RTL Television is on a spending spree - taking advantage of the void left by the insolvent Kirch Group and strengthening its position in the German market as the most aggressive buyer of free-TV licenses.

Just a week after announcing a deal with Warner Bros. International Television for a package of 144 feature films and five TV series with an unconfirmed price tag of around $200m (Screen Daily, June 26 2002), RTL Television has now concluded a deal with Helkon Media for a package of 12 titles.

The package of free-TV licenses is for such films as The Wedding Planner, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Rules Of Engagement and Blow Dry.

Commenting on the deal with Helkon, RTL's secretary general Constantin Lange declared that "the blockbuster package contains numerous attractive films whose airing will bolster the primetime of RTL and VOX in the coming years", while Heklon's Markus Reischl observed that "this sales deal again confirms our product strategy. With big international co-productions and specific additional license acquisitions a high quality range of films can be put together for the TV stations.