Stella Litou has been at the helm of RTL Croatia and Pro Plus for less than two years and leading the company to improved results in Croatia while preserving the solid leadership in Slovenia. In this exclusive interview, the CEO talks with Yako Molhov about the latest developments and results in the two markets, as well as the strong bet on streaming platform Voyo which leads the market in Slovenia and is among the fastest growers in Croatia.

Stella Litou is attending NATPE Budapest and will join the panel CEO Insights from CEE which will be held on Tuesday, June 25, at 14.00 in the Ballroom III. The CME Adria CEO is also a member of NATPE Budapest’s Advisory Board.



Stella, RTL Croatia launched on April 30, 2004, with CME's flagship channel in the country celebrating its 20th anniversary. How are you marking this milestone and what have been RTL Croatia's major successes in the past year?

We celebrated our big anniversary with our commercial partners and advertisers, our internal and external colleagues through a series of events and of course with our viewers, through a series of special short and long form programs. It proved once again how strongly rooted our brand is in the life of the entire country.

The past year was exceptional. We made targeted changes in our primetime schedule that resulted in significant growth in audience and sales performance. We offered our viewers refreshed brands they love, introduced new shiny floor entertainment formats, new prime time fiction and an original true crime format. Our hard work paid off.


We already covered the importance of the Croatian market for CME in our previous interview, bearing in mind the fact that the company sold Nova TV in 2018 but returned to the country in 2022 by acquiring RTL Croatia. What is your strategy for becoming once again the market leader in the country?

The right mixture and higher investments in locally produced premium entertainment content and high-quality news on the main channel, RTL, as well as the new scheduling on RTL2, our entertainment channel, contributed to the growth of the entire group greatly closing the gap to our main competitor. Since the acquisition, we increased hours of local production by 35%, which speaks a lot for our commitment and growth aspirations and focused on optimization of our sales policy to better serve our partners. We plan to continue on this path.


What have been your best performing shows this spring and what are your plans for fall, will there be many brand new shows?

The year started, traditionally, with the broadcast of the European Handball Men’s Championship. This is a flagship event program for RTL, something that the Croatian audience love and audience share results proved it. The most watched game of this Championship was Croatia playing Austria achieved a staggering 54.8% in our target demo 18-59.

This spring, our news took center stage to deliver the double elections’ broadcast through our afternoon bulletin, our main news RTL Danas and late-night current affairs program RTL Direkt. We delivered exclusive interviews of the President and Prime Minister and introduced fact checking during the debates’ broadcast. Relevant, balanced, independent and trustworthy journalism became our compass. Our entertainment and reality offering was the pillar of our grid, with Come Dine With Me remaining one of the strongest formats of the main channel, as a lead in to our main news. Contributing to our group performance, RTL2 excelled in prime time with evergreen acquired comedy and procedural drama series brands, such as The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Criminal Minds. All that led to further closing the gap to our main competitor.

We are currently in full speed preparation of our Fall schedule, in production of a brand new primetime daily fiction for the main channel, accompanied by our pillar reality formats Farmer Wants a Wife and The Biggest Loser. Come Dine with Me returns with fresh episodes along with the second, much anticipated season of the shiny floor singing competition Superstar (Idols) and fresh episodes of our true crime original, Dossier Jarak.


With the TV industry facing many challenges in the past few years, have you planned any cuts in content budgets or on the contrary, have you planned to spend more money for new productions and in which genres?

As mentioned, we continue investing in local production heavily in both markets. News and local productions are the backbone of our business, therefore most of the allocated budget goes in that direction. We are in a growing path and support it through investment.


One of the latest trends in CEE is Czech broadcasters shooting their series in Croatia (both your sister net Nova and Prima aired series shot in the country), using the Adriatic as their backdrop. Did you cooperate with CME's Nova on their Hvar Police and do you expect more TV productions from CEE countries to be shot in Croatia and are you interested in such partnerships?

Croatia offers wonderful and diverse shooting locations, in combination with extremely skilled crew and facilities to support any high-quality production. Pro Plus filmed our mega successful new fiction Camping Royals at the Adriatic coast and we are constantly on the lookout for co-productions opportunities to provide diverse and exciting content to our viewers, in collaboration with our group or external parties.


According to the results of the latest IAB Croatia Online Media AdEx study which were just released, the total value of investments in online advertising in Croatia in 2023 reached 133.000.000 euros and based on the collected data, a continued growth of 13% is expected in 2024. What are the figures and forecasts for the TV market, will 2024 be a good year for RTL Croatia in terms of ad revenues?

So far so good. We expect slight organic growth in Croatia, but the commercial sector also faces challenges through high inflation and lack of capacity. Our main goal is to remain a trendsetter and the partner of choice in the market, giving different possibilities and tailor-made offerings to our advertisers, increasing value for money for their budget placement.

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