‘The CMA Awards’ To Be Broadcast In Germany

The CMA Awards are coming back to Germany. The show will be broadcast by VOX, Mediengruppe RTL’s free-to-air-TV channel, and in addition, Mediengruppe RTL has licensed CMA’s other two TV properties, CMA Fest and CMA Country Christmas for RTLplus. The three shows will also be available at Mediengruppe RTL’s video streaming service TVNOW.

“We are thrilled to be bringing the CMA Awards and our other TV properties to Germany,” said Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern. “With the ever-increasing demand for country music in Europe, we’re excited for international viewers to have the opportunity to experience these shows that are so important to the country music community.”

This new deal was brokered through the Bertelsmann Content Alliance by Hartwig Masuch, BMG Chief Executive Officer, which made its largest label acquisition to date in 2017 when the company acquired Nashville’s Broken Bow Music Group with the vision to develop country’s popularity internationally.

“The CMA Awards is one of the most glamorous and high-profile events in TV worldwide,” says Bernd Reichart, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland Chief Executive Officer. “We are very pleased to be bringing it to a German TV audience through Vox.”

The CMA Awards has not been broadcast in Germany, Europe’s biggest music market and the fourth biggest in the world, since 2012. The news that the CMA Awards is to return to Germany comes as the CMA prepares a special country focus at this year’s Reeperbahn Festival (Sept. 18-21) with a panel and networking reception and an artist showcase. The showcase, titled “Neon Nashville” will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 18 and will display the diversity of some of country’s rising artists including BMG’s Blanco Brown, whose viral hit ‘The Git Up’ has claimed the top spot in charts across the globe and spawned more than one billion views across social platforms. The Reeperbahn Festival initiative has been driven by CMA’s German Task Force, which has been set up in response to increase interest in the genre in Germany.

RTL Radio is also set to launch a new 24/7 online radio station in October, which will feature the biggest contemporary country hits together with the best country songs of the past decade. The station, available online and via the RTL Radio app, is presented by Germany’s well-known breakfast show DJ Arno Müller, a passionate fan of modern country music.