COLOGNE/UNTERFÖHRING (dpa-AFX) - The large private TV groups RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1 want to join forces in acquiring advertising customers. Until now, there have been separate, different systems and the companies have been working independently of each other as competitors. The media companies RTL in Koln and ProSiebenSat.1 in Unterfohring near Munich announced their cooperation in advertising technology on Thursday. It will make the German advertising market and the media companies less dependent on the advertising technologies of large US corporations. The Federal Cartel Office has been informed about the project. Customers should be able to start booking advertising via the new cooperation in the second half of the year.

In response to a question from dpa, ProSiebenSat.1 commented on the significance of the cooperation: "For the first time, it will be possible for customers to book advertising for both families of channels on linear TV at the same time. The aim is to make it easier for customers to book advertising on the TV stations and the two Group-owned streaming platforms. In the meantime, the competition has shifted. It is no longer the German TV broadcasters that are the main competitors, but the large technology platforms such as Google.

The companies also hope that the cooperation will help the advertising market, which has been weakening for a long time, to recover. Initial cooperation approaches in the smart TV sector have shown that demand in smaller sub-segments has been boosted. This is also hoped for on a large scale in linear TV.

The private broadcaster groups will present their annual figures for 2023 in March. The advertising market is an essential pillar. German media companies in general have struggled with cautious advertising customers in recent years. The large US platform groups are also a growing competitor in the advertising market./rin/ngu/DP/ngu