RTL sheds 600 jobs in Germany as it shifts from linear towards streaming

Bertelsmann-owned broadcaster RTL is to cut 600 jobs in Germany – around 10% of its workforce there – as it continues to battle declining linear TV viewing and advertising.

Stephan Schmitter

The network said jobs would be cut across sites through a mixture of a severance programme and early retirement.

With advertising revenues and viewership of its linear networks, such as Vox, in decline it intends to focus more on streaming through its RTL+ platform. However, even in the online space it faces heavy competition from the likes of Netflix.

“The media market is undergoing profound change,” said RTL Deutschland CEO Stephan Schmitter.

“To remain successful and competitive in the long term we are aligning RTL Deutschland even more consistently with the streaming business.”