The Flemish media group DPG Media has reached an agreement for the takeover of the Dutch television group RTL Nederland. The DPG Media group that includes the commercial television channels VTM, VTM 2,…and Flanders’ best-selling newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’, has offered 1.1 billion euro for RTL Nederland. In a press statement issued on Friday DPG said that its offer has been accepted. The takeover will need to be approved by the Dutch competitions commissions ACM before it can be completed.
Culture
RTL accepts DPG Media’s 1.1 billion euro offer for RTL Nederland
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Last year RTL Nederland had a market share of 24.4%, only the Dutch public broadcaster NPO had more viewers. Under the terms of the deal between the RTL Group and DPG Media the name RTL will remain until at least 2034. The current CEO of RTL Nederland will remain in his post and no job losses will come about as a result of the takeover.
DPG Media is already active in The Netherlands, owning newspapers such as ‘De Volkskrant’ and ‘Algemeen Dagblad’. It also owns the Francophone Belgian RTL that has three tv channels and the radio station Bel RTL. DPG currently has 6,000 staff and had an annual turnover of 1.8 billion euro in 2022. RTL Nederland employs 800 staff and had a turnover of 636 million euro in 2022.
Compete with streaming services
The takeover will mean that DPG gets full control over the Videoland streaming service. This is the largest streaming service in The Netherlands.
However, will the takeover mean that one company owns too big a slice of the Dutch media cake? It will be up to the Dutch competitions watchdog ACM to decide whether this is the case and if the takeover will be detrimental to competition. DPG hopes that the takeover will have been completed by 2024.