RTL Television

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RTL Television
The current logo of RTL Television
Type Direct Broadcast Satellite, Cable and DVB-T (where available)
Country Flag of Germany Germany
Availability    National; also distributed in Flag of Austria Austria and Flag of Switzerland Switzerland
Owner RTL Group
Launch date January 2, 1984
Past names RTL Plus (1984-1992)
Website www.rtl.de

RTL (formerly RTL plus) is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial, in larger population centers). It belongs to the RTL Group and is, in terms of market share, Germany's largest private free-to-air broadcaster.

It started broadcasting on January 2, 1984 at 17.27 from VHF channel E7 in Luxembourg and , at first, only had a theoretical audience of approx. 200,000. Until 1988, when it moved its headquarters to Cologne, Germany, it was considered a Luxembourg-based station.

A spin-off of the German version of Radio Luxembourg, RTL 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 candidates were competing for a dream vacation.

RTL plus was famous in its early years for showing low-budget movies and American hit-shows. It was the number 2 commercial broadcaster, which at the time didn't mean much: Only a limited audience with cable could see the new channels, an effect which led to many Germans going to their neighbours to watch that strange new channel from Luxembourg.

All that changed when RTL moved to Cologne and, in return, received the right to broadcast on terrestrial frequencies. That same year, RTL acquired the first-run right to the prestigious German Bundesliga. Deals with Cannon, which at the time was successful with films like Highlander and, one year later, with Universal Studios, finally provided first-class movies for the channel.

More and more people started to watch the channel, which soon also became famous for its edgy own productions - a welcome change to the shows on public channels that had become to be perceived as old-fashioned. RTL was notorious for showing 70s soft porn every Saturday night at 23.00.

It became the market leader in the early 90s.

It is now the primary channel of the RTL Group's German television stations, which also include RTL 2, Super RTL, VOX and n-tv.

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