After EU decision: RTL is allowed to buy Sky Deutschland

The RTL Group may Sky Germany take over. A good ten months after the announcement of the takeover plan, the EU Commission gave the unconditional green light for the deal. She imposed no conditions.

The EU Commission regularly examines mergers and acquisitions of large companies in the European Economic Area to determine whether there are competition concerns. In the case of RTL and Sky, the authority determined “after careful consideration” that the transaction “would not significantly reduce competition” and approved it without conditions.

“The transaction enables established European media groups to consolidate their position at a time of industry change in which they are under increasing pressure from global streaming platforms,” ​​said EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera. By bundling their competencies, RTL and Sky are better equipped to remain competitive in this rapidly changing market.

RTL wants to expand its subscription business

In June 2025, RTL Group presented its plans to take over Sky Deutschland. The aim of the merger is to strengthen the market position in the German streaming and TV business compared to large US providers. By integrating Sky, RTL also wants to expand its subscription business and become more independent of the classic TV advertising market, which remains under pressure.

The RTL Group is increasingly relying on digital subscription models to compensate for the decline in traditional advertising revenues on linear television. To this end, the RTL+ offering has also been further developed – for example through new bundled offers such as the cooperation with HBO Max, which is distributed via the marketing subsidiary AdAlliance. The company, which belongs to Bertelsmann, wants to consolidate its position as a leading provider in the German-speaking media landscape.

Sky Deutschland becomes part of RTL Deutschland

When announcing the Sky takeover in June 2025, RTL announced that RTL Germany boss Stephan Schmitter would become CEO of the new joint venture. Sky Deutschland will become part of RTL Deutschland in the future. In addition to classic television channels, Sky Deutschland also includes the streaming service Wow.

Sky Deutschland is currently part of the US media group Comcast. The purchase price is around 150 million euros in cash, plus a variable component that is linked to the RTL Group share price. Depending on the price development, up to 377 million euros more could be due for RTL. With the takeover, the listed RTL Group brings together a broad portfolio of free-to-air TV channels, pay channels and streaming portals in German-speaking countries – supplemented by magazines and audio offerings.

The eventful history of Sky

Sky Deutschland’s annual revenue was recently around 2 billion euros, and RTL Group’s was around 6 billion euros. The company recently had to contend with a weak advertising economy and falling production revenues. Job cuts were also one of the consequences.

Sky looks back on an eventful history: The channel emerged from the former church company Premiere, which for a long time showed the Bundesliga exclusively on pay TV, but was never economically profitable in the long term. Comcast finally took over the pay channel in 2018.

Since the pay channel was founded, the focus has been on sports broadcasts, especially football. The offer is supplemented by films and series. The company recently stopped its own series productions such as “Babylon Berlin” and “Der Pass”.

RTL and Sky have already cooperated frequently on rights

Internally, around 80 percent of subscribers are considered sports customers. Sky’s most important sports rights are the Friday and Saturday games of the Bundesliga and the entire 2nd Bundesliga. Important rights also include the English Premier League, Formula 1 and tennis.

RTL and Sky have exchanged rights more frequently in recent years. RTL was recently allowed to show seven Formula 1 races on free TV. There has so far been no agreement between the two broadcasters for the current season of the most important motorsport series. After the purchase, a quick clarification is expected.

The Brussels competition watchdog examined in particular the impact of the transaction on four markets: the supply and acquisition of audiovisual content, the wholesale trade in television channels and audiovisual services, the retail trade in audiovisual services to end customers and the supply of advertising space in audiovisual content. They had no concerns in any of the areas. They noted, among other things, that the two broadcasters have so far had different focuses in both sports and entertainment and are therefore not close competitors in the acquisition of audiovisual content.