RTL Group

**RTL Group** is a Luxembourg-based digital media group with interests in 61 television and 30 radio stations in 10 countries. The group operates TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, and Croatia as well as production companies throughout the world. It is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Its shares are quoted on the MDAX stock exchange in Germany.

It is one of the world's leading producers of television content, such as game shows and soaps (particularly through its ownership of London-based Fremantle), including *The X Factor*, *Pop Idol*, *Good Times, Bad Times*, *The Price Is Right*, *Family Feud* and *The Bill*.

*RTL* originally stood for *Radio Television Lëtzebuerg* (in Luxemburgish), *Radio Télévision Luxembourg* (in French) or *Radio Television Luxemburg* (in German); with its English translation of the abbreviation as *Radio [and] Television of Luxembourg.*

## History

RTL Group's history dates back to 1924 with a single radio station operated from a private home in Luxembourg. In 1931 *CLR* or *Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion*, which operated Radio Luxembourg, was founded. CLR was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. 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* (successor to the pre-1945 UFA), a subsidiary of global media conglomerate Bertelsmann to create *CLT-UFA*. In 2000 it merged with the former Pearson Television division of Pearson PLC and became RTL Group. As of January 2014, Bertelsmann owns a 75.1% stake in the publicly listed company.

One of the reasons for RTL's early success 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, often referred to as the **Astra Satellite**, as SES only operated one satellite originally. Radio Luxembourg relaunched in November 2005 and is currently available online at www.radioluxembourg.co.uk and on Digital Radio Mondiale. A sister station, 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 is a member of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies that is promoting and establishing an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of free-to-air TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface. RTL Television (Germany) has been operating HbbTV services since 2010.

In 2014 RTL Group bought a controlling interest in StyleHaul, a YouTube fashion platform. RTL raised its stake in StyleHaul to 93.6% for $US107 million.

RTL Group has become the leading European media company in online video and is ranked among the top global players in this segment. Since 2013, RTL Group has made key investments in several multi-platform networks (MPNs) such as BroadbandTV, StyleHaul, Divimove and, most recently, United Screens. Additionally, RTL Group invested into advertising technology, namely video ad serving platform SpotX in the US and monetisation platform Smartclip in Europe as well as the investments accounted for using the equity method: Clypd, a pioneer in programmatic TV, and VideoAmp, a platform for cross-screen data optimisation. In 2017, RTL Group decided to combine SpotX and Smartclip to create one integrated ad-tech company by the end of 2018, to launch the platform across the Group’s operations and to scale it up with further acquisitions and partnerships.

## Television stations

* Luxembourg
	+ RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
	+ Club RTL
	+ RTL 9
	+ Den 2. RTL
* Belgium
	+ RTL TVI
	+ Club RTL
	+ Plug RTL
* Netherlands (*RTL Nederland*, formerly known as *Holland Media Groep* or *HMG* and until 1995 RTL 4 SA)
	+ RTL 4 (started in 1989 as RTL Veronique, renamed RTL 4 in 1990)
	+ RTL 5
	+ RTL 7 (formerly known as Yorin)
	+ RTL 8 (formerly known as Talpa, Tien)
	+ RTL Z
	+ RTL Crime
	+ RTL Lounge
	+ RTL Telekids
* France
	+ M6
	+ M6 Boutique & Co
	+ Paris Première
	+ Série Club
	+ Téva
	+ 6ter
	+ W9
	+ M6 Music Hits
* Germany (*Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland*)
	+ RTL Television
	+ VOX
	+ RTL II
	+ Nitro
	+ Super RTL (joint-venture with The Walt Disney Company)
	+ Toggo Plus
	+ n-tv
	+ RTLplus
	+ RTL Crime
	+ RTL Living
	+ RTL Passion
	+ Geo Television
* Spain
	+ Antena 3 (19.17%)
	+ laSexta (19.17%)
	+ Neox (19.17%)
	+ Nova (19.17%)
	+ Mega (19.17%)
	+ Atreseries (19.17%)
* Croatia
	+ RTL
	+ RTL 2
	+ RTL Kockica
	+ RTL Living
	+ RTL Passion
	+ RTL Crime
* Hungary
	+ RTL Klub
	+ RTL II
	+ Cool TV
	+ Film+
	+ RTL Gold (formerly known as Film+ 2)
	+ RTL +
	+ Sorozat+
	+ Muzsika TV
	+ RTL Spike

## External links

* Official website

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