History

The roots of the company’s history date back to 1924, the year when Radio Luxembourg first went on air. Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion (CLR) was founded in 1931. As a European pioneer, the company broadcast a unique programme in several languages using the same frequency.

RTL Group itself was created in spring 2000 following the merger of Luxembourg-based CLT-UFA and the British content production company Pearson TV, owned by Britain’s Pearson PLC media group. CLT-UFA was created in 1997 when the shareholders of UFA (Bertelsmann) and the historic Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion – CLT (Audiofina) merged their TV, radio and TV production businesses.

Bertelsmann has been the majority shareholder of RTL Group since July 2001. RTL Group’s shares are publicly traded on the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as well as the Brussels and Luxembourg stock exchanges. Since September 2013, RTL Group has been listed in the prestigious M-Dax stock index.

Companies (Selection)

TV:
RTL Television (Cologne), Vox (Cologne), RTL II (Munich), Super RTL (Cologne), M6 (Paris), RTL 4 (Hilversum/Amsterdam), RTL-TVI (Brussels), Antena 3 (Madrid), RTL Klub (Budapest), RTL Televizija (Zagreb), RTL CBS Entertainment HD (Singapore), RTL CBS Extreme HD (Singapore)

Radio:
RTL (Paris), RTL 2 (Paris), Fun Radio (Paris), 104.6 RTL (Berlin), Bel RTL (Brussels), Radio Contact (Brussels)

Production & Rights Trading:
FremantleMedia (London), FremantleMedia North America (Los Angeles), FremantleMedia UK (London), UFA Film & TV Produktion (Potsdam), Grundy Television (Sydney), CLT-UFA International (Luxembourg)

Digital:
SpotX (Denver), BroadbandTV (Vancouver), StyleHaul (Los Angeles), Divimove (Berlin)