RTL AdAlliance, the international sales arm of RTL Group, has opened an office in Spain. The announcement, made in Madrid and Luxembourg on 29 September, pitches the move as a way for Spanish advertisers and agencies to buy premium video across Europe through a single point of access, combining linear TV, broadcaster video-on-demand and connected TV under what the company calls its Total Video portfolio.
The inventory is broad. It includes broadcasters such as RTL, ITV, M6 and RAI; BVOD platforms including France.tv, RTL+ and Videoland; and CTV supply from HBOMax, SamsungTV Plus and WaipuTV. The company claims more than 150m daily TV viewers, 37m addressable TV households and over 4bn online video ad impressions a month across its network.
Atresmedia is helping a foreign seller into its own market
The launch is, in the release’s words, “closely coordinated with and supported by”Atresmedia Publicidad, sales house of one of Spain’s two dominant commercial broadcasters. Atresmedia already sits in the RTL AdAlliance portfolio, which sells its inventory to international advertisers. What is new is the reverse flow: Atresmedia helping an outside sales house sell other broadcasters’ airtime to Spanish buyers.
On its face, this is odd. National sales houses guard their domestic agency relationships jealously. The logic becomes clearer once you ask where Spanish money goes when a brand wants to reach France, Germany and Italy at once. For most, the answer is Google, Meta or Amazon, which offer one contract and a reach claim that ignores borders. Stéphane Coruble, RTL AdAlliance’s Chief Executive, put the problem bluntly to VideoWeek in January: “When you see that 85 to 90 per cent of the business is going to just a few players, you need to act.” A Spanish brand buying ITV or M6 through a broadcaster consortium is a brand not spending that budget on YouTube. Atresmedia can live with that.
José Miguel García-Gasco Martínez, General Director of Atresmedia Publicidad, describes the arrangement as “one access point, premium reach, and greater efficiency, while reinforcing Atresmedia’s role as the trusted local partner.” The final clause matters most to Madrid. Atresmedia is lending its relationships on the understanding that it remains the gatekeeper.
The Spanish numbers explain the timing
Daniel Bischoff, RTL AdAlliance’s Chief Operating Officer, frames the opportunity in two halves: “Connected TV ad spends are growing rapidly, while broadcast TV remains an integral provider for premium reach.”
Daniel Bischoff, RTL AdAlliance’s Chief Operating Officer
Both halves hold, though the proportions matter. IAB Spain puts CTV advertising at just over €174m in 2025, up 48.4% on the year and more than double its 2023 level. InfoAdex put television investment at €1.78bn, down 4.4%, yet still the largest medium with a 28.5% share of controlled spend. CTV is growing fast from a small base; linear is shrinking slowly from a large one. A sales house that bundles both, and that already carries Atresmedia’s inventory abroad, is hedged against either trend.
Europe’s broadcasters are sorting themselves into blocs
The Spain launch fits a wider pattern. RTL AdAlliance added France Télévisions and Austria’s ORF to its roster during 2025, and RTL Group is buying Sky Deutschland. On the other side, MFE-MediaForEurope, the Berlusconi-controlled owner of Mediaset España and Mediaset Italia, took control of ProSiebenSat.1 last year and is assembling its own cross-border broadcaster group.
That leaves Spain’s two commercial broadcasting heavyweights in different camps: Atresmedia aligned with RTL’s sales alliance, Mediaset España inside a rival pan-European group. The Madrid office is as much a competitive statement as a service to agencies, and Mediaset España’s sales team will read it that way.
The office looks light on local names
Artur Kobryn, RTL AdAlliance’s Vice-President of International Sales, will lead sales in Spain, alongside Mattia Badino, head of advertising; Michela Bruno, head of agency partnerships; and Simone Rondena, advertising manager for Southern Europe. The release names no Spain country manager, and says the company will keep working with its “established long-time partners and agents” in the market.
Read together, this suggests a lean presence that leans on Atresmedia’s local weight. That is a sensible way to test demand without high fixed costs. It also means the new office depends on a partner whose core interest is selling Spanish inventory, and whose goodwill is conditional on remaining the trusted local partner.
The larger unanswered question is whether the demand exists in Madrid at all. Pan-European video campaigns are mostly bought by multinationals through the global agency groups, whose trading decisions tend to be made in London, Paris or New York. Spain has export-minded brands in fashion, food and tourism that ought to want European reach. Whether they will route that spend through a Madrid desk rather than a central holding-company deal, or simply keep buying from the platforms, is something the office will discover quickly. The press release does not attempt to answer it.
