to deliver this service.”