MOZOM vergelijkt

MOZOM compares: DPG, Bertelsmann, media concentration or hereditary information power?

MOZOM vergelijkt Media 25 juni 2026 om 16:38

AI photo of a European newsroom with archive boxes, newspapers, screens and chess pieces as an image of media concentration and information power.

Source: MOZOM vergelijkt
MOZOM headline: MOZOM compares: DPG, Bertelsmann, media concentration or hereditary information power?
Original headline: tScheldt calls the RTL takeover a Nazi legacy; official and journalistic sources show media concentration, family control and war history with varying strengths of evidence
Author: MOZOM-redactie
Date: 25 juni 2026 om 16:38
Subject: Comparison of the power of DPG Media and Bertelsmann/RTL in Europe, their family and foundation structures, the RTL Nederland takeover and the discussion about historical collaboration legacies.

Summary of the original report

The reason is the takeover of RTL Nederland by DPG Media. RTL Group and Bertelsmann announced in December 2023 that DPG Media would buy the Dutch TV branch for 1.1 billion euros; After a long investigation, the ACM gave the green light in June 2025 under strict conditions and the transaction was completed on July 1, 2025. This gave DPG, which was already strong in the Netherlands with newspapers, news sites, radio and NU.nl, also a large TV and streaming arm with RTL channels, Videoland and Buienradar. RTL Group itself is part of the Bertelsmann sphere: Bertelsmann calls itself the majority shareholder of RTL Group and describes the Mohn family, foundations and a management company as the core of control. Historically, Bertelsmann has a hard-and-fast file. An independent committee concluded that the image of Bertelsmann as a resistance publisher was incorrect; the company later acknowledged involvement in Nazi propaganda, wartime profits, and use of Jewish forced labor at printing facilities in occupied territory. With DPG and the Van Thillo family, the layer of evidence is different: tScheldt and the biography De Belg emphasize Bill Van Thillo, the purchase of publishing and printing company remains after the war and the environment of collaboration in Flanders. That is journalistic and polemical material, not an equally weighty official company report as with Bertelsmann.

Striking in this message

It is striking that 'manipulation' in media rarely looks like an editor receiving an order. Information power works more subtly: determining which topics become visible, which words sound normal, which experts keep coming back, which scandals become big and which remain small. A media group does not have to direct every sentence to move the boundaries of the public conversation.

Less visible context

What remains less visible is that the greatest power is not just in headlines, but in combination. With RTL Nederland, DPG brings print, online, audio, television, streaming and advertising networks closer together. Bertelsmann owns an even broader European and global cultural infrastructure through RTL, Penguin Random House, BMG and other divisions. That makes the word 'controlling the population' heavy, but not incomprehensible: anyone who owns so many channels owns repetition, timing, selection and reach.

Possible message behind the news

A possible message is that the democratic question is not only whether a medium lies, but who owns the infrastructure within which truth, opinion and outrage are distributed. Concentration makes control possible without it always being recognizable as censorship.

Neutral conclusion

The neutral conclusion is uncomfortable. tScheldt exaggerates with language that is legally and factually too broad when she calls contemporary media groups simply 'Nazi publishing houses'. At the same time, the indictment touches on a real point: DPG and Bertelsmann show how media ownership, family wealth, historical legacy and modern platform power can together have an enormous influence on the public conversation. Anyone who sees this only as a normal business takeover misses the question of power.