RTL Television

RTL Television, or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite, as well as via digital terrestrial in more highly populated areas. It is owned by the RTL Group and is, in terms of market share, Germany's largest private free-to-air broadcaster. The channel started broadcasting on 2 January 1984 at 17:27 from VHF channel E7 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", in which candidates were competing for a holiday. RTL plus was famous in its early years for showing low-budget films and American programmes. It was the number 2 commercial broadcaster. All that changed when RTL moved to Cologne and, in return, received the right to broadcast on terrestrial frequencies.