ProSieben Television

World Screen Weekly, October 19, 2006

COUNTRY: Germany

LAUNCH DATE: January 1, 1989

OWNERSHIP: ProSieben Television is one of the channels owned by the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. The others are Sat.1, kabel eins, N24 and 9Live.

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS: ProSieben is a terrestrial broadcaster that is also distributed via cable and satellite and reaches 34.17 million households in Germany; 2.89 million in Austria and 2.03 million in Switzerland.

DESCRIPTION: ProSieben is an advertiser-supported channel available throughout German-speaking Europe. Its core demographic is the demanding 14-29 group. The channel seeks to attract them through a mix of Hollywood blockbusters, international series and reliable ‘brand name’ programming. All of which combine to make ProSieben the leading entertainment brand for this demographic.

MANAGING DIRECTOR: Andreas Bartl

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: ProSieben is programmed in a complementary fashion to the other channels owned by the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. Together ProSieben, Sat.1, kabel eins, N24 and 9Live garnered a 31-percent audience share during the month of September. ProSieben, the most profitable of the stations in the group, saw its ratings go up substantially over last year, adding 1.4 percentage points to reach a 12.8-percent share.

September 2006 was the most successful month for the station since October 2004. ProSieben scored big with its two-part event movie Tornado and blockbusters like XXX and Diepurpurnen Fl�sse 2—Die Engel der Apokalypse. Popstars attracted an audience share of up to 22.2 percent, well above the station’s average. And the second season of the Die ProSieben M�rchenstunde got off to a great start, drawing an audience share of up to 18.3 percent. Stefan Raab’s new Saturday evening show Schlag den Raab achieved a very successful 26.7 percent.

ProSieben’s success is due to its programming formula, which offers viewers a mix of feature films, international comedy series, magazine shows and light entertainment.

During the first six months of 2006, 53 percent of ProSieben’s schedule consisted of original productions and 47 percent was acquired programming, much of which aired in prime time. Outlining ProSieben’s future strategy, Andreas Bartl, the station’s managing director, reveals that “in 2007 we will focus more sharply on the core of our brand, building on our success with feature films, U.S. series, as well as factual, comedy and event shows,” says Bartl. “ProSieben is Germany’s leading broadcaster of feature films, and we have an excellent supply of blockbusters lined up through 2006 and 2007.” Heading that slate are titles such as Pirates Of The Caribbean, Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2, The Last Samurai and The Matrix Revolutions. Additionally, Sundays will be home to a regular feature double bill.

Monday night is mystery night on ProSieben and will see the debut of Invasion as well as the return of Lost with its second season, along with another Buena Vista International Television hit, Desperate Housewives.

Other U.S. imports include Grey’s Anatomy, The O.C., The Simpsons, Charmed, Scrubs, Queer as Folk, Sex and the City, ER, Friends and The 4400.

Documentaries are also important to the ProSieben lineup, and the fall sees the return of star presenter Aiman Abdallah with a new series of Galileo, and also the debut of a major new series Was Essen Wirklich Kann, co-produced with the BBC and Discovery Health. The BBC’s title is The Truth About Food, and using real experiments on German and British volunteers the show aims to “answer the questions and bust the myths about the food we eat every day.”

WHAT’S NEW: Bartl believes that in Germany, as everywhere else, the “hot topic” is the rapid rollout of digital media. Given the age of ProSieben’s core demographic, he believes it is important for the broadcaster to act more and more as a brand, “not only on television, but in our viewers’ everyday life. To achieve this,” he concludes, “it is vital that ProSieben and its high quality content is available on all of the newly emerging platforms.”

WEBSITE: www.prosieben.de