On the morning of 16 June, ProSiebenSat.1 announced the upcoming sale of the news channel N24 to a consortium of its current managing directors Torsten Rossmann, Stefan Aust and Thorsten Pollfuß. And because the new group will have to make do with just half of the previous news budget, up to 72 jobs will be cut.
The state media authorities proceeded to caution the ProSiebenSat.1 group against further reducing its information offering. The planned job and budget cuts for information procurement lend credence to doubts about whether the broadcasting group can be trusted to ensure qualified news, declared the directors of the state media authorities.
Tagesspiegel responded to the announcement that N24 will have to manage with half the budget with the question: “So why did ProSiebenSat 1 come up with this brilliant idea, and not Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland for its channels like RTL and Vox?” and promptly delivers the answer, concluding that RTL wants to earn plenty of money, “but not at the price of letting its editorial momentum reduce TV news to an insignificant, marginal matter. RTL Deutschland doesn’t set out to refinance its news – all cost discipline aside, cost they what they may. This is what’s made the channel so strong and credible among viewers,” concludes Tagesspiegel.
On 17 June, Süddeutsche Zeitung also ran a comprehensive report on the sale of N24. Editor Caspar Busse notes: “News programmes are important for a channel’s quality, customer loyalty, and identity – especially for a family channel like Sat.1, but also for channels like Kabel 1 or ProSieben. Their commercial rival RTL shows hot it’s done properly.”
In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of 20 June, Stefan Niggemeier writes: “A channel like RTL, however, would certainly not do away with its news, even if it were allowed to do so. While a programme like RTL aktuell may be expensive, it pays off for the channel in that it is perceived as a fully-fledged, important channel – to a much greater degree than its commercial competitors. Peter Kloeppel’s reputable image reflects onto the rest of the programming.”
And Norbert Schneider, Director of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Media Authority, told Focus magazine: “There may be great temptation for RTL to also get rid of an unprofitable member of its family and hive off N-TV. But I suspect the idea will immediately be abandoned again, as RTL realises how important the news are. RTL Aktuell anchorman Peter Kloeppel is a first-rate figurehead for the whole channel.”
Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland itself had no comment on its rival’s portfolio adjustment, but made it clear that it sees itself “as a fully fledged broadcaster, whose programme offerings include information and news as well as popular entertainment.”