first leaguehandles relations with the main sponsor whose logo graces the team’s jerseys. “talks...

week 19

12 May 2010

First LeagueHow UFA Sports markets a wide range of sports worldwide

United Kingdom

The Economist praises television

United States

“Dream Ticket” winner among American Idol Top 5

Germany

Grundy Light Entertainment goes international

Belgium

RTL-TVI turns Belgium green

the RTL Group intranetweek 19

week 19

12 May 2010

First LeagueHow UFA Sports markets a wide range of sports worldwide

United Kingdom

The Economist praises television

United States

“Dream Ticket” winner among American Idol Top 5

Germany

Grundy Light Entertainment goes international

Belgium

RTL-TVI turns Belgium green

Cover: Montage showing Robert Müller von Vullejus, Philip Cordes and Stefan Felsing (from left to right), the managing team of UFA Sports

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The final whistle blows. After 90 minutes and a final score of 4:1 against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Hamburg’s FC St. Pauli has officially ascended into the 1st Bundesliga – the highest German league in professional football. On the last match day of the season, even a home defeat couldn’t dull the mood. Managers from UFA Sports were among the celebrating fans, as FC St. Pauli is one of “their” teams – one of the clubs whose marketing is handled by UFA Sports. “In sport-speak, you’d call this a fantastic assist,” beams Philip Cordes, one of UFA Sports’ three Manag-ing Directors. “But on the other hand it’s a big challenge, too. New contracts will have to be negotiated, and the club’s expectations need to be met.” UFA Sports manages the market-ing rights for FC St. Pauli: sells advertising spaces, markets the boxes at the stadium and handles relations with the main sponsor whose logo graces the team’s jerseys. “Talks are cur-rently underway for a new shirt sponsor, and some of the contracts that still date back to the club’s third-league days are being renegotiated – but the basic procedures won’t change – it’s business as usual, just at a higher level,” adds Robert Müller von Vultejus, another Managing Director at UFA Sports.

UFA Sports is a well-known name in the world of sports rights marketing. The agency was originally founded in 1988, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the UFA group, which was merged into CLT-UFA in 1997 and became part of the newly created RTL Group in 2000. After vari-ous mergers and transactions, the former UFA Sports became a major part of what is today the Sportfive Group. In November 2006, RTL Group sold its 25 per cent stake in Sportfive to the French media group Lagardère.

In April 2008, RTL Group decided to revive its sports rights business under the familiar name – UFA Sports – and invest in attractive segments of

sports rights marketing. “One of the three pillars in our successful corporate strategy is a system-atic diversification of our revenue streams, along with tapping new lines of business,” said Elmar Heggen, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of RTL Group and Head of its Corporate Centre, giving the rational behind the re-establishment of UFA Sports. Heggen also oversees the operations of UFA Sports.

So UFA Sports started over again from scratch. “Our business model differs from the classic sports rights agent, which is as follows: rights were acquired, held and then resold at a higher value. We see ourselves as a pure-play service provider, who handles the full spectrum of value creation in marketing on a completely transpar-ent basis. The rights themselves remain in the possession of the original owner,” explains Cordes. In partnerships with clubs like 1. FC Union Berlin or FC St. Pauli, UFA Sports builds a local marketing team six or seven strong, who negotiate directly at the club and in the club’s name, but are paid by UFA Sports. “In this way we achieve complete transparency and control for the rights owners,” adds von Vultejus.

Sports rights are still among the most attractive rights in the TV business, as noted even by The Economist in its special supplement Changing the channel. In an article headlined The killer app, it writes: “First, sports rights are unique. There are only a certain number of teams in the Premier League or the National Football League, and they play each other only a certain number of times. Second, sport is nearly always watched live on television. There is little danger that people will record games and then fast-for-ward through the advertisements. Third, ratings are almost guaranteed. Unlike scripted fare, it is fairly easy to predict how many people will tune in for a match.”

“Growth is not an end itself” Two years after the relaunch of the sports rights marketer UFA Sports, Backstage takes a detailed look at its portfolio and work. Germany - 12 May 2010

UFA Sports markets the FC St. Pauli


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Football enjoys a particularly high ranking in the world of sports – and accordingly at UFA Sports. 1. FC Union Berlin is another club in the market-ing agent’s portfolio, which recently managed to secure its position in the 2nd Bundesliga. UFA Sports also promotes the national TV and media rights to the international matches of the junior national teams in the German Football Federa-tion (DFB). Among other things, this includes the qualifying matches for the U21-European Cham-pionship 2011 in Denmark and all U21 interna-tional matches held in Germany through the year 2011. Finally, UFA Sports also markets the DFB Cup matches on international level, and the third-party rights to the matches of the A-level national team, this means the TV and media rights in countries not involved in the match. “Of course football is one of the most popular sports worldwide, which makes it the most lucrative,” says Cordes and adds: “In addition to football we’ve identified attractive rights in other sports that we plan to develop in partnership with the rights owners.”

One of the areas being explored by UFA Sports is the marketing of Basketball rights. In March 2010, the rights agency had announced that it would be handling the marketing of all advertis-ing and media exploitation rights for Germany’s national basketball team as exclusive service provider to the German Basketball Federation. This includes Germany’s Supercup in August, shortly before the Basketball World Cup in Turkey, which begins on 28 August. “In this particular case we’re not just marketing the media rights, but are also in charge of sponsor relations. For example, the Supercup in August will be promoted under the name ‘Beko Super-cup’.” UFA Sports has marketed the German team’s matches at the Basketball World Cup in Turkey in approximately 30 countries around the

world, including to such broadcasters as ESPN and Al Jazeera.

The details of the marketing always depend on the sport being promoted – in football, eve-rything revolves around clubs, leagues and national teams, while in boxing the focus is on individual protagonists. “Promoting an athlete is very different from promoting a club,” explains von Vultejus. “In marketing a team, we rely on an inventory of various, largely standardised marketing approaches, while the inclusion of an individual athlete in a company’s advertising campaign is usually very precisely tailored to the advertising partner’s specific communication strategy.” The marketing of federations – such as the Slovakian Football Federation, where UFA Sports is responsible for both the league and the national team – is handled mostly from the Hamburg headquarters. “We have various col-leagues who specialise in certain regions – one handles Africa, another the CIS states and so on,” explains Stefan Felsing, the third Managing Director of UFA Sports.

A glance at the portfolio shows that UFA Sports has grown rapidly in the two years since it was re-established. The company will handle all TV and media rights to the Handball World Champi-onships for the next four years. Here, however, UFA Sports owns the worldwide rights rather than serving merely as a service provider or consult-ant. Felix Sturm, a very promising up-and-comer in German boxing, is signed with UFA Sports – here, too, UFA Sports doesn’t just market the TV and media rights to his fights, but also handles sponsor, hospitality and partner relations. The marketing of the Kontinental Hockey League (ice hockey) was recently added to the UFA Sports portfolio. Will developments continue at this swift pace in the months and years ahead? “Growth shouldn’t be seen as an end in itself, but as a way to continue developing the company,” says Philip Cordes. “It makes no sense to grow and have a huge portfolio if the performance side doesn’t measure up.”

The German Basketball association is also part of the UFA Sports portfolio

Felix Sturm (left) is one of Germany’s up-and-coming Boxers


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“Newspapers are dying; the music industry is still yelping about iTunes; book publishers think they are next. Yet one bit of old media seems to be doing rather well”, The Economist says in its editorial titled “The great survivor”. Instead of being cowed by new media, TV uses online tools in a complementary way. The article thus confirms what Gerhard Zeiler, CEO of RTL Group, has been emphasising in his speeches over recent months: TV remains the lead media – when it comes to mobilising a mass audience, nothing can touch television, users discuss shows on the Internet, while catch-up services and mobile devices make TV content available anywhere, anytime.

The article states that TV is embracing tech-nological change and being proactive about it: online video services such as YouTube profit from TV content. With impressive speed, TV firms are now building online video subscription services. Additionally, television has domesticated rather than suffering from new technology – and with advancing digitisation and targeted advertising, TV is able to compete with the Internet. As a result, the other media are learning from TV.

And so the article closes: “That box might appear to be sitting in the corner of the living room, not doing much. In fact, it is constantly evolving. If there is one media business with a chance of completing the perilous journey to the digital future looking as healthy as it did when it set off, it is television.”

“In praise of television”The latest issue of The Economist reports on TV’s ability to adapt to technological change better than any other media.Luxembourg - 7 May 2010


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RTL Creation received kudos at two prestigious industry events at the end of April. Seven RTL Creation productions won awards at the Interna-tional Eyes & Ears Trailer Festival in Cologne. Ads created by RTL Creation for ‘Formula 1 2009’, Domino Day and the series Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei won in the ‘Promotion Spot’ category. In the ‘Promo-tion campaign’ category, prizes went to the image campaign for the 2009 elections and the Christmas campaign promoting RTL’s block-buster highlight 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug. The intro to the ‘RTL Junescreening 2009’ won a prize for “Channel Image Trailer”, and ‘Formula 1 2009’ won an award in the category ‘Credits’. N-TV won two of the coveted awards, too: its trailer campaign to promote the relaunch of N-TV.de prevailed in the categories ‘Interactive Promotion’ and ‘360° Campaign’.

RTL Creation also did well at another important industry event, this one in Lisbon: the company won a prestigious PromaxBDA Europe Award 2010 in silver in the category ‘Best Entertain-ment/Music/Variety/Comedy Promo’ for its Domino Day 2009.

Florian Martens was nominated for a Bavar-ian TV Award award in the ‘Miniseries and Series’ category for his performance in UFA Fernsehproduktion’s Ein starkes Team. Martens plays Detective Otto Garber in the ZDF crime series. Annette Frier is nominated in the same category is for her role in the Phoenix Film-produced series Danni Lowinski. The Bavarian TV Award is one of the foremost prizes in German television. The annual ‘Blue Panther’ award is being presented for the 22nd time this year. Winners will be announced and receive their prizes on Friday 21 May 2010 at a festive TV gala at the Prinzregenten Theatre in Munich.

Awards in AprilRTL Group companies won a number of prizes again in April, including a total of nine International Eyes & Ears Awards.Germany - 12 May 2010Alarm für Cobra 11

Annette Frier plays Danni Lowinski


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The American Idol Experience, which officially opened 14 February 2009 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, is the first and only theme park attraction in the world based on American Idol. The attraction provides guests the thrill and pageantry of the television show, as excited theme park guests age 14 and older audition before Disney producers and direc-tors to see if they have what it takes to perform on stage that day. While on-stage, judges provide critique and audience members at each preliminary show determine who will advance to the attraction’s grand finale show that night. At the grand finale, the top-vote getter is awarded a “Dream Ticket,” a ticket that allows an eligible guest to schedule a front of the line audition at one of the regional auditions for the television show.

Only four days after the grand opening of The American Idol Experience at the theme park in February 2009, Kelly put his talents on display for park guests and the attraction’s judges. Kelly’s rendition of the Lonestar hit song Amazed earned him the most votes in the attraction’s Grand Finale show. Afterwards, with an audition for the television show in Orlando, his trip to the final began. On 5 May, he was eliminated, ranking fifth.

The American Idol Experience attraction was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering in conjunction with FremantleMedia Enterprises and 19 TV Ltd. It is based on the hit television show American Idol – produced by 19 TV Ltd. and FremantleMedia North America.

“Dream Ticket” candidate among the Top 5Aaron Kelly, who is one of the Top 5 candidates in this year’s season of American Idol started his journey on the show at The American Idol Experience at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.United States - 11 May 2010

Aaron Kelly

Ryan Seacrest at American Idol Experience


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Grundy Light Entertainment is partnering with Iko Production Limited to bring the internation-ally successful format The X Factor to Hungary. The Hungarian version will be produced for RTL Klub and will be on air from autumn of 2010.

Switzerland, too, will soon set out to prove that it’s “got talent.” Grundy Schweiz AG will be producing a Swiss version of the international Got Talent format for Switzerland’s channel SF1. Grundy Schweiz AG is a subsidiary jointly owned by Grundy Light Entertainment and the Swiss publisher Ringier AG. Got Talent made its debut in England in June 2007, In 2009, the final attracted 18.3 million viewers. The format is now successful in more than 33 countries.

Ute Biernat, Managing Director of Grundy Light Entertainment, says: “X Faktor will be the first show Grundy Light Entertainment produces in Hungary. I look forward to working with our colleagues there and am sure that X Faktor will be a huge success in Hungary as well. The production of Got Talent is an exten-sion of our winning cooperation on 5 Against 5.”

Grundy Light Entertainment goes abroad The production company is bringing The X Faktor to Hungary und Got Talent to Switzerland. Germany - 12 May 2010

Ute Biernat


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More than half of the encounters will be played around lunchtime and in the afternoons (13:30 and 16:00) German time, so the commercial radio stations – Antenne Bayern, Hit Radio FFH, Radio NRW, Antenne Thüringen, 104.6 RTL and 105’5 Spreeradio – already form a winning team: regardless of whether listeners are still at the office or construction site or on their way home, they can listen to matches and breaking infor-mation live from South Africa. The radio stations are sending reporters, editors and technicians to South Africa to report live from the stadiums, the German team’s camp, the press conferences and about the country and its people.

Stephan Schmitter, Managing Director of the Radio Center Berlin, says: “Germany’s football fans and us radio people are hoping for a sequel to the incredible emotional ‘fairytale summer’ of 2006. The Fifa Football World Cup in South Africa offers us ideal conditions. With the sound of vuvuzela stadium horns as a fitting back-drop, we can already promise our listeners an absolutely riveting experience.”

The team of reporters will leave for South Africa on 6 June, in good time to start the countdown to the football World Cup. Until then, national and regional advertising customers can book attractive advertising slots and special forms of advertising tying in to the live and follow-up match coverage, on all participating stations.

Football – emotions – radio!Germany’s leading commercial radio stations have once again joined forces to broadcast all 64 matches of the Fifa Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa live, as official licensed radio stations for the event. Germany - 7 May 2010


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The Media Authority of Lower Saxony has already approved the purchase of shares from Teleconsult Planungs- and Beratungsgesells-chaft für Kommunikationstechnologien mbH and Radio Madsack Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG. The approval of the station’s shareholder meeting, which is required for finalising the purchase, is expected towards the middle of June.

RTL Radio Deutschland Managing Director Gert Zimmer is pleased about the increased shareholding: “Hit-Radio Antenne is a very important member of our radio family. Intensified investment in the stations is a sign

of our confidence both in the potential of radio in general and in the excellent prospects of the German state of Lower Saxony. In order to master the challenges ahead, radio stations need strong, strategically oriented shareholders who will make an active contribution to upholding opinion diversity by safeguarding the long-term competitiveness of the stations.”

Hit-Radio Antenne is one of Germany’s top radio stations. With a service area that extends to Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg, it has a technical reach of around 10 million people, and attracts 2.6 million listeners a day.

In 2008, the European Parliament retained Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), the supplier of technical services and subsidiary of RTL Group, for the turnkey instal-lation of an infrastructure for digitising video content. The challenge BCE faced was significant: dating back as far as 1952, some of the European Parliament archives had been damaged, while others were in danger of deteriorating.

In less than a year BCE set up a complete digitisation platform with archiving system by Front Porch Digital linked directly to the European Parliament’s existing Ingest platform which allows transforming tapes to digital. “Relations with the team of engineers in charge

of the project were excellent. As with other projects we have carried out with BCE – the replacement of four editing rooms for the European Parliament of Strasbourg – they demonstrated a high level of professionalism and availability,” said Philippe Masson, Chief Engineer of the European Parliament’s Audiovisual Unit.

The platform can automatically digitise content and store up to 18,000 hours of content while archival storage capacity can easily extend to 90,000 hours. Thanks to this platform, the European Parliament’s archivists have a complete tool (platform and digital library) at their disposal that is easy to use in their day-to-day work.

Increasing stakeRTL Radio Deutschland is stocking up its current 36 per cent holding in the station to 49.9 per cent, the maximum currently allowed under Lower Saxon media law. This further enhances its position as the station’s largest single shareholder.Germany - 10 May 2010

Digitising European and world historyThanks to the expertise of Broadcasting Center Europe, the European Parliament now has a digitisation platform and a centralised digital library that allows access to archives dating back to 1952.Luxembourg - 10 May 2010


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A few weeks ago, Lampiris, a supplier of 100-per-cent green energy, launched a contest on RTL-TVI called Tous au Vert. The contest encouraged viewers to send in their ideas on how to improve their neighbourhood by making them a greener, cleaner and happier place to live.

Four finalists were retained out of 500 applicants. The ambassadors of these four projects each defended their idea on Sunday 8 May in front of a panel of judges that included Audrey Leunens of RTL-TVI, Bruno Venanzi, Managing Director of Lampiris and Serge De Gheldere, a specialist on the environment and global warming.

A prize was awarded at the end of the contest: free green energy for one year, for the winner and 50 other homes. The winning project called “Le Château vert” proposed to all restaurants owner’s in the Châtelain district of Brussels to sign an agreement for more ecological behaviour, like using locally produced food.

Belgium goes greenRTL-TVI aired Tous au Vert (Go Green), a show that appeals to citizens to make changes in their everyday life and to focus on the environment in their projects.Belgium - 7 May 2010

Tousauvert.be

Time to celebrateGute Zeiten – schlechte Zeiten, produced by Grundy UFA, has been

part of RTL Television’s access prime

time programming since 11 May 1992.

As GZSZ – as it is affectionately known

among its fans - celebrates its 18th

anniversary, it’s hard to imagine the daily

programme without the series. Teens

and young adults in particular have remained enthusiastically

loyal over the years.


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Improved offerToggo Mobile, Super RTL’s mobile calling plan for kids, is now cancellable monthly and includes free SMS texting.Germany - 10 May 2010

France’s oversea territories dance to the “pop rock” soundRTL 2 started broadcasting in Guadeloupe and French Guiana. France - 10 May 2010

Former convicts do the cookingW9 launched Présumés cuisiniers: le restaurant de la seconde chance, a culinary docu-reality show in which 24 former prison inmates will try to learnto cook under the leadership of chef Marc Thuet, a Frenchman who has settled in Toronto. France - 11 May 2010

Pulling together for peaceRTL Radio is calling on its listeners to donate to the pan-European youth outreach and awareness efforts by the Volksbund deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) The goal is to raise EUR 126,000 by the end of June.Luxembourg - 11 May 2010

The Europa League final: exclusively on M6 and FiveThe Europa League final, live from Hamburg’s Nordbank stadium, will be broadcast exclusively on M6 starting at 20:40 (CEST). In the UK, Five will start broadcasting at 18.30 (BST).France / United Kingdom - 12 May 2010

Who wants to win EUR 7,500?From 31 May to 31 July, Mistergooddeal.com invites internet users to take part in the big “Furnish the house of your dreams!” contest to win EUR 7,500.France - 12 May 2010


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People

Harry Goering to leave UFA EntertainmentGermany - 7 May 2010

Harry Goering steps down as Managing Director of UFA Entertainment and leaves the company, with effect from 1 June 2010.

For the past nine years, Harry Goering has served as Managing Director of the company that has established itself as a leading producer of factual entertainment, docu-soaps and music events for television under his leadership. UFA Entertainment’s customers include nearly all commercial channels in Germany and Austria, and at present its most popular productions include Zuhause im Glück for RTL II and Bauer sucht Frau (The Farmer Wants A Wife) for atv in Austria. UFA Entertainment is a subsidiary of UFA Film & TV Produktion, Potsdam.

Ute Biernat will take on the management of UFA Entertainment in addition to her current duties. Biernat is Managing Director of Grundy Light Entertainment and the Producer behind such audience hits as Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Idols) and Das Supertalent (Got Talent). Both companies will continue to do business as separate labels.

Wolf Bauer, Managing Director of UFA Film & TV Produktion, says: “I thank Harry Goering for his successful and dedicated work over the past nine years. In a very difficult and keenly competitive market, he and his creative team have created wonderful programmes, which we are very proud of.”

Harry Goering: “It was an exciting, fascinating time and I am very grateful to Wolf Bauer, my team and my fellow managers at UFA. But nine years is long enough and I feel this is a good time to start something new.”

Harry Goering

PublisherRTL Group

45, Bd Pierre Frieden

L-1543 Luxembourg

Editor, Design, Production

RTL Group

Corporate Communications and Marketing

http://backstage.rtlgroup.frhttp://backstage.rtlgroup.comhttp://backstage.rtlgroup.de

first leaguehandles relations with the main sponsor whose logo graces the team’s jerseys. “talks...

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