Vox
Vox is a private television channel based in Cologne. The programme now mainly consists of entertainment formats, although it was originally launched as a private competitor to the public broadcasters with a focus on news and information. However, the programme was not well received by viewers and the costs for in-house productions and a network of correspondents were too high. In 1994, all shareholders except UFA and dctp withdrew from the project. This is followed by a radical restructuring of the programme and personnel. Rupert Murdoch joins as a new shareholder and brings with him numerous licences for US series and films. At the end of 1999, RTL Group finally took over all shares in Vox. The Bertelsmann Group holds 76 % of the shares (as of 02/2024) in RTL Group.
Audience Share
5.21%
Ownership Type
private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
free content
Media Companies / Groups
RTL Deutschland
Bertelsmann
Ownership Structure
The ownership structure of Vox operator RTL Deutschland is a complex one, consisting of various shareholdings and corporate structures.
RTL Deutschland's share capital is wholly owned by UFA Film und Fernseh GmbH, which in turn belongs to the listed RTL Group, one of the leading international media companies based in Luxembourg.
The multinational media group Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA holds 76% of the shares in RTL Group and is itself controlled by the Bertelsmann Foundation (77%) and the Mohn family (19%). However, the Bertelsmann Foundation's shares are attributed to Mohn, as she has far-reaching powers and control within the foundation as the founder.
Voting Rights
The voting rights of the main shareholder (Bertelsmann) are wholly controlled by Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG). BVG is a body set up by Bertelsmann founder Reinhard Mohn to continue the company in its original spirit. Accordingly, the founding Mohn family is also the most strongly represented on the BVG Steering Committee (Dr Brigitte Mohn, Christoph Mohn as Chairman & Liz Mohn). All members have equal voting rights, with the exception of Liz Mohn, who has a veto right.
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
Free float
17.9% of the shares of RTL Group S.A. are in free float and freely tradable on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
General Information
Founding Year
1991
Affiliated Interests Founder
UFA is part of the Bertelsmann Group, which already operated a private broadcaster, RTL. Westdeutsche Medienbeteiligungsgesellschaft no longer exists today and was at the time a regional association centred around Sparkasse Köln. With Holtzbrinck-Verlag (Handelsblatt) and Süddeutscher Verlag (Süddeutsche Zeitung), two companies from the print sector were also involved and dctp is a production company in which Spiegel-Verlag and Neue Zürcher Zeitung hold a stake.
Erich Staake was managing director from the outset, but had to step down in 1993 after poor ratings.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
has been CEO of RTL Germany since January 2024. Previously, Schmitter made a career at RTL's radio division and eventually moved to the editorial department. Schmitter is also responsible for the streaming service RTL+ and the publishing business of Gruner + Jahr. Since the beginning of 2024, he has also been a member of the Group Management Committee (GMC) at Bertelsmann, an advisory board that advises the Bertelsmann Executive Board on strategic issues.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Editor-in-Chief of RTL Germany, began his career with an apprenticeship at Axel Springer and moved to RTL as a news editor in 1989. There he held various roles in the editorial department until he finally became editor-in-chief in 2014. Stephanie McClain was due to take over the position in 2024, as Wulf will retire in 2025. However, the succession plan was cancelled due to internal disagreements.
Contact
RTL Deutschland
Picassoplatz 1
50679 Köln
Germany
T: +49 (0)221 - 456-6-0
E: webmaster@rtlinteractive.de
W: Vox.de
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
€ 2.8 Billion (2022) / USD 2.9 Billion
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
€ 459 Million Adjusted EBITA (2022) / USD 482 Million
Advertising (in % of total funding)
73%: € 2 Billion (2022) / USD 2.1 Billion
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
There is no information on market share (by revenue). There is information on RTL Group's market share in TV advertising, but this is not broken down to RTL Germany. There is also no segmentation of the individual channels (RTL, Vox, NTV), only bundled financial data for RTL Germany.
Operating profit is only stated in an adjusted calculation (Adjusted EBITA). Information on the composition of the indicator can be found in the Annual Report (2022, page 58).
The average exchange rate from the year in which the source was published was used for the conversions from euros to US dollars (2023: USD 1.08 / 2022: USD 1.05).
