Bertelsmann is also aiming for record sales in 2023

Most recently, the $2.2 billion takeover of the US publisher Simon & Schuster by the Bertelsmann subsidiary Penguin Random House collapsed, costing the group $200 million in severance payments. Rabe recently failed in France and the Netherlands in his plan to create national champions in the European television market around RTL in order to stand up to the competition from Netflix & Co. In the medium term, he had repeatedly brought up closer cooperation between RTL and competitor ProSiebenSat.1. Its boss Bert Habets said on Tuesday that the resistance of the antitrust authorities had probably stopped the RTL strategy in terms of national champions for the time being. “I think that’s a very clear signal, so I don’t expect any opportunities on this front in the German market in the next few years,” said Habets, who was RTL boss himself until 2019.