RTL (Croatian TV Channel)

RTL (previously known as RTL Televizija) is a Croatian free-to-air television network founded on 30 April 2004. It was owned by the RTL Group from 2004 to 2022. Since 1 June 2022, it is owned by the CME Group. It is the second commercial television network in Croatia that has a national concession, following Nova TV.

History

In 2003, the Croatian government opted to privatize the HRT 3 frequency. In June 2003, five companies were interested: RTL Group, News Corporation, SBS Broadcasting, HMTM and CME. A final decision was expected by 1 October.

RTL began broadcasting on 30 April 2004 at 18:45 CET. The first broadcast of RTL's news program, ''RTL Vijesti'', was hosted that day by Tomislav Jelinčić and Tanja Tomić. At the time of its launch, RTL was operated from one office which contained only 10 computers and 10 employees. Throughout the years, the network grew into a multi-medial platform with over 300 employees.

On 15 May 2014, RTL Group announced that Henning Tewes, managing director of news provider Enex, would be appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of RTL Hrvatska from 1 July 2014. Tewes succeeded Johannes Züll, who left the RTL Group to become president and CEO of Studio Hamburg. Following a proposal from Tewes, Ivan Lovreček, former editor-in-chief and member of the executive board of RTL Hrvatska, was promoted to deputy CEO of the company on 1 July 2014.

The blocks got a three-dimensional design on 16 September 2015. Mein RTL would be used in some idents.

On 12 November 2019, as part of a nationwide transition to the DVB-T2 broadcast standard among all Croatian broadcasters, the channel including with RTL 2, RTL Kockica, RTL Passion, RTL Living, and RTL Crime launched their HD feeds. A month later, on 20 December 2019, RTL debuted a new flat logo and graphics package that replaced the Phoenica font (used by RTL's parent channel in its on-air appearance) with the well-known FF DIN font. At this point, its slogan was "Više od Televizije" ().

On 15 September 2021, the German version of RTL was relaunched with a new multi-colored logo. It was confirmed that the new logo would debut in Croatia sometime in the near future, however this has not happened as of 2024.

On 14 February 2022, it was announced that RTL Group reached an agreement with Central European Media Enterprises for the sale of RTL Hrvatska. On 1 June 2022, the transaction of RTL Hrvatska to CME had been completed.

The channel celebrated 20 years of existence through April and May 2024, featuring new ident bumpers with taglines such as "20 years of originality", "20 years ahead of everyone" and "20 years of changing lives." The bumpers featured RTL's most prominent television personalities, such as the news' and other program's hosts. A special two-part series titled ''20 godina zajedno'' ( ''20 Years Together'') aired on 4 and 5 May. Hosted by Antonija Blaće, the special series looked back on the most memorable moments in RTL's history.

On 28 April 2025, RTL announced that its teletext service would be shut down on 1 May of the same year.

Programming

Original programming

Along with HRT and Nova TV, RTL is one of the three networks that air the largest amount of original television programming in Croatia. In recent years, the channel usually slots original series during the week in the evening, from around 17:00 CET, with the network's major shows airing in the prime time (20:15 to 22:00 CET). Earlier parts of the day are usually reserved for acquired programming and for re-runs of the shows from the previous day.

News programming

RTL broadcasts its own news program daily. Currently, the main news program titled '' RTL Danas'' ( ''RTL Today'') airs its short news program at 16:30 CET every day excluding Friday, followed by the main news program airing daily from 19:00 to 20:15 CET. ''RTL Danas'', which was previously known as ''RTL Vijesti'' ( ''RTL News''), covers the most prominent political, cultural and other news of the day that are relevant in Croatia and in the world.

As of April 2015, a 30-minute late-night news program titled '' RTL Direkt'' airs Monday to Thursday, usually around 22:15 CET. Although ''Direkt'' mostly recaps political and other events featured in ''RTL Danas'', it also focuses on covering popular culture, an example being a special episode aired 13 May 2024 which was dedicated to the review of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. ''Direkt'' usually features guests, varying from political persons, celebrities, experts in certain fields and other notable people. Its current host is Mojmira Pastorčić, who replaced Zoran Šprajc in 2022.

Scripted series

RTL is known for '' Zabranjena ljubav'', the first Croatian soap opera. It premiered in 2004 and aired over 800 episodes. RTL also aired various original drama and comedy series through the years.

Reality series

A large chunk of RTL's original programming consists of reality series, which are mostly Croatian adaptations of foreign reality show formats. In September 2004, RTL began airing ''Big Brother,'' its first reality series. The finale of the first season reached a record audience of 1.8 million viewers. The series went on to air seven seasons, concluding in May 2018.

The channel aired various dating reality series, the first being ''Scrolovka'' in 2004. '' Ljubav je na selu'' ( ''Love is at the Countryside''), a Croatian iteration of '' Farmer Wants a Wife'', premiered in September 2008, and is one of the longest-running Croatian reality series, having entered its seventeenth season in May 2024. RTL also aired Croatian iterations of other popular dating series such as '' Brak na prvu'' ('' Married at First Sight'') and '' Gospodin Savršeni'' ('' The Bachelor'').

Cooking and food-related reality series are also a part of RTL's staple programming. ''Večera za 5'' ( ''Dinner for Five'', based on ''Come Dine with Me''), has been on air since 2007. The series was re-branded as ''Večera za 5 na selu'' ( ''Dinner for Five at the Countryside'') from 2019 to 2022 until returning to its original title in 2023. It is the longest-running Croatian culinary series. In 2013, RTL aired an original cooking reality series format titled ''Tri, dva jedan - peci!'' (transl. ''Three, two, one - bake!''), and later its spin-off ''Tri, dva jedan - kuhaj!'' (transl. ''Three, two, one - cook!''), which premiered in 2014. Croatian versions of ''Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares'' and ''Hell's Kitchen'' were also aired by the channel.

A part of the channel's programming has also been dedicated to talent-show singing reality series. ''Hrvatska traži zvijezdu'' ( ''Croatia's Star Search''), was the second Croatian iteration of Idol, following Nova TV's 2004 ''Hrvatski Idol''. It aired three seasons from 2009 to 2011. A reboot of the series titled ''Superstar'' premiered on RTL in September 2023.

Game show series

Other notable programming

Acquired programming

The channel mostly acquires English-language programming, as well as a smaller chunk of regional (Serbian or Slovene) programming. Throughout late 2000s and early 2010s, RTL aired popular American sitcoms such as '' Family Matters'' (1989–1998), ''Full House'' (1987–1994), ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014), ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2005), '' Step by Step'' (1991–1997), and ''The Nanny'' (1993–1998). During this period, Spanish-language telenovelas were also popular on the channel, including '' Dame Chocolate'' (2007) and '' El Rostro de Analía'' (2008–2009), until Turkish series such as '' Muhteşem Yüzyıl'' (2011–2014) took over in the early 2010s. Most of such programs were moved to RTL 2 after its launch in 2011, and later to RTL Passion. Serbian series that aired on the channel include ''Južni vetar'' (2022) and ''Toma'' (2023–2024).

Before launching RTL Kockica in 2014, the channel also focused on programming for children, airing animated series every day in the morning. Croatian dubs of series such as ''Ben 10'' (2005–2008), '' Dexter's Laboratory'' (1995–2003), '' PopPixie'' (2011), ''Strawberry Shortcake'' (2003), and '' Trollz'' (2005) premiered on RTL. The Croatian dub of ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (2000–) also originally premiered RTL, before the series was moved to Nickelodeon with its Croatian-language audio launch in 2011. The channel occasionally featured a programming block titled ''Disney dan'' ( ''Disney Day''), airing popular Disney movies such as ''Finding Nemo'' (2003) and '' Frozen'' (2013).

Sports

Throughout all of its daily news programs, RTL Televizija has broadcast daily sports news throughout all of its daily news programs. The Croatian national football team used to broadcast its away matches there between 2004 and 2007. Since 2008, HRT has been broadcasting these matches once again.

RTL Televizija occasionally also broadcast boxing bouts and the highlights of the Red Bull Air Race events. They also bought the TV rights for all the matches of the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship, which was held in Croatia. This proved to be a big hit to Croatia's public broadcaster HRT, who even threatened to take legal action against RTL after they refused to sell them the rights to broadcast the match highlights during their news programs.

Sister channels

Streaming

RTL launched its streaming service RTL Play on 12 January 2018. It was a free ad-supported service that offered access to RTL's programming, as well as a livestream of RTL's channels. A paid Play Premium option was also available; it featured access to locked content and programming exclusive to the service, such as new episodes of the scripted drama series ''Krv nije voda''.

In July 2023, RTL announced that RTL Play is getting replaced with Voyo, a subscription-based video on demand over-the-top service. Voyo launched on 27 August, offering subscribers an access to new episodes of RTL's both original and acquired television series 24 hours prior to their television broadcast. The service also focuses on offering exclusive acquired programming that has not been broadcast on RTL.

Viewership

Audience and advertising share

Notes

References

External links

*

{{RTL (Croatian TV channel) original programming

Television channels in Croatia
Television channels in North Macedonia
Central European Media Enterprises
Television channels and stations established in 2004
2004 establishments in Croatia
Mass media in Zagreb
Croatian-language television stations