FEATURE
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Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s Comedy Rocket
DIGITAL GERMANY
TV for the next generation Among those making innovative use of digital technology in Germany are the leading TV media companies. Juliana Koranteng looks at the digital ambitions of four German heavyweights
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HILE TV accounts for almost 50% of total ad spend in Germany, according to Nielsen Media Research, digital media is catching up fast and leading TV companies are planting their masts in the fast growing tech-driven sector. Take Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), a subsidiary of the US media con-
glomerate Viacom, which has felt pressured by the internet’s rise to be as relevant to today’s generation X, Y and Z as it was when its MTV network used cable TV technology to reach the youth of the 1980s. And it is responding accordingly. In 2016, it has already unveiled two new digital entertainment formats with millennials in mind. MTV + YOU is arguably the first
FOCUS ON GERMANY • APRIL 2016
ever live-streaming TV series transmitted on a social-media platform — in this case, Facebook. Via Facebook Mentions, the app dedicated to targeting content to a brand’s Facebook followers (as opposed to a user’s friends), VIMN delivers a one-hour interactive show every Tuesday evening, hosted by German YouTube celebrities Maren Merkel and Tobias Wolf. By its second episode, it