Happy Birthday Vox!

week 5
the RTL Group intranet
Newsletter
Happy Birthday Vox!
Frank Hoffmann talks about
the channel’s 15 years journey
Germany
German politicians impressed by Die Gustloff
New evening schedule on N-TV
Spain
Exclusive mobile phone services
Belgium
Two new radio channels
People
Laurent Soumier, M6 Publicité
COVER:
Vox’s programmes: Das perfekte Dinner, Shark, Spiegel TV, Kocharena,
Wolkenlos, BBC Exklusiv, Boston Legal, CSI, Vox CEO Frank Hoffmann.
the RTL Group intranet
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The right mix
Frank Hoffmann, CEO of Vox
On 25 January 1993, the German channel Vox
went on air for the first time. It started out as an
intellectual and educational channel – and failed.
Now it has become a classy entertainment channel that is captivating a growing audience. In
2007, Vox attained record market shares, averaging 7.9 percent in the 14 to 49 target group.
Backstage interviewed CEO Frank Hoffmann on
Vox's 15th birthday.
What do 15 years of Vox mean to you?
A wonderful success story! For 15 years now,
staff at Vox have really put their hearts and souls
into creating special programme content. That's
something we're extremely proud of. The channel’s steady growth couldn’t have been predicted
when Vox was launched. In the meantime,
though, it has found exactly the right mix of
series, reportage, movies, documentaries and
entertainment formats.
Vox was launched 15 years ago as an independent channel. What does the channel gain
from being incorporated into Mediengruppe
RTL Deutschland?
Being part of a media group brings many practical benefits. For example, we pool the marketing
of some of our advertising time, join forces to
conduct media research, combine our Internet
activities, and form a united front when buying in
films and series. Individual staff members also
benefit from our involvement with the media
group, not only by falling back on the know-how
of our partners, but also by making use of the
media group's social facilities.
To mark its 15th anniversary last Friday,
Backstage spoke to Frank Hoffmann about
the eventful history of the channel.
Germany - 25 January 2008
Which achievements would you list as particular highlights of your time at Vox?
The impressive success of the Das perfekte
Dinner format. Not only does this cooking documentary get exceptional market share, but it also
became the first ever Vox programme to win a
German TV Award. Kocharena, our first major
evening food show, is also going down a treat
with viewers and will be aired on a monthly basis
this year.
Last year, Vox attained a tremendous market
share of 7.9% in the 14-49 target group. What
is Vox's recipe for success?
The key to our success is finding the right mix of
top series and feature films combined with intelligent, innovative formats of our own.
What does Vox have lined up for viewers in
the future?
In 2008 we launched two new series that are
absolutely perfect for our target group: Men in
Trees and Shark. This year we’ll also be screening a game show called Power of 10, which has
not been shown on German TV before. On top of
all that, we'll concentrate on developing new, original formats of our own.
Frank Hoffmann
Frank Hoffmann, 42, has served as CEO
of Vox since April 2005. Prior to this, he
was head of the magazine division at
RTL Television, where he supervised the
Explosiv, Exclusiv, Extra and Life formats,
among others.
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15 Years of Vox – A Retrospective
The channel’s story begins slightly earlier than
1993. In 1990, the “Westschienen-Staatsvertrag”
broadcasting treaty between the German federal
states went into effect, which stipulated the introduction of an additional commercial TV channel
in Germany. The German states wanted a highbrow alternative to “Tutti Frutti & Co,” i.e. the programmes being broadcast on other commercial
channels. A flawed idea as it turned out soon.
Vox’s predecessor, the “Westschienenkanal,”
was established in 1991. Bertelsmann AG held
24.9% of shares via UFA. The other shareholders
were the Westdeutsche Medienbeteiligungsgesellschaft (25.1%), Holtzbrinck-Verlag (14.5%),
DCTP (11.0%), the Mittelständische Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft (10%) and
Warner Music Germany (14.5%). On 20
December 1991, the “Westschienenkanal” and
DCTP were jointly granted a broadcasting licence for full-fledged TV programming.
In 1992, the “Westschienenkanal” was given a
new name: Vox, Latin for “voice.” Dietz & Partner
was the agency commissioned to design the
channel’s first logo – a red dot. Before long, the
channel’s staff moved to its new broadcasting
building in Cologne-Ossendorf.
At 5.00 pm on 25 January 1993, Vox took to the
airwaves with its “Event TV” concept and a
speech by the then-minister president of North
Rhine Westphalia, Johannes Rau. At the time,
more than 60% of households in Germany were
capable of receiving its programming. Soon
afterwards, the first episode of Voxtours was
broadcast. Today, the show is the longest-running travel magazine on German television.
One year after its launch, “Event TV” looked like
a flop. Its market share in the target demographics most coveted by advertisers was a meagre
1.5% – far too low for a successful commercial
channel. Vox was incurring losses in the millions.
At the beginning of 1994, all of its shareholders
divested, except the Bertelsmann subsidiary UFA
and DCTP. At the end of the year, two new shareholders joined them: Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corporation (49.9%) and Canal+ (24.9%). UFA
still owned 24.9%, but DCTP had reduced its
stake to just 0.3% of shares.
In February 1996, Vox scored its highest market
share to date with the
movie Highlander: 20.9%
among 14 to 49-year-olds. In September of that
year, Vox launched its Internet homepage. Soon
afterwards, the first episode of Wolkenlos went
on air.
In 1997, the channel set out to change substantially its image. In addition to magazine and feature formats, Vox began to broadcast films and
US series. In July, a lightning strike caused a
massive power outage and Vox was off the air for
36 minutes. In September, it introduced the first
daily cooking show on German television –
Kochduell, which became the basis of the channel’s reputation for food programmes in access
primetime.
In spring 1998, Vox began broadcasting Ally
McBeal, but discontinued the series after eight
episodes due to poor ratings.
On 1 January 1999, Anke Schäferkordt took over
as the channel’s CEO from Markus Tellenbach,
and reintroduced Ally McBeal – and this time the
eccentric lawyer went on to become an audience favourite. Towards the end of the year, RTL
Television acquired Murdoch's stake. Shortly
afterwards, RTL Group bought up the shares
held by Canal+. From this point on, RTL Group
owned 99.7% of Vox. DCTP continues to own
0.3%.
In 2000, IP Germany took on the channel's airtime sales, while RTL Enterprises was put in charge of its merchandising and licensing business.
In September 2001, Vox introduced CSI – Crime
Scene Investigation to German television, initially
without much success. The big breakthrough
didn’t happen until the third season three years
later.
CSI: NY
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On Vox’s tenth anniversary, Der Spiegel magazine wrote: “Ten years of Vox represent ten years of
passion for a different kind of television. From the
woolly-headed idealists of the early stages
through the valley of tears, the channel has now
emerged as a trademark in its own right under
the leadership of Ally McSchäferkordt.” In late
2003, TV chef Tim Mälzer’s programme
Schmeckt nicht, gibt’s nicht first went on air.
In early 2004, Vox added several new US series
to its programming. CSI: Miami and Gilmore Girls
quickly attained cult status. In November, Vox
hosted its first own telethon: Gib mir fünf!
(Gimme Five!)
In April 2005, Frank Hoffmann succeeded Anke
Schäferkordt, who left to become CEO of
Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. Hoffmann systematically built up the channel's roster of its
own, original formats. In November, Das perfekte
Dinner made its debut and became a huge success, with market shares exceeding 20% of the
lucrative target age group.
week 5
A celebrity spin-off of the popular cooking show
followed in August 2006: Das perfekte Promi
Dinner. In September, Vox added yet another
quirky, groundbreaking US series to its programming, Boston Legal, staying true to its strategy of
swimming against the mainstream.
In early 2007, DCTP and Vox agreed to renew
their joint broadcasting licence. DCTP supplies
19 hours of programming per week, including
Spiegel TV, BBC Exklusiv, Süddeutsche Zeitung
TV and NZZ Format. Das perfekte Dinner won the
German TV Prize for Best Cooking Show. The
channel has further underscored its cooking credentials with Unter Volldampf! In November, Vox
aired Kocharena, giving Germany its first major
primetime cooking show.
Finally, in January 2008 Vox launched two other
new and unusual US series, Men in Trees and
Shark. Fifteen years after its launch, the intellectual “Event TV” broadcaster has evolved into a
sophisticated entertainment channel.
Shark
Johann Lafer at Die Kocharena
VOX’s marketshares from 1993 to 2007
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German politicians
impressed by Die Gustloff
The TV movie Die Gustloff, produced by UFA,
went down very well indeed with leading
politicians and other VIP guests at a sneak
preview held in Berlin on Tuesday evening.
Die Gustloff
Germany - 25 January 2008
Invitations by Executive Producer Norbert
Sauer to the exclusive advance showing of a
120-minute version of the film were taken up by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Minister of
State for Culture and the Media Bernd
Neumann, President of the Central Council of
Jews in Germany Charlotte Knobloch, and a
numerous German MPs from all political parties.
The film’s director, Joseph Vilsmaier
(Stalingrad, Comedian Harmonists) was very
happy after the screening because both Merkel
and Knobloch had assured him they were really impressed. Knobloch had even placed the
film on a par with his Holocaust drama Der letzte Zug (The Last Train). Vilsmaier had been so
deeply touched, he could have cried. On stage
at the showing of the film, the director once
again reiterated who had inspired
him to undertake the project,
namely the Christian Democratic
Union’s (CDU) General Secretary
Volker Kauder, who had “put the
idea of Die Gustloff” in his head
many years ago.
The film describes the fate of roughly 9,500
refugees and 1,000 submariners on board the
former Nazi vessel Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise
ship that was the pride of the regime. On 30
January 1945 the ship laid up in Gotenhafen,
today the Polish port of Gdynia, heading West.
That same evening the overpopulated vessel
was hit by a torpedo fired by a Russian submarine. A mere 1,000 people or thereabouts survived the catastrophe. Most of those on board
died in the icy Baltic Sea.
Vilsmaier’s emotion-packed drama painstakingly reconstructed the events based on known
facts and eyewitness statements, though the
characters in the film are fictional. Heinz Schön,
who survived the episode at the tender age of
18, advised the filmmakers during the film’s
production.
Neumann said that the film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier was an
excellent example of how to deal
with topics that hit home with
audiences. The film told authentic
stories in their own right and presented a historical topic in an
audience-friendly way, without
getting in the way of the storyline.
UFA Executive Director Norbert Sauer, ZDF Chairman Markus Schächter,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Film Director Joseph Vilsmaier
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New evening schedule
Hans Demmel, CEO of N-TV
Monday on N-TV is now also ‘Spiegel day’, for
the news channel will air Spiegel TV Magazin
and Spiegel TV Zeitreise every Monday evening. Spiegel TV Magazin takes topical events
and deals with them in a trustworthy, informative manner. The range of topics covered
extends from current German and internal politics to economics, business and social issues,
sport, culture and entertainment, not forgetting
historical documentaries. Spiegel TV Zeitreise
takes viewers on a journey back through time,
looking in retrospect at historic events and stories that marked the 20th century.
N-TV CEO Hans Demmel said: “Our new prime
time is geared even more closely to what viewers want, guaranteeing them an even more
compelling, dependable programmes than
before. Spiegel TV Magazin and Spiegel TV
Zeitreise are two top-notch additions to our
schedule. Both formats suit N-TV down to the
ground.”
N-TV has completely overhauled its prime time
schedule and is now even more compelling and
dependable than ever.
Germany - 29 January 2008
The magazine N-TV Wissen, which will henceforth be broadcast three times a week, is being
given a human face in the form of new presenter Annett Möller, whom viewers will recognise
from the channel’s news format N-TV
Nachrichten. Möller will guide viewers through
the world of knowledge in a clearly understandable, informative way.
Business also has a dedicated slot in the newlook N-TV prime time, in N-TV Telebörse. And
to make sure that N-TV can provide a full analysis and summary of the day’s trading on Wall
Street, the channel’s evening business roundup, Telebörse, will only be aired at 22.45.
CEO Hans Demmel is content: “I’m convinced
this reshuffle will turn out to be a major step in
the right direction for us.”
Experts glean their information
from N-TV
Germany’s financial sector can’t do without
the news channel N-TV. That’s the conclusion reached by the media marketing agency IP Deutschland based on the latest
media and brand survey carried out by
HBS International.
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Two new radio channels
Last Friday, the RTL Belgiumfamily welcomed
two new arrivals: the Web radio channels Mint
Rock and Mint Nouvelle Scène.
Belgium - 28 January 2008
On 25 January 2008, Mint (whose slogan translates as “the radio station with the better
taste”), celebrated one year on the air. To mark
its first birthday, Mint gave its listeners a wonderful present, namely two new Web radio stations: Mint Rock, which will play rock classics
from the past 40 years, and Mint Nouvelle
Scène, which will focus on up-and-coming new
talent in the French-language music scene.
Tuning in to these two new Web radio stations
couldn’t be easier: just go to Mint’s website.
Mint radio player
visit
nt.be
i
m
.
w
ww lick on
”
and c ez nos radios
t
u
“Eco
www.mint.be
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Exclusive
mobile phone services
Los hombres de Paco
RTL Group’s Spanish channel Antena 3 is taking
another step forward in the multimedia promotion of new series.
Spain - 30 January 2008
Thirty-six hours before being broadcast on
conventional television in prime time on 4
February, the first episode of the series Física o
química will be available to Vodafone customers with 3G mobile phones. The same episode will also be made available to Internet viewers the day before it airs on television, and will
also remain at viewers’ disposal on both platforms until the next episode.
“We mustn’t close our minds to the convergence of new technologies,” said Francisco Sierra,
Head of Antena 3 Multimedia, explaining that
for this first trial, the series selected was one
whose “profile and content was matched to the
kind of audience that consumes television
mainly on their mobile telephones.
The start of 2008 has been marked by a new
multimedia launch strategy. On the day that
Antena 3 put the first episode of Los hombres
de Paco online, the network counted 1,300,000
downloads of the police comedy, whereby each
episode is divided into six separate videos.
Before launching the initiative, Antena 3’s
management questioned whether any potential
viewers for conventional television would
remain, such TV being the reference platform
for most advertising investment. “We’ve
demonstrated that it results in loyalty,” said
Sierra.
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Twenty exciting years
20 ans d’émotions (20 Exciting Year) is the title of a new book that retraces the magnificent adventure of RTL-TVI, from its modest but promising beginnings to its current position as a powerful leader. The book illustrates the close relationship between RTL-TVI and
its French-speaking audience in Belgium.
Belgium - 25 January 2008
Grimme Award nominations for RTL Group’s companies
Two RTL Television series and two Teamworx productions have been entered for the 44th
Adolf Grimme Awards.
Germany - 25 January 2008
A clear success for RTL Television
On Saturday evening for the first time ever RTL’s shows Deutschland sucht den Superstar
with a 33.2 per cent market share and Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! with a 36.0
per cent market share clearly outperformed ZDF’s Wetten, dass..? (24.4 per cent) among
young viewers aged 14 to 49.
Germany - 28 January 2008
Election in Spain on Youtube
Antena 3 has created a channel on Youtube for members of the public to put questions to
candidates standing in the general election and find out more about it.
Spain - 28 January 2008
Teamworx brings history to life
The Teamworx production Das Wunder von Berlin (The Miracle of Berlin), shown on Sunday
evening, told the story of the fall of the Berlin Wall, taking over 8 million viewers back to
1989.
Germany - 28 January 2008
A new hotel inspector checks in to Five
Five has secured the services of renowned hotelier Alex Polizzi to front the new-look
series Hotel Inspector when it returns later this year.
United Kingdom - 29 January 2008
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RTL II airs its first long-term documentary series
Over a three-year period RTL II’s cameras followed children and parents for whom adoption is a key issue. The channel started screening the resulting documentary, entitled
Adoption – Unsere letzte Hoffnung (Adoption – Our Last Hope) on 29 January.
Germany - 29 January 2008
The future of radio
On 28 January RTL Radio Deutschland launched its second training programme in which
10 talented young managers will be given support in specific domains over the next 12
months and thus groomed for wider-ranging duties within their company.
Germany - 30 January 2008
A comprehensive advertising campaign for Neighbours
Five has launched a huge national and regional press campaign which is heavily supported
by T-sides on buses and glossy magazine ads.
United Kingdom - 30 January 2008
300 hours of TV programming for Latin America
FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has sold formats of all genres to various channels in
Central and South America.
United Kingdom - 30 January 2008
RTL.de teams up with Microsoft to provide instant messaging
With immediate effect, the website RTL.de is placing “Windows Live Messenger powered
by RTL.de” at the disposal of its users.
Germany - 30 January 2008
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People
Laurent Soumier joins M6 Publicité
France - 31 January 2008
Laurent Soumier is joining the Groupe M6 in the
position of director at its advertising sales unit
M6 Publicité.
Soumier previously worked in various positions
for France Télévision Publicité, the advertising
sales arm of the public TV channels. Among
others he was head of customer relations and
head of advertising.
11
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