RTL Group to Acquire European Rival Sky Deutschland

A sale in Germany that will further strengthen the case for advocates of consolidation in the European television market. Nearly three years after the failure of the TF1-M6 merger in France, media giant RTL Group will soon acquire the operations of its rival Sky in the German-speaking region—Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg—with the aim of creating a company capable of competing with platforms like Netflix, Prime (Amazon), Disney+, and HBO. RTL Group, a subsidiary of German publisher Bertelsmann, and Sky Deutschland announced this in a joint press release on Friday, June 27. The merger of these two media players is expected to take shape in 2026, subject to approval by financial authorities.

This acquisition should first allow the company to change its streaming dimension. Thus, by adding their respective platforms, RTL+, Sky, and WOW, the future structure will have 11.5 million subscribers in German-speaking Europe. However, it will remain behind Prime and especially Netflix, which have 15 and 18 million subscribers respectively. Hence the need for it to enrich its content offering.

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