French-language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...
DPG Media
DPG Media Group is a Belgian Media conglomerate, media group. It is active in Belgium and the Netherlands. The exact ownership structure is not clear; it is believed that the group is mainly owned by the Belgian Van Thillo family.Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by the
RTL Group
RTL Group S.A. ("Radio Télévision Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate office in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 56 television channels and 36 radio stations in Germany, France an ...
until 31 March 2022. Until 2022, it was broadcast with a Luxembourgish licence, but the new owners have switched to a Belgian license. Within the French-speaking area of Belgium, it is the most popular channel with a 20 percent viewing share. It was the first commercial television station in Belgium.
RTL-TVI offers a schedule of family-oriented information, entertainment and fiction genres. In French-speaking Belgium, almost all of the foreign programs are dubbed in French, instead of retaining the original soundtrack.
In Belgium, RTL Belgium also operates the French-language channels RTL Club, RTL Plug and RTL District.
History
Since 1955, Télé-Luxembourg, which became
RTL Television
RTL (from '), formerly RTL plus and RTL Television, is a German-language free-to-air television channel owned by RTL Deutschland, headquartered in Cologne. Founded as an offshoot of the German-language radio programme '' ,'' RTL is cons ...
in 1982, is broadcast from the Dudelange transmitter in Luxembourg. Following the collision of a Belgian military plane with the transmitter on 31 July 1981, the ''
Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion
RTL Group S.A. ("Radio Télévision Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another Business park, corporate office in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 56 television channels and 36 radio stations in Germ ...
'' (CLT) obtained compensation from the Belgian government. The state monopoly on television broadcasting was lifted.
On 12 September 1983, the Belgian version of the JTL show, presented by Jean-Charles De Keyser, Eddy de Wilde and Bibiane Godfroid, was launched from a small studio in Roosevelt villa, Brussels. In December 1985, CLT created a Belgian company called TVI SA, which produced programs and sold advertising space specifically for RTL Belgium.
Belgian TV channel RTL became independent on 12 September 1987 with the launch of RTL-TVI (Télévision Indépendante), which now produces all its programming in Brussels. This was the first independent channel in the French Community of Belgium. The registration by the Government of the French Community on 21 December 1987 enabled it to legally access the Belgian TV advertising market, through its subsidiary IPB. This monopoly was broken in 1989 when the government allowed commercial advertising on RTBF channels.
RTL Belgium was acquired by
DPG Media
DPG Media Group is a Belgian Media conglomerate, media group. It is active in Belgium and the Netherlands. The exact ownership structure is not clear; it is believed that the group is mainly owned by the Belgian Van Thillo family.Groupe Rossel on 31 March 2022, ending the 30 years ownership by
RTL Group
RTL Group S.A. ("Radio Télévision Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate office in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 56 television channels and 36 radio stations in Germany, France an ...
. RTL Belgium ended the Luxembourg-status in March 2023 to become fully Belgian, and thus lost their terrestrial licence in Luxembourg and ceased their broadcast from the Dudelange transmitter on 29 February 2024.
The Belgian RTL channels were also transmitted in the Flemish pay DTT through
TV Vlaanderen
TV Vlaanderen is a Digital data, digital satellite television and terrestrial television service provider for the Flanders region and community in Belgium.
TV Vlaanderen's customers are mostly people living in Flanders. However, as TV Vlaandere ...
’s Antenne TV offer, from December 2017 until 1 September 2024.