Helmut Thoma(1939-2025)

He grew up in Vienna, where he attended school up to secondary school. Thoma then completed an apprenticeship in the dairy industry. He also completed his Abitur at evening high school so that he could study law. Thoma received his doctorate in canon law in 1962, after which he worked as a lawyer in Vienna. He later specialized in media law. In 1966 he joined the Austrian television ORF, where he became legal counsel from 1968. In 1973, Thoma moved to Frankfurt a.M., where he worked for IPA, the German representative of Radio Television Luxembourg, or "RTL" for short. After two years, in 1975, he was promoted to member of the management team, in 1982 to director of RTL radio and, from 1984, to director of RTL television. In 1983, Thoma was able to gain a financially strong partner for RTL in Bertelsmann. The shareholders of RTLplus were "CLT" (Compagnie Luxemborgeoise de Télédiffusion S.A.), UFA Film- und Fernsehen GmbH, WAZ, Burda Verlag, FAZ and, in trust, Deutsche Bank. RTLplus started in 1984 with poor broadcast frequencies, a lack of audience potential and a lack of programming in the TV market.

From 1986, Thoma was spokesman for the management of RTLplus Deutschland Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG. He initially shared management with Erich Staake. As one of the first media producers, he bought so-called "lean production", i.e. programs that were produced by independent companies. The erotic programs that Thoma included in the program initially gave RTL a questionable image, but caused the audience ratings to increase immensely. His motto "successful is what pleases" became the program for most private broadcasters in the following years. With this idea he shaped the German media landscape and one of the most popular sentences in the industry. The first formats of this kind were programs such as "Tutti Frutti", "Explosiv" and "Hot Seat". In 1989, Thoma was voted "Media Man of the Year". In 1990 he received the "Golden Camera" and the "Bambi". When Erich Staake returned to Bertelsmann in 1991, Thoma took over sole management of RTL. Now magazine programs such as "Spiegel TV" followed, which gave the station respectability outside of commerce.

At the beginning of the 1990s, RTL lost the Bundesliga broadcasting rights to ARD and ZDF. Nevertheless, in 1992, Thoma managed to trump the public broadcasters in terms of audience ratings. RTL became one of the strongest programs not only through the selection of presenters such as Hugo Egon Balder, Thomas Gottschalk, Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff, Karl Dall and Hella von Sinnen, but also through the purchase of broadcasting rights for the Bundesliga. In 1994, Thoma was awarded the "German Media Prize" and the "Emmy Award". In the same year, RTL already achieved 60% of the audience ratings. In 1995, Thoma received the country's honorary professorship from the Austrian Chancellor. Thoma resigned from his position as RTL boss in 1999. In May 1999, Thoma took over the position of personal media advisor to the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Clement (SPD), for a symbolic fee. Also in 1999 he received the "Honorary Nymph" of the Monte Carlo Television Festival. In 2000 he introduced the Internet service "Sportgate". He announced that this internet portal, in which Boris Becker was also involved, would go online as a communication platform for sports in the fall of the same year.

In 2001, "Sportgate" had to file for bankruptcy. Thoma became chairman of the supervisory board of freenet AG and, since 2007, a member of the supervisory board of the specialist TV channel Deutsches Investors Fernsehen (DAF). In the same year he founded the media consulting company TT-Studios.

Thoma is married to Daniele Milbert for the third time. Thomas' son Harald from his first marriage also works for the media company RTL.