German general interest channel RTL Television can launch its planned digital thematic channels.
The federal anti-concentration commission, the KEK, at its latest meeting gave the green light to the licence applications, taking the view that RTL’s owner Bertelsmann/CLT-UFA would not gain dominant power because the new channels wouldn’t substantially increase the company’s overall audience market share. RTL plans to create four thematic channels centering around soap operas, news/magazines, action and "best of RTL". They will be accompanied by an electronic programme guide that uses OpenTV. Also part of the free-to-air RTL World package will be digital simulcasts of existing analogue channels RTL, RTL 2, Super RTL and Vox. Earlier, the directors of the 15 regional media authorities had approved RTL’s thematic channel licence applications, thus media authority Niedersachsische Landesmedienanstalt fur privaten Rundfunk can finally grant the licences at its next meeting.
