RTL Group

RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company. It has 26 television and 24 radio stations in 9 countries. This Luxembourg-based media group operates TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary and Croatia. It is one of the

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world's leading producers of television content such as game shows and soaps, including Pop Idol, Good Times, Bad Times, The Price Is Right, Family Feud, The Bill, and, under licence from Mark Burnett Productions, non-US versions of The Apprentice.

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RTL originally stood for Radio T?l?vision Luxembourg (in French) or Radio T?l? Luxemburg (in German).

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The RTL Group started in 1931 as CLR or Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion which operated Radio Luxembourg. In 1954 it renamed itself into CLT or Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de T?l?diffusion and started television broadcasts. In 1997 it merged with Hamburg-based UFA Film- und Fernseh-GmbH (not to be confused with East German UFA) to create CLT-UFA. In 2000 it merged with Pearson TV and became RTL Group. It is currently majority-owned by Bertelsmann AG.

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Among the reasons of RTL Group's success, apart for merits related to the content itself, one can cite the fact that Luxembourg allowed privately owned radio and TV stations long before other European countries did, which it used to transmit to other countries (such as the Netherlands) in their own language, effectively acting as a pirate.

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France: The French Republic or France (: R?publique fran?aise or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents....

Belgium: The Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: Koninkrijk Belgi?, French: Royaume de Belgique, German: K?nigreich Belgien) is a Federal state in a continuous process of devolution. It is a developed country in North-Western Europe that is bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the North Sea. ...

Netherlands: The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:d?rlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.(Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional m...

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