Thursday, November 4th, 2021
Comprehensive media subscription
RTL + replaces TVNOW
RTL Deutschland has renamed its streaming service TVNOW to RTL +. At the start, RTL + is significantly expanding its offering and will in future offer not only films and series but also music, podcasts, audio books and premium magazines.
On the way to becoming the leading entertainment brand, RTL has taken the next step: The streaming service is now called TVNOW RTL + and from the middle of next year it will be developed into the first all-encompassing media subscription in Germany. Subscribers will then not only receive films and series, shows, documentaries, sports and information, but also an extensive range of music, exclusive podcasts, a well-stocked audio book library and access to premium digital magazines.
The new entertainment platform, in which all types of digital media are bundled, establishes a new generation of streaming services: RTL + will be the first “one app, all media” offering on the market. RTL + thus simplifies the use of streaming for people of all age groups who would like to be fully informed and entertained with a single registration, without having to commit to a contract too often.
Intelligent search on RTL +
RTL Deutschland announced that subscribers will be able to use the diverse content simply, intuitively and individually. For this purpose, investments have been made in the development of an AI-based technology. A recommendation algorithm guarantees that suitable content is always suggested across all media types with the help of intelligent text, audio and video analysis. In this way, RTL + is also creating a technology-based entertainment experience that connects media, with which users not only discover the content that is of interest to them, but also learn about additional content.
RTL +’s entertainment offering currently comprises more than 50,000 hours of programming from various genres, both fictional and non-fictional, such as documentaries or live football. RTL + also offers a rapidly growing number of high-quality originals. The fiction highlight and “Canneseries” prize-winner “Ferdinand von Schirach – Faith” with Narges Rashidi and Peter Kurth start today. “Faking Hitler” with Lars Eidinger and Moritz Bleibtreu and “Sisi” with Dominique Devenport and Jannik Schümann in the leading roles will follow on November 30th. In addition, the live stream of all 14 RTL Germany TV channels is running on RTL +.
With 2.4 million paying subscribers and up to 7 million unique users per month, RTL + is already the leading German streaming service. Due to the upcoming merger with Gruner + Jahr on January 1, 2022, RTL Deutschland will have premium content in the areas of video, audio, podcast and magazines. For audio books and radio plays, RTL + cooperates with the Penguin Random House publishing group, which, like RTL Germany, belongs to the Bertelsmann media group. In the music sector, RTL Deutschland has entered into an exclusive partnership with the internationally leading audio streaming service Deezer, which also offers audio books and radio plays.