the rtl group intranet newsletter a modern-day … modern-day cinderella story ... ‘life is for...

A modern-dayCinderella storyPaul Potts starring in Deutsche Telekom ad campaign

The Netherlands

Promising start for new access prime time Germany

Vox is restructuring its programming Super RTL celebrating 10 years market leadershipGrundy UFA streamlines management

the RTL Group intranetweek 28

Newsletter1010 J Jululyy 20200808

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A modern-dayCinderella storyPaul Potts starring in Deutsche Telekom ad campaign

The Netherlands

Promising start for new access prime time Germany

Vox is restructuring its programming Super RTL celebrating 10 years market leadershipGrundy UFA streamlines management

Newsletter

COVER: CollagePaul PottsWinner of Britain’s Got Talent season one

The memorable clip of the mobile phone sales-man, in his first ever audition for theTalkbackThames produced hit show Britain’sGot Talent in 2007, will appear in a television,cinema and online advertisement promotingDeutsche Telekom services (i.e. T-Mobile,T-Home) in an image campaign which is to airfrom the beginning of July 2008 in Germanyand the United Kingdom.

Deutsche Telekom, who worked with ad agen-cy Tribal DDB and Special Key acting as rightsclearance partner for this unique campaign,were looking for a segment of historic film foo-tage that represented the Deutsche Telekombrand promise “Life is for sharing” with directreferences to real life and genuine twists of fatewhile evoking sincere human emotions.

“The campaign commercial shows Brit PaulPotts’ emotional performance on the talentshow Britain’s Got Talent. He communicatesDeutsche Telekom’s new brand promise,‘Life is for Sharing’,” explains Hans-Christian Schwingen, Head of BrandStrategy and Marketing Communication atDeutsche Telekom. “At the heart of this pro-mise is the understanding that life holds avast number of personal experiences largeand small, that people want to share witheach other”. And, Schwingen explains,Telekom’s corporate mission is to grant vie-wers — and hence customers — “easyaccess to these worlds of experience byproviding the best communications and ser-vices.”

Gordon Craig, Head of ArchiveSales at FremantleMediaEnterprises, uses this opportunityto explain: “The Paul Potts clip isjust one of our many historicmoments in television dating backnearly 40 years and is a greatexample of Telekom’s vision. TheArchive contains a myriad of rarelyseen photographs and exclusive footagewhich today can be licensed and utilisedacross many platforms – not originally possible– enhancing a brand’s awareness and positio-ning in today’s marketplace.”

The true story of a mobile phone salesman whorealised his dreams, coupled with the irony ofhim going on to star in a Telekom advertisingcampaign, was too good an opportunity tomiss, as Hans Albers, Managing Director ofTribal DDB and one of the creative heads of this


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Life is for sharingFremantleMedia Archive, signed a groundbrea-king deal with Deutsche Telekom, which willsee Paul Potts used in an advertising campaign. United Kingdom -10 July 2008

Screenshot from the spot

Paul Potts

See the spot on

Backstage!


campaign, explains: “Paul Potts is more thanjust an unforgettably rousing Cinderella story,which also happens to be true. This is one ofthe most impressive examples for the power,effectiveness and importance of modern com-munication tools. That is exactly what we wan-ted to highlight — not with an imaginative ficti-tious ad storyline, but with a documentarytaken from real life. It’s basically quite simple.And perhaps that’s why it works so well. Afterall, while making this project, we were fightingtears of emotion just as hard as many havedone before us and many, many will do afterus.”

The FremantleMedia Archive is one of theworld’s greatest and most diverse televisionand film libraries, comprising footage and stillimages from Thames Television, Grundy andTalkbackThames libraries dating back to 1968.It offers unlimited ways for content users toexploit the extensive catalogue beyondconventional editorial television, both in theUnited Kingdom and internationally. Amongstthese screen gems is the selected clip whichwas an exceptionally rare and captivating vie-wer experience. Proof of the level of engage-ment it achieved is evident in the viewing stats

from YouTube, where the clip was viewed 26.7million times internationally.

The 1:30-minute commercial with the slogan“Life is for sharing” (German: Erleben, was ver-bindet) has been on air in Germany and the UKsince the beginning of July. The production ofthe commercial using material from Britain'sGot Talent once again shows RTL Group’s vastrange of diversification options. Even though,Deutsche Telekom, Tribal DDB andFremantleMedia declined to comment on thefinancial details of the contract.

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Facts about Got Talent:

Got Talent was piloted in the United Kingdom, but first launched as America’s GotTalent in the US on the NBC Network. They aired it on 21 June 2006 and it took the nationby storm, becoming the best performing show in its NBC time slot.

The show currently wows audiences in Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany,Greece, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UnitedKingdom. It is soon to debut in Denmark, Argentina, Columbia, Poland, Czech and SlovakRepublics and Ukraine.

Last year’s America’s Got Talent peaked at 13 million viewers and along with 10 otherterritories, including Australia, France and Russia, is the number one show in its timeperiod. In Norway, it was the highest-rated entertainment programme launch ever and inthe UK it is the highest rated show in 2008 attracting 13.3 million views.

From Smithfield, Virginia’s painting pig to a Russian who balances bottles on a knifeblade, Got Talent offers a huge mix of different talents. The winner of last year’s Sweden’sGot Talent was 18-year-old ventriloquist Zillah, and her three-year-old ‘monkey’ Totte.

Last year Paul Potts, a 37-year-old mobile phone salesman won Britain’s Got Talent.The amateur opera singer went on to take the number one album spot with One Chance.Winner of France’s first series, breakdancer Salah, has since appeared on several majornational events and shows, including with M. Pokora, France’s answer to JustinTimberlake.

Britain’s Got Talent logo


Super RTL in DisneylandTo mark 10 years of his channel’s market leadership in children’s television, Super RTL CEO Claude Schmit paid a visit to Mickey Mouse in Paris.Germany - 10 July 2008

Claude Schmit and Mickey Mouse met up infront of Cinderella’s Castle in Disneyland Paris.Some of the families who happened to be visi-ting the theme park with their kids that dayfound the image so delightful that they couldn’tstop taking photos. So the Luxembourg-bornmanager will now grace the pages of familyalbums all over Europe, no doubt eliciting thequestion: “OK, that’s Claude Schmit on the left,but who’s the odd-looking guy next to him?”

Channel boss Schmit and the Super RTL teamwere in Disneyland to celebrate the tenth anni-versary of their market leadership in children’sTV. Despite the advent of fresh competition,from Nick, Schmit said: “I can imagine thingsstaying this way for another 10 years”.

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Super RTL CEO Claude Schmit and Mickey Mouse in Disneyland Paris


A highly promising start for RTL 4’s newaccess prime time RTL Nederland can look back on a stable month in June, achieving a market share of21.4 per cent in its 20 to 49 year-old target group. This performance was entirely inline with expectations.The Netherlands - 7 July 2008

During the 2006 World Cup, the channel’s mar-ket share in its 20 to 49 year-old target groupwas 20.9 per cent, and during Euro 2004 it was21.0 per cent.

On RTL 4, NL Vertrekt managed an audienceshare of 11 per cent during its first week.RTL 4’s other new access prime time program-mes also got off to a flying start. The debut ofof De Bloemenstal on 30 June, presented byWinston Gerschtanowitz and Nicolette vanDam, attracted 410,000 viewers aged 6 or over(making an audience share of 12.2 per cent inthe target group of shoppers aged 20 to 49),and the first edition of Wie Is De Chef, frontedby Martijn Krabbé, was watched by over456,000 people, generating an audience shareof 18.5 per cent among 20 to 49 year-old shop-pers.

RTL 5’s market share in its target group of 20 to34 year-olds was 5.9 per cent, thanks to pro-grammes like Holland’s Next Top Model, LieveLust and the feature films American Pie, Lucky7, There’s Something About Mary and Costa.

In its evening slot, RTL 7 achieved a marketshare of 4.4 per cent in its target group of menaged between 20 and 49, chiefly thanks to itscoverage of the popular Formula 1 Canadianand French Grand Prix races, but also due tothe programme RTL GP: Transorientale Rally.RTL 7’s film evenings seemed to offer anattractive alternative to Euro 2008 football aswell, with films like Marked For Death,Terminator 2 and Serenity all attracting subs-tantial audiences.

RTL 8’s target group of women viewers alsostayed faithful to the channel last month,enabling it to attain an audience share of 3.3per cent in its target group of women aged bet-ween 20 and 49, up from 3.2 per cent the pre-vious month. This excellent result was due,above all, to its formats As The World Turnsand EHBO: Eerste Hulp Bij Opvoeden and thefilms Dying Young and Not Without MyDaughter.

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Grundy UFA streamlinesits senior managementGuido Reinhardt will take on the supervision ofall series and development projects at GrundyUFA in his new position as Executive Producer,effective immediately. Germany - 10 July 2008

Since October 2005, Reinhardt has supervisedall formats produced and established for RTL,including the series Alles was zählt. Prior tothis, he was executive producer of the seriesUnter Uns.

“Guido Reinhardt has worked in a wide rangeof positions for us in the past more than tenyears and possesses vast experience and skillsas a successful maker of programming,” saysmanaging director and producer RainerWemcken. “I can’t think of anyone better suitedfor the task of safeguarding the quality of ourseries and initiating new formats.”

To date, several executive producers were res-ponsible for supervising content at GrundyUFA, with each of them in charge of all the for-mats for one or more broadcasters. Since July2007, Guido Reinhardt and Emmo Lemperthandled this together. The latter left GrundyUFA in June 2008. Rainer Wemcken: “I tookEmmo Lempert’s departure as an opportunityto streamline Grundy UFA’s senior manage-ment. This restructuring simplifies decision andinformation paths and makes us more flexibleoverall in our dealings.”

Grundy UFA’s senior management team nowconsists of four people: Rainer Wemckenheads the company as ManagingDirector/Producer. He supervises ThorstenDegen, deputy managing director and DirectorFinance and Production, Nico Heise, DirectorLegal and Business Affairs, and GuidoReinhardt, Executive Producer.

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Guido Reinhardt


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“Mein Restaurant matches Vox’s topics”In an interview with the German media journal DWDL.de, Vox’s Managing DirectorFrank Hoffmann speaks about the past TV season, risks a look ahead into the futureand announces a new event show called Mein Restaurant.Germany - 7 July 2008

Looking back, Hoffmann says that the seasonhad gone well overall despite small setbackslike Power of 10. “We launched more than 17new formats last year, including popular pro-ductions like Kocharena (Cook’s Arena), MeinTraumhaus am Meer (Beach House of MyDreams) and Unter Volldampf (Under FullSteam). Around a third of the newcomers didn’tdo well. That is absolutely acceptable,” saysHoffmann and adds: “We gained some veryimportant experience and can now enter thesecond half of the year with newfoundstrength.”

With a view to the future, Hoffmann says thatVox plans to focus more on event programmingin the season ahead. “Vox will get its very ownTV event, one that has already been successfulon an international scale. My Restaurant Rulescomes from Australia and also scored sensa-tional market shares in Belgium, Denmark andthe Netherlands.” The format, which in

Germany will run under the title MeinRestaurant, involves five couples in five citiesbeing given the chance to open a restaurantfrom scratch – this requires finding a suitablelocation, hiring staff, and setting up the restau-rant. Hoffmann says about the format: “It’s amajor job to find five attractive locations in fiveattractive cities. But the effort will be worth it;we were immediately excited about theconcept – because Mein Restaurant matchesthe topics that are associated with Vox. Here,cooking meets Wohnen nach Wunsch, as therestaurants also need to be renovated andgiven a makeover. One new thing is the compe-tition between the teams, which can very easi-ly develop into a contest between cities, andanother addition is the viewer voting.”

As well as the event programme, Hoffmannannounced three new US series, coming soonto Vox: Life, Standoff and Burn Notice.

Old familiars returnAs part of Vox’s restructuring of its daytime programming, McLeod’s Töchter areback on the air again since 7 July: meanwhile, Men in Trees returns to thescreen in prime time.Germany - 8 July 2008

Set on a farm in the Australian Outback,McLeod’s Töchter (McLeod’s Daughters) is oneof the most popular series in daytime program-ming, with market shares of up to 13.2 per centin the 14 to 49 demographic. Vox began sho-wing reruns of the sixth season on 7 July,weekdays at 14:00. The free-TV premiere ofseason seven will follow directly on the heels ofthe sixth season reruns.

The start of McLeod’s Töchter reflects arestructuring of Vox’s daytime programming:since Monday, series have dominated the pro-gramming again, from early morning into theafternoon. New additions include double episo-des of The Nanny at 11:05, followed by theGilmore Girls at 12:05 and Everwood at 13:00.

In prime time, viewers can celebrate the returnof the US series Men in Trees, which was tem-porarily discontinued in March after eleven epi-sodes. On Wednesday, Vox will begin showingthe first season again, with a double episode tobe broadcast each Wednesday at 21:10.


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Germany - 7 July 2008

During the school holidays, Super RTL pre-sents two hours of series fun Mondays throughFridays starting at 8:30, featuring SpongeBobSquarepants and the award-winning Germanpremiere of Max & Maggie.

Meanwhile, on TV and online at www.toggo.depresenter Paddy Kroetz calls on all children toshoot their very own personal Toggo holidayphoto 2008 and send it to Super RTL. Thechannel is looking for the funniest, zaniest andcutest holiday snapshots. It makes no differen-ce whether they are taken at home or on aremote beach. The grand prize is a bus spor-ting the winning photo, and which will be at the

beck and call of the winning childand his or her friends for a fullweekend, including a driver. Inaddition, five digital cameras willbe given away each week throughthe end of August.

Each day, the best photos will be pre-sented in Super RTL’s programming.Other pictures and the rules of the contestare posted at www.toggo.de. Here, kids canalso submit holiday greetings which will also befeatured in Super RTL’s daily holiday program-ming and on the Internet.

Award winning series: Max & Maggie

It’s summer holiday time Super RTL is turning the school holiday from 7July to 22 August into a special experienceunder the heading “Summer Holidays — VollToggo!” The channel is also looking for viewers’best holiday photos.

www. toggo.de

Abba ManiaBarbara Schöneberger and Dirk Bach join a number of celebrities in bringing Abba’smusic to life on Super RTL

Although Abba split up back in 1982, the bandand its music have a cult following to this day.Just in time for the box-office debut of MammaMia! The Movie in mid-July, Super RTL is get-ting its viewers in the mood for Abba. In themusic show Abba Mania, Dirk Bach andBarbara Schöneberger get celebrities rangingfrom Right Said Fred to Mariella Ahrens to per-form classic Abba tunes in authentic outfitsfrom the period. The Abba bonanza will bebroadcast on 12 July at 22:20.

Abba’s track record is truly legendary: ninenumber-one hits in Germany alone, 13 othersingles in the Top 10, and more than 350 millionrecords sold all over the world. Abba Maniapresents the greatest hits of the Swedish popstars — sung by contemporary vocal celebri-ties like Belinda Carlisle (Dancing Queen),Banaroo (Waterloo), Lucy (Chiquitita), US5 (One

Of Us), Max Raabe (Super Trouper), Right SaidFred (Knowing Me, Knowing You) and theactress Mariella Ahrens (Money, Money,Money). Of course presenters BarbaraSchöneberger and Dirk Bach join in the fun aswell, paying tribute to Abba with Thank You ForThe Music and Voulez Vous.

Barbara Schöneberger and Dirk Bach

Germany - 10 July 2008


Accident on the set ofAlarm für Cobra 11On 5 July, during the shooting of the RTLTelevision series Alarm für Cobra 11 – DieAutobahnpolizei, a stuntman suffered burns to his face and hands.Germany - 8 July 2008

The stuntman has been hospitalised and isrecovering well. The 28-year-old Cologne nati-ve has been a member of the Action Conceptteam since 2007, and has doubled for the leadsand in action scenes on many occasions. Thelead actor Erdogan Atalay, who plays Chief ofPolice Semir Gerkhan in the series, had alreadyfinished shooting large parts of the scene inquestion - the dangerous part was to be hand-led, as always, by a stuntman. The script hasSemir riding a jetski, as his adversaries beardown on him with their boat and attempt topush him toward the shore. The jetski is cata-pulted out of the water by the speed of thechase and explodes.

This sort of stunt leaves no room for even theslightest discrepancy in speed, take-off angle,or when and how the explosion is triggered. Allprocesses have to interconnect perfectly infractions of a second – and be coupled with theprofessional reflexes of an experienced stunt-man. Apparently, on the day of the shoot, thetiming, which had been fine during the manytests leading up to the event, wasn’t perfect.However, the stuntman had his wits about himand immediately leaped into the water to avoidfurther damage from the flames.

Hermann Joha, producer and managing direc-tor of Action Concept and himself a formerstuntman, says: “We’re all very glad that itwasn’t any worse. No matter how well preparedwe are, an element of risk always remains inthis job.”

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Alarm für Cobra11


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Unmasking the fraudsAfter five years, the successful entertainment show Sag die Wahrheit produced by SWR incooperation with Grundy Light Entertainment, celebrated its 150th episode on 7 July2008. Germany - 4 July 2008

Deutschland sucht den Superstar goes to round 6Plan A!, the debut album by Thomas Godoj, winner of season five, was released on 4 July— and earlier this month, RTL Television already rang in the next round by issuing a callfor auditions for season six.Germany - 4 July 2008

Germany’s hobby gardeners are backThe fourth season of Ab ins Beet again promises plenty of digging, shovelling, planting — and laughs. Vox started to air ten new episodes on 4 July 2008 at 21:15. Germany - 4 July 2008

Ratings in JuneIn June, Antena 3 reached an average audience share of 14.9 per cent, putting them onthe third place behind Telecinco and TVE 1. Even though, Antena 3 increased its audienceshare in the morning and evening slots on weekdays.Spain - 4 July 2008


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Season five of Los Hombres de Paco endsSeason five of Antena 3’s popular crime series ended on 8 July attracting 3.4 millionviewers, which translates to a 23 per cent market share among viewers 4 and older.Spain - 10 July 2008

Emotional Big Brother finaleThe sensational live show attracted an average 1.54 million viewers and scored a 13.3 per cent market share among viewers 14 to 49.Germany - 9 July 2008

Lalola gets off to a good startOn Monday 7 July the Spanish telenovela Lalola broadcast on Antena 3 attracted morethan 2.1 million viewers — a slight increase over its premiere on Sunday.Spain - 9 July 2008

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