![\"Schwebig_Clement_Copyright](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1464650_schwebig_clement_copyrightsebastianpftze_991496.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThomas Rabe, chief exec at European media giant and Fremantle owner RTL Group, is to step down and be replaced by Warner Bros Discovery exec amid a broader management overhaul.<\/p>\n
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Rabe will exit in May 2026 and be replaced by Cl\u00e9ment Schwebig, who is currently president and managing director of WBD in Western Europe and Africa.<\/p>\n
Elmar Heggen will also step down as RTL Group\u2019s deputy chief exec and chief operating oifficer (COO) by the end of 2025, although a replacement is yet to be named.<\/p>\n
Bj\u00f6rn Bauer will continue as chief financial officer at RTL Group, which operates broadcasters such as M6 in France and RTL Deutschland, as well as six streaming services including RTL+ in Europe.<\/p>\n
The group is part of Penguin Random House and BMG owner Bertelsmann, where Rabe is also CEO. Last year, he confirmed his plan to step down from that company in 2026,\u00a0with BMG chief Thomas Coesfeld taking the reins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RTL said the new leadership team would take the group \u201cinto the next phase of its development\u201d, with Schwebig also expected to join the board as executive director.<\/p>\n
Schwebig began his career at RTL Group, where he spent more than a decade managing television operations across Europe.<\/p>\n
![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1464649_thomasrabe_746351.jpg\")
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In 2013, he joined Time Warner\/Turner in Hong Kong, working in business development and digital, before taking on oversight of Asia following the merger of Warner Media and Discovery, and subsequently being handed his Western Europe and Africa remit.<\/p>\n
He has oversight of services including HBO Max, numerous TV networks, local content production (scripted and unscripted) and Warner Bros. Studio activities.<\/p>\n
Heggen will also continue to serve on the board as non-executive director after stepping down.<\/p>\n
Martin Taylor, chairman of RTL Group\u2019s board of directors, said Schwebig would bring \u201cconsiderable international expertise across linear TV, streaming and content production,\u201d pointing to his two decades in the industry.<\/p>\n
Rabe said: \u201cCl\u00e9ment Schwebig is deeply familiar with the global TV industry and with RTL Group. We worked together over many years and I greatly value his expertise, leadership style and international network.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether with our CFO Bj\u00f6rn Bauer and the CEOs of our business units, he will lead RTL Group with a team of first-class managers to further expand the company, in particular in the areas of streaming and content production.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would also like to personally thank Elmar Heggen for our long journey in leading and developing RTL Group, his determination and remarkable entrepreneurial achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Germany-based RTL Group has been navigating a turbulent environment over recent years, reporting a revenue slip in the first half of 2025, with a dip in US sales hitting production and distribution arm Fremantle.<\/p>\n
It has been attempting to shift towards streaming, with those operations – ranging from RTL+ in Germany to M6+ in France – reporting an improving picture in H1, with streaming losses down almost 60% to \u20ac34m. The company also recently\u00a0confirmed\u00a0the sale of RTL Nederland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the \u20ac150m acquisition of Sky Deutschland<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Rabe, chief exec at European media giant and Fremantle owner RTL Group, is to step down and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-260771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}