RTL Group S.A.

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Type	Public
Traded as	LuxSE: RTL
Industry	Mass media
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Kirchberg, Luxembourg
Key people	Siegfried Luther, Chairman Gerhard Zeiler, CEO (up to April 18, 2012) Anke Schäferkordt, CEO (since April 18, 2012) Elmar Heggen, CFO
Products	Television, radio
Revenue	€5.774 billion (2008)[1]
Employees	9,191 (2008)
Parent	Bertelsmann
Website	www.rtlgroup.com

RTL Group is Europe's largest mass media company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11^[2] countries. This Luxembourg-based media group operates TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia^{[citation needed]}, 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 game shows 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, and The Bill.

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 American broadcast market. As of December 2011, Bertelsmann owns 92.3% 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, 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 broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface. RTL Television (Germany) has been operating HbbTV services since 2010.^[3]

Television stations[link]

Stations are listed with RTL's current share ownership percentage in brackets.

• Belgium

RTL TVI (66%)

Club RTL (66%)

Plug TV (66%)

• Croatia

RTL Televizija (100%)

RTL 2 (100%)

• France

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%)

RTL9 (35%)

Série Club (50%)

Téva (51%)

TF6 (50%)

W9 (100%)

• Germany

RTL Television (100%)

VOX (99.7%)

RTL II (35.9%)

Super RTL (50%)

n-tv (100%)

Passion (50%, pay-TV)

RTL Crime (100%, pay-TV)

RTL Living (100%, pay-TV)

RTL Nitro (100%) (Starts on April 1, 2012)

• Hungary

RTL Klub (100%)

• Luxembourg

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg (100%)

Den 2. RTL (100%)

• Netherlands (RTL Nederland, formerly known as Holland Media Groep or HMG and until 1995 RTL 4 SA)

RTL 4 (73.7%) (started in 1989 as RTL Veronique, renamed in 1990 as RTL 4)

RTL 5 (73.7 %)

RTL 7 (formerly known as Yorin) (73.7%)

RTL 8 (formerly known as Talpa, Tien) (73.7%)

RTL Lounge (73.7%) (digital channel)

RTL Crime (unknown) (digital channel)^[4]

RTL 24 (73.7%) (TV on your mobile)

• Spain

Antena 3

Antena.Nova

Antena.Neox

Antena.Nitro

Former stations[link]

• RTL 7, a Polish-language satellite television channel was sold in December 2001 to TVN owners ITI and became TVN 7.
• Media Capital, a Portuguese media group was sold to Prisa on 6 February 2007. Subsequently, RTL's 33% share in TVI was transferred to Prisa.
• Five (now re-branded Channel 5), a UK TV channel was sold to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell on 23 July 2010.^[5]

Radio stations[link]

Station followed by RTL's present share amount percentage.

France

RTL (100%)

RTL 2 (100%)

Fun Radio (100%)

Germany

104.6 RTL (100%)

RTL Radio (100%)

The Wave (German radio)^(de) (100%)

Antenne Bayern (16%)

Radio Hamburg (29.17%)

Radio NRW (16.96%)

Radio 21 (17.3%)

Big FM (7.74%)

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%)

Luxembourg

RTL Radio Letzebuerg (100%)

RTL Radio (100%)

Netherlands

Radio 538 (73,7%)

538 Juize

RTL Lounge Radio

Belgium

Bel RTL (44,2%)(but operational control)

Radio Contact (Belgium) (44,2%)(but operational control)

Mint (44,2%)(but operational control)

Spain

Onda Cero (18.6%)

Europa FM (18.6%)

Former stations[link]

• Rádio Comercial, Cidade FM, Best Rock FM and Rádio Clube and other stations in Portugal, were transferred to Prisa when RTL sold its 33% share in Media Capital group in February 2007.

Websites[link]

Germany

wer-kennt-wen (100%)

Technical Services[link]

• Broadcasting Center Europe

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.

• FremantleMedia

References[link]

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Rtlgroup :: About Us :: At A Glance
3. ^ Robert Briel. German RTL to support HbbTV. Broadband TV News August 27, 2009. Retrieved August 30, 2009
4. ^ http://www.totaaltv.nl/?action=nieuws&id=5568
5. ^ "RTL Group sells UK broadcaster Five" (Press release). RTL Group. 23 July 2010. http://www.rtlgroup.com/www/htm/home_news.aspx?ID=C57D4206AF294A979A24C3EE4270E175. Retrieved 24 July 2010. 

External links[link]

• RTL Group
• Official history
• Bertelsmann site
• Careers RTL

Companies portal

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