RTL Group

History

The RTL Group began in 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 Pearson TV 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 broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface. RTL Television (Germany) has been operating HbbTV services since 2010.

In August 2013, RTL announced a joint venture for the Asian market with CBS Corporation and the launch of two new TV channels. RTL CBS Entertainment will be the first channel, expected to launch in September. Another channel, RTL CBS Extreme is announced for early 2014. The joint venture operates under the newly founded RTL CBS Asia Entertainment Network.

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.

Television stations

Asia

RTL CBS Entertainment RTL CBS Extreme BIG RTL Thrill

Belgium

RTL TVI Club RTL Plug RTL

Croatia

RTL Televizija RTL 2 RTL Kockica RTL Plus (until 2015.) RTL Living (since 2015.) RTL Crime (since 2015.) RTL Passion (since 2015.)

France

M6 M6 Boutique & Co Paris Première RTL9 Série Club Téva TF6 6ter W9 M6 Music Hits M6 Music Black M6 Music Club

Germany

RTL Television VOX RTL II Super RTL (joint-venture with Buena Vista International Television Investments) n-tv RTL plus RTL Living RTL Crime RTL Passion RTL Nitro GEO Television

Hungary

RTL Klub RTL II Cool TV Film+ Film+ 2 RTL + Sorozat+ Muzsika TV

Luxembourg

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg Den 2. 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 in 1990 as RTL 4) RTL 5 RTL 7 (formerly known as Yorin) RTL 8 (formerly known as Talpa, Tien) RTL Z RTL Lounge RTL Crime RTL Telekids

Spain

Antena 3 (19.17%) laSexta (19.17%) Neox (19.17%) Nova (19.17%) Mega (19.17%) Atreseries (19.17%)

Former stations

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.

Alpha TV, a Greek channel with panhellenic transmission. The 66.6% of shares was sold from Dimitris Kontominas to RTL Group. The shares was return from RTL Group to Dimitris Kontominas on 5 January 2012.

RTL 24, a defunct Dutch mobile television channel.

Radio stations

Station followed by RTL's present share amount percentage.

France

RTL (100%) RTL2 (100%) Fun Radio (100%)

Germany

104.6 RTL (100%) RTL Radio die besten Hits aller Zeiten (100%) The Wave (German radio) (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 die besten Hits Aller Zeiten UKW 93,3 und 97,0 (100%) Eldoradio (74,8%)

Netherlands

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 (19.17%) Europa FM (19.17%) Melodía FM (19.17%)

Former stations

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. End of 2011, Radio 538, Radio 10 Gold, Slam!FM and Juize were sold to Talpa Holding NV as part of an exchange of shares in RTL Nederland.

Radio Luxembourg, London, United Kingdom, English services.

Alpha 98.9, a Greek radio station. The 66.6% of shares was sold from Dimitris Kontominas to RTL Group. The shares was return from RTL Group to Dimitris Kontominas on 5 January 2012.

Production

FremantleMedia

Technical Services

Broadcasting Center Europe

Others

European News Exchange