Exclusive Interview: RTL’s Dirk Schweitzer

As the executive VP of program acquisitions and sales at RTL Television, Dirk Schweitzer and his team acquire programming for RTL Television and the digital channels RTL Living, Passion and RTL Crime. Sister companies VOX, n-tv, SuperRTL and RTL2 have their own acquisition teams, but, as Schweitzer explains, “on big deals we join forces and we acquire for all channels of the Media Group RTL Germany.”

WS: What genres of programming do you look for?
SCHWEITZER: In the area of free TV, we are concentrating on fiction programs. For our three digital channels, we regularly purchase a large volume of programs—fiction and nonfiction—that fit into the respective special-interest genre lineups.

WS: How did your acquisition budget for 2010 compare to 2009’s and will your 2011 budget be larger, smaller or the same as your 2010 budget? Have you had to cut back on any acquisitions?
SCHWEITZER: Our budget has remained and will remain constant. For the past years, our purchasing policy has always been very close to our needs, so, unless there [are] slight adjustments to our program schedule, there will be no need for a change.

WS: From which countries do you buy most of your programming?
SCHWEITZER: For our digital channels, [there is a wide range in] our program sources. We buy U.S. series and documentaries, but also British and French programs. As to free TV, we mostly acquire U.S. programs.

WS: Which imported programs have performed the best in the last year?
SCHWEITZER: House, the CSI franchise, Monk, Psych and Bones perform very well, but Hollywood blockbusters such as What Happens in Vegas or Iron Man have also been very successful.

WS: Do you also acquire online rights so that the programs you buy can also be streamed on your channel’s website?
SCHWEITZER: Online streaming rights, especially catch-up rights, are, in general, included in the linear-TV rights. For additional business models like pay VOD, we are interested in acquiring the respective rights from our licensors at economically realistic terms.

WS: How successful have your online catch-up TV services been?
SCHWEITZER: We are satisfied with the development of our online streaming services—in October we delivered more than 21 million videos to our users via the three catch-up platforms of our subsidiary RTL Interactive: RTL NOW, VOX NOW and SUPER RTL NOW.

WS: By how much are the catch-up TV services increasing viewership of your programs?
SCHWEITZER: Ongoing shows or series [in particular] benefit from our catch-up offering because it makes it easier for our viewers to follow the series even if they have missed one or more episodes on TV. Additionally, a VOD offering reaches potential audience groups who otherwise would not be able to follow a show, for example, because the show is transmitted during daytime [hours].

WS: Which types of shows get the most viewing on catch-up TV?
SCHWEITZER: A very popular genre on our platforms are the daily soaps and the daytime programs, but also highlight productions such as (the local versions of) Idols, Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

WS: What are some of the major issues affecting the television business in your country?
SCHWEITZER: The advertising market is affecting the television business most. The crisis hit us very hard in 2009. Fortunately the market has recovered in 2010 but it will still take a while until we will get back to the high level of 2008, if ever. Of course, the nonlinear usage of TV programs does affect the market as well and will affect it more and more in the future. All TV operators will have to develop this market for themselves if they want to stay in business for long. Nevertheless the speed of transition from the linear present to the nonlinear future and from free content to paid content is [slower] in Germany than in other countries of the Western world. So linear free TV will still dominate the German TV market for a long time.