RTL

Country	Germany
Broadcast area	National Also distributed in: Austria Switzerland France Italy Belgium Luxembourg Liechtenstein Netherlands Turkey
Network	Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland
Slogan	Willkommen zuhause (Welcome Home)
Headquarters	Cologne, Germany
Programming
Language(s)	German
Picture format	2160p 4K UHD 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	RTL Group
Sister channels	RTL Zwei VOX Super RTL n-tv RTL Crime RTL Living RTL Passion Nitro RTLplus
History
Launched	2 January 1984; 37 years ago (1984-01-02)
Former names	RTL plus (1984-1992) RTL Television (1992-2004)
Links
Website	www.rtl.de
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television	Channel numbers vary
Cable
Kabel Deutschland	Channel 103 (SD) / Channel 114 (HD)
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)
Sky Deutschland	Channel 183 (SD) Channel 163 (HD)

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 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)