RTL takes control of YouTube fashion platform

Reuters
A satellite dish of RTL Television is seen on the roof of the former RTL headquarters in Cologne November 12, 2012. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European broadcasting group RTL Group said on Monday it had taken control of StyleHaul, a YouTube fashion platform. Tapping into an ongoing trend of consumers increasingly using smartphones and tablet computers to watch videos and listen to music, RTL raised its stake in StyleHaul to 93.6 percent for $107 million. RTL earlier held a 22.3-percent stake in the Google-owned platform, which has 900 million video views per month. RTL is rapidly expanding in the online video market. This year the group expects to more than double its online video views to around 40 billion. (Reporting by Harro Ten Wolde; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)