RTL
Launched	2 January 1984; 36 years ago (1984-01-02)
Network	Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland
Owned by	RTL Group
Picture format	2160p 4K UHD 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Audience share	7.8% (July 2018 (2018-07), KEK)
Slogan	Willkommen zuhause (Welcome Home)
Country	Germany
Language	German
Broadcast area	National Also distributed in: Austria Switzerland France Italy Belgium Luxembourg Liechtenstein Netherlands Turkey Eastern Europe
Headquarters	Cologne, Germany
Formerly called	RTL plus (1984-1992) RTL Television (1992-2004)
Sister channel(s)	RTL Zwei VOX Super RTL n-tv RTL Crime RTL Living RTL Passion Nitro RTLplus
Website	www.rtl.de
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television	Channel numbers vary
Satellite
Astra 19.2°E (Europe)	12188 H 27500 3/4 (SD) Germany 12226 H 27500 3/4 (SD) Austria & Switzerland
HD+ (Germany)	10832 H 22000 2/3 (HD) 11391 H 22000 5/6 (UHD)
DStv (Africa)	Channel 440
Yes (Israel)	Channel 120
Canal Digitaal (Netherlands)	Channel 114 (SD) Channel 181 (SD) Austria
Telekom (Serbia)	Channel 650
Total TV (Bosnia and Herzegovina)	Channel 793
Cable
Kabel Deutschland	Channel 103 (SD) / Channel 114 (HD)
UPC Switzerland	Channel 14 (HD)
Naxoo (Switzerland)	Channel 155
Ziggo (Netherlands)	Channel 58 (SD)
Caiway (Netherlands)	Channel 42 (SD)
YouSee (Denmark)	Channel 54
MC Cable (Monaco)	Channel 118
RCS&RDS (Romania)	Channel 189
UPC Romania	Channel 732
Telenet (Belgium)	Channel 175
mtsTV (Serbia)	Channel 650 (digital)
NOS (Portugal)	Channel 232
Vivacom (Bulgaria)	Channel 103
DELTA (Netherlands)	Channel 455 (SD)
Kabel Noord (Netherlands)	Channel 114 (SD)
Telemach (Bosnia and Herzegovina)	Channel 260 (SD)
SBB (Serbia)	Channel 286
IPTV
Telekom Entertain	Channel 3
KPN (Netherlands)	Channel 46 (HD)
Tele2 (Netherlands)	Channel 223 (SD)
T-Mobile (Netherlands)	Channel 397 (SD)
Streaming media
Ziggo GO (Netherlands)	ZiggoGO.tv (Europe only)
EON TV (Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro)	EON TV

RTL (called RTL plus from 1984-1992 and RTL Television from 1992-2004) is a German free-to-air television channel owned by the RTL Group and is the largest private network in Germany.

History

The channel started broadcasting on 2 January 1984 from VHF channel E7 (system B, colour PAL) in Luxembourg. It only had a theoretical audience of approximately 200,000 until 1988, when it moved its headquarters to Cologne, Germany; prior to this it was considered a Luxembourg-based station.

RTL, which began as a spin-off of the German version of Radio Luxembourg, started with a low budget, and many of the early hosts simply presented versions of their radio formats adapted for television. One early success was the quiz show Ein Tag wie kein anderer (A day like no other), in which contestants competed for a holiday.

RTL plus was famous in its early years for showing low-budget films and American programmes. In 1988, it was the second most-viewed channel.^[1]

After reunification in 1990, broadcasting was extended to the entire country. RTL moved to Cologne and received the right to broadcast on free-to-air frequencies. That same year, RTL acquired the first-run rights to the German Football First Division. Deals with Cannon and Universal Studios finally provided more high-profile films for the channel. In 2012, RTL made a deal with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to air films from its media library until 2016, when it switched to Universal, as Disney Channel was relaunched as a free-to-air channel competing with RTL.^[2]

Audience share

Germany

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Annual average
1985	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.4%
1986	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.7%
1987	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.2%
1988	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4.1%
1989	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10.0%
1990[3]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11.5%
1991[4]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	14.4%
1992[5]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16.7%
1993[6]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18.9%
1994[7]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	17.5%
1995[8]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	17.6%
1996[9]	16.6%	16.6%	18.2%	18.6%	18.1%	15.5%	15.6%	16.7%	17.2%	16.7%	17.4%	16.5%	17.0%
1997[10]	15.9%	16.0%	16.4%	17.8%	17.0%	15.9%	14.8%	14.7%	16.9%	16.9%	15.7%	14.9%	16.1%
1998[11]	14.2%	14.2%	16.2%	16.2%	15.6%	13.8%	14.4%	15.7%	16.3%	15.1%	15.2%	14.6%	15.1%
1999[12]	13.6%	13.9%	15.0%	15.8%	15.9%	15.3%	14.9%	15.3%	15.5%	15.4%	14.3%	13.6%	14.8%
2000[13]	14.0%	14.0%	13.8%	14.3%	14.4%	13.7%	14.0%	14.2%	14.0%	14.6%	15.1%	14.7%	14.3%
2001[14]	14.3%	13.4%	15.3%	15.9%	16.9%	13.6%	14.3%	13.4%	15.5%	15.4%	14.6%	14.5%	14.8%
2002[15]	15.0%	13.2%	14.9%	16.1%	15.2%	12.6%	14.5%	13.2%	15.4%	15.5%	15.2%	14.4%	14.6%
2003[16]	15.8%	15.7%	16.0%	15.3%	15.5%	14.3%	13.7%	13.5%	15.5%	14.9%	13.9%	13.8%	14.9%
2004[17]	15.2%	13.8%	13.9%	14.1%	14.5%	12.2%	13.1%	12.3%	14.5%	14.4%	14.0%	12.8%	13.8%
2005[18]	13.1%	12.5%	12.9%	13.6%	14.1%	13.1%	12.7%	12.3%	14.0%	13.5%	13.5%	12.9%	13.2%
2006[19]	13.0%	12.3%	13.4%	12.8%	13.7%	12.8%	12.1%	12.7%	13.0%	13.1%	12.6%	11.9%	12.8%
2007[20]	12.6%	12.0%	12.6%	12.8%	12.9%	12.8%	12.4%	11.8%	13.1%	12.9%	12.1%	11.1%	12.4%
2008[21]	11.8%	11.5%	11.7%	12.5%	12.4%	9.8%	11.6%	10.5%	12.5%	12.1%	12.9%	11.5%	11.7%
2009[22]	12.6%	11.8%	12.4%	12.8%	12.4%	11.6%	11.4%	10.9%	13.3%	13.5%	14.0%	12.9%	12.5%
2010[23]	12.7%	12.7%	13.7%	14.0%	13.6%	12.7%	12.5%	12.8%	14.5%	14.8%	15.3%	13.6%	13.6%
2011[24]	15.2%	14.1%	13.7%	14.6%	14.9%	12.5%	13.3%	13.2%	14.8%	14.6%	14.3%	13.3%	14.1%
2012[25]	14.1%	13.1%	13.4%	12.7%	11.9%	10.6%	11.5%	10.5%	12.7%	12.3%	12.7%	10.8%	12.3%
2013[26]	13.1%	11.3%	11.2%	12.1%	11.4%	10.8%	10.9%	10.4%	10.7%	11.7%	11.5%	10.3%	11.3%
2014[27]	12.8%	10.4%	10.6%	10.6%	10.6%	8.4%	9.0%	9.0%	10.0%	11.5%	10.7%	9.5%	10.3%
2015[28]	11.3%	9.6%	9.8%	9.9%	9.9%	9.7%	9.2%	9.0%	10.6%	10.6%	10.1%	9.1%	9.9%
2016[29]	11.7%	10.0%	9.6%	10.0%	9.8%	8.3%	9.0%	8.3%	10.1%	10.4%	10.0%	9.2%	9.7%
2017[30]	11.0%	8.8%	9.3%	9.4%	9.5%	9.0%	8.5%	8.5%	9.0%	9.4%	9.0%	8.1%	9.2%
2018[31]	9.7%	8.4%	8.5%	8.6%	8.3%	7.5%	7.8%

The average age of the viewers is 48.9 years (as of 2016).^[32]

References

External links

• Official website (in German)