RTL, Europe’s leading commercial TV company, has announced plans to invest heavily into VoD in order to offset the decline in free-to-air viewing across Europe.
In the first three months of this year, RTL launched three new VoD platforms in Hungary, Croatia and Belgium.
It plans to offer a hybrid model of a free, advertising-supported VoD alongside a premium, Netflix-style pay product.
Reporting its quarterly figures, RTL said subscribers to its TV Now Plus SVoD, based in Germany, were up 61 per cent compared to the first quarter last year. Meanwhile, its Dutch VoD service, Videoland, reported a 82 per cent increase in subscriber figures.