If you like watching reality TV, you can’t go past this streaming service: RTL+. The in-house RTL media library has all kinds of TV shows on offer – many of them are intentionally trashy. Linear TV has been in crisis for years, while streaming continues to grow. This trend can also be observed on RTL+. As DWDL reports, the streamer recently reached an impressive milestone: 5.6 million paying customers. More than ever before. But despite the success, criticism continues to grow: fans are becoming increasingly dissatisfied. We’ll explain.
Blessing and curse: TV and streaming are becoming increasingly distant
Linear television has one huge disadvantage: every TV station is limited by its strict broadcasting schedule. This means that only 24 hours of content can be broadcast per day. More than enough, you might think – but in reality the program is always just a compromise between different tastes: anyone who switches on RTL on TV has to live with the fact that many hours a day are broadcast with shows that do not match their own preferences. You don’t like quiz shows? Tough luck – Jauch is still on.
This cannot happen with streaming – everyone gets to see exactly what they choose. The positive side effect: RTL+ can offer many more different shows and formats because they no longer have to fight for the very limited broadcasting time on TV. But this also poses a risk: Streaming offerings and TV offerings are becoming increasingly distant from each other. It has now happened more often that shows with poor TV ratings are simply banned to the streaming service RTL+. The fact that the current season of The Bachelorette is no longer shown on TV, for example, has upset many long-standing fans. Anyone who cannot or does not want to watch online will miss out. Sure, the streaming service may save some shows from being canceled for good – but whether salvation should come in the form of a paid subscription is more than questionable.
Artificial division into two camps: fans are angry with RTL+
The first season of the All-Stars Jungle Camp recently came to an end – as RTL reports, it was a huge success on TV and online. But one thing struck fans as extremely negative: RTL opted for a controversial release strategy. The current episode was available to watch a day early on their subscription service; TV audiences had to wait 24 hours. The service now does this with many shows.
Not bad in itself – but in the age of the Internet, that means one thing above all: spoilers galore. Many TV viewers complained online that they had involuntarily experienced the coverage due to the early streaming broadcast. When your favorite gossip site has already posted numerous articles about the next eviction, there is not much fun and surprise left. Even the big jungle camp finale was no longer a media spectacle. The first wave was happy about Georgina Fleur’s victory a day earlier – when the episode was broadcast on TV, everyone already knew. Suspense looks different. The fans agree. An angry Instagram user takes aim at the operators:
It annoys me that everything is already on RTL+ beforehand, not that I want to see it yet, but everyone gives spoilers and you can almost save yourself the trouble of watching it on TV…
One angry user reveals in the comments that she simply cannot raise the money for the streaming service:
Is there anything that only runs on RTL??? Not everyone can afford RTL plus. Even though many people say it’s only €5 or €10. We, for example, don’t have any spare money.
It remains to be seen how RTL plans to reunite the two camps.