In an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, RTL’s CEO Bernd Reichart says the broadcaster will invest €1 billion annually in new in-house productions.

The cash will be for the broadcaster’s national FTA channel as well as its streaming service ‘TV Now’ and aiming to take on the likes of Netflix, Amazon and the other emerging OTT competitors.

However, a report to clients of Deutsche Bank says that RTL does not guide on in-house spend. “So it is not possible to know whether this is a material step up; RTL spends nearly €2 billion p/a on content. But in a concerning indicator of more content spending to come on the group’s new on-demand services.”

Reichart said: ‘’Across the RTL media group, we invest around one billion euros in content each year on our channels and TV Now. We decided early on to focus on our own exclusive content. In a few years, TV Now Originals and a broadcaster like Vox will have a similar budget. There are also important investments in technology.”

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