The diversity of real life lives in the “Home of Reality”. RTLZWEI’s open, positive look at reality in all its facets once again found a large audience last year.
Multichannel successes
RTLZWEI has long been just as much a TV station as it is a major content provider in streaming and social media. There are four RTLZWEI programs among the top 20 most streamed formats on private TV channels throughout the year. In the AGF streaming ranking according to target group 14+, the long-running hit “Berlin – Day & Night” is in 7th place with over 20 million hours of usage volume, while the show highlight “Battle of the Reality Stars” is in 9th place. “Love Island VIP” and “Hartz and cordial” are ranked 13th and 19th respectively.*
If you add up all the digital channels, including the RTL+ streaming service, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, the broadcaster’s own websites, mobile apps and HbbTV, 5.95 billion video views were achieved. That’s five percent more than in 2023.**
Strategic collaborations are driving this number further up. In collaboration with the video marketplace Glomex, RTLZWEI clips are brought directly to the pages of numerous local newspapers, magazines and news portals. Waipu also plays the station’s attractive content as FAST channels.
RTLZWEI’s annual TV market share is 3.8% MA (14-49) in 2024.***
Docu-Soaps
Stories of extraordinary families are formative for the RTLZWEI brand. Both “Goats” and the “Wollny’s” Even after many years it never gets boring. The extended family around Silvia Wollny, who commute between the Lower Rhine and the Turkish Aegean, scores particularly well with 14-29 year olds: an average of 6.3% market share vs. 4.6% (14-49). They also achieved an enormous reach as streaming content, with around six million hours of usage.
Meanwhile, Germany’s most popular millionaires have firmly established a second TV format: “Davina & Shania – We love Monaco” revolves around the lives of Robert and Carmen’s fledgling daughters. There was 6.2% MA for this, which is exactly the same as “The Geissens – A Terribly Glamorous Family”. The family was streamed for over 4.7 million hours.
Time and again, RTLZWEI also gives other dazzling families a TV stage, such as Mallorca emigrant Danni Büchner and her followers: “These Büchners – family hustle and bustle under palm trees”: achieved 3.5% MA and 4.6% among 14-29 year olds. Another example: “Joey Kelly and Family – Road Trip Panamericana”. The family trip with an empty wallet yielded 3.8% MA.
RTLZWEI broke new ground “La Familia – House of Reality”. TV celebrities, Instagram icons and TikTok stars live together in a villa on the outskirts of Munich and film their lives 24/7. This can be seen just days later on RTL+. And that’s what’s happening: almost 5.0 million hours have been streamed since the shared apartment moved in at the beginning of June.
The documentation
No full program channel shows more documentaries and reports than RTLZWEI.**** The diverse range of topics was expanded this year “Our supermarket – with heart and humor” expanded. Between Cologne Central Station and the vibrant Eigelstein district there is a supermarket that enjoys cult status in the Rhine metropolis. The documentary series portrays the everyday life of boss Udo and his 60 employees. There was an average of 6.1% MA in the afternoon program – the best RTLZWEI restart in the time slot since 2013.
RTLZWEI is the only TV channel to continuously make life in poverty visible – not as a topic of debate for experts, but in the form of long-term observations in which life on the fringes of society is shown from the perspective of those affected. “Hartz and warm” has been doing this with strong ratings since 2016 and since last June “day after day” at 6 p.m. There the series showed steadily increasing market shares of up to 7.8% and thus stabilized the early evening program. On average, all first broadcasts between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. achieved 5.1% MA. The format remains in demand with an average of 5.2% MA even at 8:15 p.m., as well as in streaming with more than 9.9 million hours of usage. “Poor Germany” illustrates how different people view their lives with state support. This documentary series achieved a strong 6.1% MA and more than two million hours of streaming. “Hartz Rot Gold” takes the audience into the poorest regions of Germany. The TV successes in the afternoon and in prime time are also reflected in streaming with a good 1.3 million hours.
Among the everyday portraits of various professional groups (“human police officer”, “human soldier”) was found “Man Savior” There were a particularly large number of viewers about the experiences of emergency paramedics, with an average of 4.4%. “Reeperbahn private! Real life in the neighborhood” scored with 6.1% MA. The audience has taken the regular guests to Europe’s largest campsite on the upper Adriatic to their hearts: 5.5% MA and around 1.2 million streaming hours for “Bella Italia – Camping in German”.
Shows
Two show highlights in the television year once again came from RTLZWEI: “Battle of the Reality Stars” In the spring, the film once again mercilessly and amusingly exposed the vanities of the German reality celebrities gathered in Thailand: there was a 7.1 percent TV market share for the fifth season. The format has the most fans among 30 to 39 year old women with 14.2% MA. Almost 18.5 million hours of streaming have now made KDRS a hit beyond TV.
In the fall, the most iconic German dating show experienced a completely renewed comeback: In “Love Island VIP” This time, instead of TV newcomers, reality professionals were looking for true love. Weekly rather than daily broadcasts achieved 4.8% MA (9.0% MA 14-29) and 13.1 million hours of streaming content. During the publication period (October 17, 2024 to December 12, 2024), the show was at number 1 in the streaming rankings of all providers, ahead of “Storm of Love”, “The Summer House of the Stars” and “Tatort”. The show also contributes to RTLZWEI’s most successful month on the streaming service RTL+ in November.*****
Among the other shows, the classic particularly stood out “Brilliantly wrong” out: Hugo Egon Balder, Hella von Sinnen and Wigald Boning achieved up to 5.7% MA, “The Return Hunter” with presenter Panagiota Petridou up to 5.5%.
Fiction
RTLZWEI is the home of the cult mystery series “X-Factor: The Unbelievable”. Special programming surrounding Halloween, including four TV premieres of new episodes produced exclusively for the channel, achieved 4.8% MA.
Every weekday at 7 p.m “Berlin – Day & Night” still for stable rates: 4.3% MA and 6.3% among the young target group (14-29). The daily soap is increasingly looking for and finding the latter non-linear: over 20 million hours of streaming prove this impressively. On the weekends, RTLZWEI reliably entertains with selected feature films. “The Hateful Eight” (8.9% MA), “Everything is Inside Out” (8.1%), as well as “Signs” and “Shaun of the Dead” (7.8% each) attracted particularly great interest.
* AGF video research; AGF SCOPE 1.9; 01/01/2024-10/12/2024; Market standard: moving images; Evaluation type program brand; Streaming/On Demand; usage-related; Parcel number: 14718 from 12/18/2024. The data refers to the target group 14+.
** RTLi, Google Analytics, Facebook & Instagram Insights, TikTok, YouTube & Snapchat Analytics (as of January 1st – December 10th, 2024 vs. previous year)
*** TV data © AGF in collaboration with GfK; VideoScope, market standard moving image, 01/01-17/12/24, 11/12/24 provisionally weighted, only first broadcast (except “X-Factor”). Unless otherwise stated, data refers to 14 to 49 year olds.
**** AGF broadcast coding, variable 2: “Reportage/Documentation”
***** RTLi, November 1st, 2024 to November 30th, 2024