• Thomas Rabe takes over as Chairman of the Management Board of RTL Deutschland
• Co-CEO Stephan Schäfer to step down from the Management Board on the best of terms
• Andreas Fischer named Chief Operating Officer (COO) of RTL Deutschland
  

Cologne, 17 August 2022 – RTL Group is reorganising the Management Board of RTL Deutschland. Matthias Dang (Co-CEO), Alexander Glatz (CFO), and Oliver Radtke, who is responsible for the overall coordination of the combination of RTL Deutschland and Gruner + Jahr (G+J), will manage RTL Deutschland, along with Andreas Fischer. Fischer, Executive Vice President (EVP) Business Development at RTL Group, joins the Management Board as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Thomas Rabe, CEO of Bertelsmann and RTL Group, takes over as Chairman of the Management Board of RTL Deutschland. Stephan Schäfer, previously Co-CEO of RTL Deutschland, is stepping down from the Management Board on the best of terms, and is leaving the company. He will remain associated with RTL in an advisory capacity.

Statements

Thomas Rabe says: “I look forward to working even more closely with my colleagues at RTL Deutschland in the future. There are exciting tasks and great challenges ahead of us, which we will tackle together. I would like to thank Stephan Schäfer for his dedication to Gruner + Jahr and RTL Deutschland. He provided a lot of impetus at both companies, including the combination of RTL Deutschland and G+J, the repositioning of the RTL brand, and the further development of RTL’s programming. I am pleased that he will continue to support us in an advisory capacity.”

Thomas Rabe, Chairman of the Bertelsmann Executive Board since 2012 and additionally CEO of RTL Group since 2019, continues: “We have defined clear priorities for the months ahead: We will actively manage the business in an increasingly challenging environment, further strengthen the management team, continue to expand the streaming service RTL+, and complete the combination of RTL Deutschland and G+J.”

Stephan Schäfer said: “I would like to thank Thomas Rabe for his trust, and our teams in Cologne and Hamburg for their support over the past years, during which we have achieved a great deal together for G+J, RTL, and Bertelsmann. As a unified company, RTL Deutschland and G+J are in a good position to become a national media champion in Germany. I look forward to accompanying them on this path in an advisory capacity.”

About RTL Deutschland

RTL Deutschland is Germany's leading entertainment company, spanning all types of media: TV and streaming, print and digital, radio and podcasts. It is home to some of the country's strongest media brands, from RTL to Stern, Brigitte to Vox, and Geo to NTV, and operates Germany’s largest streaming platform, RTL+, with more than 3.4 million paying subscribers. RTL Deutschland owns 15 TV channels, 50 premium magazines, the Audio Now podcast portfolio and numerous digital offerings, such as Chefkoch and Wetter.de. RTL Radio is one of Germany's largest privately owned radio groups, with holdings in 17 stations including Antenne Bayern and Radio Hamburg.

More than 8,000 people work for RTL Deutschland at its headquarters in Cologne and 17 other offices, primarily in Hamburg and Berlin. 1,500 journalists provide information and entertainment on all socially relevant topics. With content ranging from news to sports, home living to lifestyle, and women to family, RTL Deutschland reaches 99 per cent of the German population. With Ad Alliance, the company also operates the largest German advertising sales house. Thanks to strategic investments in tech and data, RTL Deutschland is on its way to becoming the country’s leading media company in terms of technology.

Biographies

Andreas Fischer, the new COO of RTL Deutschland and EVP Business Development at RTL Group since 2020, started his career at RTL in 2000. He worked in various functions before joining RTL Group’s Strategy & Controlling department in 2010, where he became Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) in 2011. In 2013, he took over the management and coordination of RTL Group’s Synergy Committees. Since 2015, he has taken over various leadership positions in the areas of Business Development, Operations Management and M&A.