RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company. It has 26 television and 24 radio stations in 9 countries. This Luxembourg-based media group operates TV channels and radio stations in
Germany,
France,
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
UK,
Luxembourg,
Spain,
Hungary,
Portugal and
Croatia, and production companies in the United States.
It is one of the world's leading producers of television content such as game shows and soaps, including
Pop Idol,
Good Times, Bad Times,
The Price Is Right,
Family Feud,
The Bill, and, under licence from Mark Burnett Productions, the producer of non-US versions, and distributor of all versions internationally, of
The Apprentice.
The now-defunct
Atlantic 252 was a long-wave radio station jointly run by RTL and Irish broadcaster
RTÉ.
RTL originally stood for
Radio Télévision Luxembourg (in
French) or
Radio Télé Luxemburg (in
German).
The RTL Group started in
1931 as
CLR or
Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion which operated
Radio Luxembourg. In
1954 it renamed itself into
CLT or
Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and started
television broadcasts. In
1997 it merged with
Hamburg-based
UFA Film- und Fernseh-GmbH (not to be confused with pre 1945
UFA) to create
CLT-UFA. In
2000 it merged with
Pearson TV and became RTL Group, which also allowed it to enter the prestigious American broadcast market. It is currently (
October 2005) 90.4% owned by
Bertelsmann.
Among the reasons of RTL Group's early success, apart for merits related to the content itself, one can cite the fact that
Luxembourg allowed privately owned radio and TV stations long before other European countries did, which it used to transmit to other countries (such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands) in their own languages. Many British radio
disc jockeys began their careers on
Radio Luxembourg before moving to
BBC Radio 1 and commercial stations in the UK. However, Radio Luxembourg's audiences declined as a result of these new stations, and it ceased broadcasting in the early
1990s.
*
Belgium (with percentage of total shares held by RTL Group):
RTL TVI (66 %):
Club RTL (66 %):
Plug TV (66 %)
*
Croatia:
RTL Televizija*
France (with percentage of total shares held by RTL Group):
Fun TV (100 %):
M6 (48,8 %):
M6 Boutique La Chaîne (100 %):
M6 Music Hits (100 %):
M6 Music Rock (100 %):
M6 Music Black (100 %):
Paris Première (100 %):
RTL 9 (35 %):
Série Club (50 %):
Téva (51 %):
TF6 (50 %):
W9 (100 %)
*
Germany:
RTL Television:
RTL II:
VOX:
Super RTL:
RTL Shop:
n-tv*
Hungary:
RTL Klub*
Luxembourg:
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg:
Den 2. RTL*
Netherlands (
RTL Nederland, formerly known as
Holland Media Groep or
HMG):
RTL 4 (formerly known as
RTL Veronique):
RTL 5:
RTL 7 (formerly known as
Yorin):
Veronica (until april
2001)
*
Spain:
Antena 3*
Portugal:
TVI*
UK:
fiveand soon:
five US:
five lifeThe money-losing Polish-language
RTL 7 satellite television channel has been sold in December
2001 to
TVN owners
ITI and became
TVN 7.
*
Broadcasting Center Europe*
FremantleMedia*
RTL Group*
Official history*
Gooya (UK) directory of world TV channels
