U.S. series boost German webs

Programs help upstart nets challenge pubcasters

By ED MEZA

'House'

BERLIN -- In Germany, U.S. shows "House" and "CSI: Miami" on RTL Television and "Navy CIS" on rival Sat.1 remain solid primetime hits for the commercial broadcasters as they continue to eat away at the longtime dominance of pubcasters ARD and ZDF.

RTL tied with ARD with a 12.5% market share in April thanks to its hit imports as well as the continuing success of formats like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and local "Pop Idol" version "Deutschland sucht den Superstar."

Tuesday offers RTL's strongest lineup, kicking off with "CSI: Miami," followed by "House," "Monk" and "Law & Order." The May 6 third-season finale of "House" achieved a 31.8% share among the key 14-49 demo, with some 5.3 million viewers tuning in. The past 24 episodes averaged 5.6 million viewers and an 18.2% share among all viewers and managed to win an additional half-million viewers compared with season two.

RTL head of program acquisitions and sales Dirk Schweitzer says that despite some successful domestic shows, German fare has a tough time against Hollywood product. On the other hand, rival web ProSieben scored its most successful primetime preem for a German series since 2005 with the debut of "Innocent" in April. The crime drama, about a young attorney who sets out to free innocent people from jail, garnered an impressive 14.8% share in its key 14-49 demo, with a total of 3.26 million viewers -- including almost 1 million more in the demo than timeslot predecessor "Desperate Housewives."

Still, with its focus on younger viewers, the ProSiebenSat.1 group has recently acquired a slew of new shows from Warner Bros. and Sony, including "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "Moonlight," "Pushing Daisies," "The Tudors" and "Damages."

As local viewing habits evolve, both ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL are putting greater focus on expanded rights for their video-on-demand offerings, which are growing. ProSiebenSat.1 recently inked content deals with Warners and Sony for its subscription and pay-per-view VOD service Maxdome.

Current episodes of new series will be available on Maxdome a week before they air on free TV. Schweitzer says RTL also is looking to get dibs on VOD along with free TV rights on future series, or at least greater exclusivity rights to block third-party platforms from offering a series online at the same time it's premiering on RTL.

"Obviously it's not in our interest to have a format air on free TV on RTL while another platform is offering it parallel as a free download," he says.