German children’s channel Super RTL will not acquire its competitor Nickelodeon: RTL Deutschland has withdrawn its notification of the project after the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) informed RTL and Paramount Global that it intends to prohibit the transaction.
The Bundeskartellamt’s investigation into the planned merger focused primarily on advertising. RTL is part of Bertelsmann Group and is active in the children’s market with the Super RTL, Toggo and Toggo plus brands, under which it offers various children’s programmes, particularly on linear television, but also on the RTL+ streaming service. Paramount is active in the German children’s market with the free-TV channel Nickelodeon and increasingly also online with its Paramount+ offering and children’s channels on its FAST Channel platform Pluto TV.
The area of advertising on these offerings was of primary importance for the Cartel Office’s merger control investigation. According to the competition authority, the investigations of practically all major advertisers in the children’s market and the (potential) competitors not only in the TV sector, but also in the online sector have made it clear that there is special demand from advertisers for video advertising space through which children aged three to 13 can be reached in a targeted and safe manner.
The proposed merger would have seen Super RTL take over Nickelodeon’s established satellite frequency on Astra (19.2° East) and operate the free-to-air channel under its own Toggo brand after a transitional period, while continuing to show popular Nickelodeon series such as PAW Patrol, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Loud House. The Nickelodeon channel brand would have disappeared from German free-TV, allowing Paramount to focus entirely on kids content on its streaming services Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
“The merger planned by RTL and Paramount would have affected the area of video advertising for the target group of children between 3 and 13 years of age. According to the investigations, this advertising market is so clearly characterised that it had to be distinguished from other advertising,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Cartel Office. “There are only a very limited number of companies that offer advertising space specifically aimed at children, above all RTL with its corresponding TV offerings. There is no advertising on the public broadcasters’ KiKA channel.”
“We are seeing a strong migration away from linear television, especially among children. However, streaming services, such as Netflix or Amazon, do not currently play a role in the children’s advertising market. The same applies to social media offerings such as TikTok or Snapchat, which are in any case clearly different in nature and design, and which are not aimed at children due to their age limits and therefore do not offer advertising space specifically aimed at children,” added Mundt.
In addition to the relevant offerings from RTL and Paramount, Disney is particularly active in this area on television and Alphabet/Google with its YouTube Kids offering in the online sector. According to the Cartel Office, Super RTL is by far the leading provider, followed by Disney, which is ahead of Nickelodeon: Even if YouTube Kids is included in the analysis due to changing viewing habits, Super RTL remains the clearly dominant provider – and would gain significant weight with the addition of Nickelodeon.
The Cartel Office last dealt with the children’s TV market in 2021. At that time, it did not raise any objections to RTL Deutschland fully taking over Super RTL, which had previously been operated as a joint venture with Disney. Although this meant that Super RTL fell entirely to RTL, it also freed up Disney as a competitor.
Following the withdrawal of the takeover, it is currently unclear whether Paramount will now continue offering Nickelodeon in Germany as a free TV channel or, as planned in the course of the deal with Super RTL, discontinue the channel as a linear service and focus on its streaming offerings. This is the second iteration of the Nickelodeon channel in Germany. The original channel launched on 5 July 1995 and ran until 31 May 1998. The channel was eventually relaunched on 12 September 2005.
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Originally published: September 18, 2024.
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Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt, said: “The merger planned by RTL and Paramount would have affected the area of moving-picture advertising for the target group of children aged 3 to 13. According to the investigations, this advertising market has such distinct characteristics that it had to be distinguished from other advertising. There are only a very limited number of companies that offer advertising space specifically aimed at children, above all RTL with its relevant TV program. There is no advertising on the public broadcaster KiKA. We are seeing a strong migration away from linear television, especially among children. However, streaming services, such as Netflix or Amazon, do not currently play a role in the children’s advertising market. The same applies to social media offerings such as TikTok or Snapchat, which are already clearly different in terms of their structure and design and are not aimed at children due to their age limits and therefore do not offer advertising space specifically geared towards children.”
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