(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 .
