German competition watchdog gives green light to ProSiebenSat.1-RTL ad JV

German competition watchdog the Bundeskartellamt has approved commercial broadcasters ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL’s advertising joint venture D-Force.

The venture is designed to establish an automated booking platform for addressable advertising to enable brands to reach target audiences at scale.

Thomas Wagner, CEO of SevenOne Media said that he was “very pleased that we have received the green light” for the project and said that his company and RTL would now press ahead with a project that will make it “more attractive and easier” for advertisers to launch targeted campaigns.

Matthias Dang, managing director of the Ad Alliance and managing director, marketing, technology and data at Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland said that the new JV would “offer a real alternative to international tech platforms”.

The pair announced the plan for D-Force in June. They said that their 50:50 JV demand side platform’s offer would answer the needs of the advertising industry as it will provide broad reach in the German market – in a brand safe environment.

ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL estimate that currently, around 18 million TV devices in German speaking territories are reachable by addressable TV providing the opportunity for individualized advertising.

The JV will tap the Active Agent platform, which is part of the Virtual Minds, the ad stack of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, to enable advertisers and agencies to programmatically book digital campaigns.

The partners will provide their respective inventories from a single source and with an offer that is independent of whether viewers and users are reached via TV or online.