Word: rtl
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...Napster. The elusive goal of film and television producers has long been a marriage between the Internet and video programming, a single pipeline that would allow consumers to order up entertainment and information from a buffet of sources. So when German media giant Bertelsmann last week took control of RTL, Europe's biggest TV company, interactive programming suddenly looked a lot closer. "We are significantly pushing ahead on the interactive TV front," says Thomas Hesse, ceo of the newly formed RTL NEWMEDIA group. The firm hopes to roll out its interactive service in Germany by summer...
...quest to survive the global media wars. Ever since two giant mergers last year-AOL's takeover of Time Warner and the purchase of Universal Studios by French media company Vivendi-Bertelsmann has been under pressure to bulk up. Not only has the group acquired control of RTL, which has TV and radio properties in 11 countries, but it is also bidding for the record company EMI and forging a global alliance between Bertelsmann music subsidiary BMG and Napster, the controversial Internet site where people can exchange music for free...
...empire stretches from John Grisham's novels (Random House) to Whitney Houston's hit tunes (BMG), and from Family Circle magazine to Germany's most prominent publications, like the provocative newsweekly Stern (both owned by Gruner + Jahr). Through a joint venture with British media giant Pearson PLC in the RTL Group, the company owns syndication rights to a vast universe of television programs, including Baywatch and The Price Is Right. And Bertelsmann also does a multibillion-dollar global business in printing and publishing services; the magazine in your hand may have come off a press...
...They have called for a ban of "Big Brother," saying it violates media laws protecting human dignity. Bavarian official Erwin Huber calls the show "a new dimension in sensationalism... and voyeurism." But the laws' vagueness have prevented any action against the show, which has been very successful for the RTL II network, which had previously focused its programming on American reruns and soft-core pornography...
Letterman was also the model for Thomas Koschwitz, a roly-poly German host whose RTL Nightshow copied Dave's bits but not his success: it was canceled in 1995 because of low ratings. Schmidt, 40, a former actor who sports steel-rimmed glasses and designer suits, has done a better job of capturing Letterman's deadpan charisma, and The Harald Schmidt Show is now seen by 1 million Germans a night, a sizable 10% share of the viewing audience. His sometimes off-color jokes and frequent ethnic put-downs have earned Schmidt the nickname "Dirty Harry." For his advocates, however...