RTL Group () is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate
Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries. This Luxembourg-based media group operates TV channels and radio stations in
Germany,
France,
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
UK,
Australia,
Luxembourg,
Spain,
Greece ,
Hungary,
Croatia and production companies in the
United States.
It is one of the world's leading producers of television content such as gameshows and soaps (particularly through its ownership of London-based
FremantleMedia), including
The X Factor,
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 and
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.
The now-defunct
Atlantic 252 was a long-wave radio station jointly run by RTL Group and Irish broadcaster
RTÉ. It ceased broadcasting live on
December 20,
2001.
RTL originally stood for
Radio Télévision Luxembourg (in
French) or
Radio Television Luxemburg (in
German).
The RTL Group started in 1931 as
CLR or
Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion which operated
Radio Luxembourg. CLR was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the
European Broadcasting Union in 1950. The RTL Group is still an EBU-member under a previous name: CLT Multi Media. In 1954 it was renamed
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. As of October 2005,
Bertelsmann owns 90.4% of the company.
One of the major reasons for RTL's early success, apart from the merits related to the programming content itself, was that
Luxembourg allowed commercial radio and TV stations long before other European countries. This flexibility enabled RTL to transmit to other countries (such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands) in their own languages. Many British radio presenters began their careers on
Radio Luxembourg before moving to the
BBC and to commercial broadcasters in the UK. In the 1970s, Radio Luxembourg's English-language audiences declined as a result of new music stations in the UK, and the service ceased broadcasting in the early 1990s on the
Astra 1A satellite.
Radio Luxembourg relaunched in November 2005 and is currently available online at www.radioluxembourg.co.uk and on
Digital Radio Mondiale.
Television stations
Stations are listed with RTL's current share ownership percentage in brackets.
Den 2. RTL (100%)
RTL 4 (73,7 %) (started in 1989 as RTL Veronique, renamed in 1990 as RTL 4)
RTL 8 (formerly known as Talpa, Tien) (73,7 %)
RTL 24 (73,7 %)(TV on your mobile)
The money-losing Polish-language
RTL 7 satellite television channel was sold in December 2001 to
TVN owners
ITI and became
TVN 7.
Portuguese media group
Media Capital was sold to
Prisa on
6 February 2007. Subsequently, RTL's 33% share in
TVI was transferred to
Prisa.
Radio stations
Station followed by RTL's present share amount percentage.
FranceRTL 2 (100%)
Germany104.6 RTL (100%)
Antenne Bayern (16%)
Radio NRW (16.96%)
Radio 21 (17.3%)
Radio Regenbogen (15.75%)
Radio Dresden (31.9%)
Radio Leipzig (31.9%)
Radio Chemnitz (31.9%)
Radio Lausitz (31.9%)
Radio Zwickau (31.9%)
Vogtland Radio (31.9%)
Hit radio RTL (30.5%)
Antenne Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (19.7%)
Radio Brocken (53.5%)
89.0 RTL (53.5%)
Antenne Thüringen (15%)
Radio Ton (2%)
BB Radio (unknown)
105'5 Spreeradio (33.8%)
Radio Top 40 (unknown)
Oldie 95 (4.78%)
Rock Antenne (16%)
GreeceAlpha Radio (66.6%)
Palmos 96.5 fm (66.6%)
LuxembourgRTL Radio Letzebuerg (100%)
NetherlandsBelgiumBel RTL (44,2%)(but operational control)
Radio Contact (Belgium) (44,2%)(but operational control)
Mint (44,2%)(but operational control)
SpainOnda Cero (18.6%)
Europa FM (18.6%)
RomaniaRomantic FM (~15%)
News FM (~15%)
Metropol FM (~15%)
Radio Contact (1990-2003, now:
Kiss FM)
MoldovaBulgaria Radio Contact (1999-2002, now: Radio 1 (Bulgaria))
RTL's 33% share on the
Media Capital group, owner of several
Portuguese radio stations of such as
Rádio Comercial,
Cidade FM,
Best Rock FM and
Rádio Clube, was transferred to
Prisa on February 2007.
Websites
Germany Technical Services
:Located in
Luxembourg,
Broadcasting Center Europe is a European company providing technical services in the fields of TV, Radio, Telecommunications and IT. BCE was founded in January 2000 as a result of the merger of several technical entities of the RTL Group.