From DSDS to Jan Hofer: With these changes, RTL wants to tackle the upheaval

From DSDS to Jan Hofer
With these changes, RTL wants to tackle the upheaval

Dieter Bohlen no longer plays a role in RTL’s planning.

© TVNOW / Stefan Gregorowius

RTL wants to reinvent itself. How exactly, the station bosses explained at the Screenforce Days 2021.

The industry event Screenforce Days 2021 started on Monday (June 14th). TV and video marketers will present their planned programs over a period of four days. In this regard, the presentation by the private broadcaster RTL was particularly exciting. Not least with the separation from Dieter Bohlen (67), he made it clear that a tangible change is imminent. And that should be promoted in different ways.

News offensive

Bernd Reichart (CEO of Mediengruppe RTL), Stephan Schäfer (Managing Director Content & Brands of Mediengruppe RTL) and Matthias Dang (Managing Director Marketing, Technology & Data Mediengruppe RTL and CEO Ad Alliance) have the near future as “the beginning of a new era” of the transmitter. One of the key changes should be the new weighting between entertainment and serious news.

The new faces of these two orientations are obvious. There is Jan “Mister Tagessschau” Hofer (69) and Pinar Atalay (43), who have switched from public broadcasters to RTL. They will be the emblem of the broadcaster’s news offensive. From August 16, Hofer promises “Germany’s first prime-time news program” in the Screenforce Days preview.

What about “DSDS”?

A name just as big as Jan Hofer’s was found for the entertainment division. Hape Kerkeling (56) returns after years of abstinence from TV in several formats for the media group. The station apparently does not worry that Hofer and Kerkeling will attract older viewers in particular: “Age does not matter to us,” says Schäfer.

The station bosses have not (yet) been able to elicit any precise information about the new jury for “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” and “Das Supertalent”. Schäfer asked for “a bit of patience”, knowing full well: “Everyone is waiting for the jury. It will come when it comes.” In this regard, he already promised “a surprise”.

König Fußball and RTL +

The UEFA EURO 2020 is currently running one year late. The next edition in 2024 will also broadcast RTL games. There will be 17 games exclusively there, as Bernd Reichart proudly announced again at the Screenforce Days 2021.

A huge upheaval is also imminent for the TVNow streaming service. Based on other streaming platforms such as Disney + or Apple TV +, TVNow will be renamed RTL + in the foreseeable future. As a result, the station RTLplus has been given a new name – but this has not yet been revealed.

This RTL rebranding will also be reflected optically in the station logo. Instead of using three new colors for the three letters, which were previously red, yellow and blue, the company will in future use multi-color branding – which means that there will be several different color combinations.

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