RTL9
Encyclopedia
RTL9 is a Luxembourg
er television channel shown internationally to viewers in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and francophone Switzerland.
The achievement of the great works of the Villa Louvigny
coincided with the start of the construction of a television antenna at Ginsterberg
close to Dudelange
, a site which assured good reception, due to its altitude of 430 metres, and its location only 200m from the French border. The project showed the intention to broadcast eastwards towards France.
On 23 January 1955, the date of her 59th birthday, the Grand Duchess Charlotte I
launched Télé-Luxembourg with her husband, Prince Félix, marking the official birth of television in Luxembourg. On screen, a young announcer stated that "Télé-Luxembourg will become a part of your family". The first show consisted of introductions to the channel. At the time no studio had been installed at Villa Louvigny
. The shows were directed from the building situated at the foot of the Dudelange Radio Tower
. This omni-directional transmitter allowed Télé Luxembourg to be well-received at first, with a range of around 150 km around Luxembourg
, Ardennes
, Lorraine
and as far as Reims
and Mulhouse
. Using a VHF channel of E-07 initially showing programmes at 625 lines, and renamed "canal Luxembourg" in France, the standard was kept at the "Belgium" 819 lines or "819 narrowband" used in Francophone Belgium. It used a narrower bandwidth than Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
(with the result that images appear a little less clear), but have the advantage of being able to cram a greater number of transmitters in the same zone) allowing the channel to be seen by French and Wallonian viewers as well as foreign viewers in (Germany, Netherlands, and Dutch-speaking Belgium. They were the first private television channel in Europe. Their mission was to show inter-regional information in French in Luxembourg
, Belgium and Lorraine.
Even with the addition of some high-ranking staff from RTF
(for which RTF unsuccessfully complained against Tele-Luxembourg), such as Jacques Navadic
and Robert Diligent, later of Journal de Télé-Luxembourg, the launch of the channel was hazardous, with few experienced staff, teams consisting of former radio technicians who had moved into television. The productions became more professional and from 1956–1957, the CLT built a tower towards the top of Villa Louvigny
which became the offices and studios of Télé-Luxembourg. The channel, which was then broadcasting for thirty hours per week, eventually was becoming noticed by the viewing public, and became a part of the audiovisual landscape.
As well as the live programmes, such as l'École Buissonnière, there were reports from around the country and neighbouring Francophone regions on Journal de Télé-Luxembourg, and Télé-Luxembourg delivered key programmes from Paris Productions and foreign films and television series. Little by little, the channel created its identity, and marked its difference from the austerity of the national French and Belgian channels. It was marked out by its sense of levity (gameshows, soaps, and nightly films) and fun (strong presence of French presenters such as Pierre Bellemare
and Georges de Caunes and announcers such as Anna-Vera). Advertising was present from the outset, but the presenters themselves delivered the messages live. The popular success was so high that their efforts were recognised by hosting the 7th Eurovision Song Contest
in 1962 shown across Europe from the Villa Louvigny
. This national event was shown live to every café in the country.
In 1969, the Belgian government moved the frequencies for radio relay to cable
. Coditel installed a reception station in the Ardennes at Saint Hubert
and broadcast a signal from Télé-Luxembourg via cable from Namur
, Brutélé which was distributed to the periphery of Liège
and Brussels
. From then on, est Belgacom
which was then able to sell this on to other television distributors. The development of cable in Belgium, and especially Francophone Belgium, meant that Télé-Luxembourg sat alongside the French channels (TF1
, Antenne 2 and FR3). Télé-Luxembourg then drew its main revenue from Belgium.
This family-oriented direction was popular and led Jacques Navadic
in the 1970s to become the head of the channel. The programming consisted of films, American serials, gameshows, and chatshows using the same presenters gave Télé-Luxembourg star status in Luxembourg
, the East of France and Belgium, reinforced by their move to colour in 1972 : as well as the VHF 819 line transmitter (channel E-07) reconverting to 625 lines SECAM
, two new UHF transmitters were launched at the Dudelange Radio Tower
, one for channel 21 in SECAM
for France, one on channel 27 on PAL
for Belgium. Every day, at the start of the channel, the heraldic lion of Luxembourg appeared on the circles symbolising the radio waves and the name Télé-Luxembourg, followed by an image of the Dudelange transmitter, with the voice of Jacques Harvey announcing : "Here is Télé-Luxembourg, channels 7, 21 and 27, Dudelange transmitter, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.". The game shows soon followed, with Coffre-fort presented by Michèle Etzel, under the slogan Vivement ce soir sur Télé-Luxembourg, and advertising based on car stickers which viewers were encouraged to place in their cars, with these cars then being filmed and broadcast on air.
On 30 July 1981, the Dudelange Radio Tower
was totally destroyed after a collision with a Belgian military aircraft, and RTL Télé Luxembourg was off the air for a few hours, until the back-up systems were up and running. The French president, François Mitterrand
in person authorised TDF
to use the former VHF
819 line transmitters of TF1
in Lorraine to relay RTL Télé Luxembourg in colour until the rebuilding of the tower in Dudelange. However, the 819 line transmitter did not correctly show the programmes. The transmitter at Dudelange was rebuilt in 1983, replaced by an automatic pylon.
RTL Télé Luxembourg created entertainment shows and showed series before any other channels. (It was the first channel in Europe to show Dallas, before evenTF1
). A regular claim on the channel was that a programme was being broadcast "priority for RTL Television". This policy of "outreach" relied heavily on the personality of the presenters. Jacques Navadic, director of programmes, launched a search for a new presenter in 1977. On a memorable evening, entitled Dix en lice ?, the public, the channel, and a jury of celebrities (Michel Drucker
, Jean Lefebvre
, Thérèse Leduc, Jacques Navadic
, Robert Diligent) chose Marylène Bergmann to become one of the emblematic faces of the channel. A generation of new faces were first seen on the channel: André Torrent, Philippe Goffin, Bibiane Godfroid, Michèle Etzel, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang.
, Bibiane Godfroid, Michèle Etzel, Sophie Hecquet, Jean-Claude Thieltgen, Philippe Sorel, Philippe Goffin, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Marylène Bergmann, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang. The shows and presenters launched the channel to become the most watched in the core market of Lorraine, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
On 4 March 1983, RTL Télévision launched a microwave between Brussels
and Luxembourg
. The antenna was split channel between UHF SECAM
21 (Luxembourg / Lorraine) and UHF PAL
27 (Belgium). It allowed the Belgian channel to show Belgian-specific programmes (JTL, presented by Jean-Charles De Keyser and entertainment) alongside programmes for viers in Luxembourg and Lorraine. RTL Télévision then moved to the bottom of Avenue Franklin Roosevelt in Brussels
, and built a studio, allowing it to extend its coverage (as part of the compensation package from the Belgian government for the Dudelange accident
) to cover all Belgian territory via cable television
which meant rapid development in Belgium.
With considerable audience enlargement in Belgium, the channel is finally profitable, and the CLT creates RTL Plus
on 2 January 1984 for the German market and shown on the VHF
channel E-07, which meant the loss a large part of the French audience of RTL Télévision from the reception zone of channel 21 to Lorraine
, to the disappointment of those from Alsace, South-Lorraine, and Champagne-Ardenne
, who were no longer able to view the channel. Part of the financial and technical resources of RTL Télévision moved to RTL Plus, while the channel also lost staff in March 1987, when a number of technicians, journalists and presenters took part in the launch of M6, created for the French market (the sixth channel, launched after the collapse of the music channel TV6). In September of the same year, the Belgian channel of RTL Télévision became independent with the launch of RTL-TVi which produced all of its programmes in Brussels
. A number of key presenters and creative team of RTL Télévision were involved in these channels. At the same time, the five first cable television
channels began broadcast in France.
Deprived of its Belgian audience, and broadcasting to Luxembourg and Lorraine, RTL Télévision was finding great difficulty in positioning itself in the French market. The need for renewal was felt to be essential, and in 1988, RTL Télévision tried to redynamise itself with small touches, such as modifying its logo and graphics (the appearance of the RTL balloon), and signing stars such as Geneviève Guicheney (from FR3) and launching new faces Agnès Duperrin and Martin Igier who had just graduated from the École Supérieure de Journalisme in Lille
to replace those who had joined M6 and RTL-TVI. On Christmas Eve
1987, Robert Diligent co-presented his last Journal Télévisé alongside Agnès Duperrin. Those responsible for the channel reorganised the programmes to have a new format which was attractive to the young and more suited to attracting a new audience base. An internal conflict escalated between the old and new generation, which stood in the way of new investment. RTL Télévision abandoned its public service mission in Luxembourg to RTL Hei Elei
, a new channel created in Luxembourg
at the demand of the government. This was the end of an era.
in 1992.
Due to the dominance of cable
in France, RTL TV changed its format due to the new director of programmes, Hugues Durocher, to attract a younger and more urban public. Films and serials gradually supplemented the traditional programmes and presenters were replaced by a new generation: Agnès Duperrin, Laurent Lespinasse, Katia Schmidt, Thierry Guillaume, Nicolas Albrand, Véronique Buson, Jérôme Anthony
, Virginie Schanté, Françoise Gaujour, Fabienne Égal
and Charlotte Gomez made their first appearances.
The channel aimed to restore the fundamentals of the channel and capitalise on the presenters and launched a vast publicity campaign under the slogan "l'esprit de famille". This slogan was repeated on air by presenters at the key shows on the air: Scrabble RTL with Thierry Guillaume and Véronique Buson, 40 minutes
with Marylène Bergmann at the start of the evening, the 52 minute weekly RTL Santé presented by Agnès Duperrin, the female magazine F comme Femmes every lunchtime with Véronique Buson and Françoise Gaujour, the video shows of Music Family and Ligne Basket with Jérôme Anthony and Virginie Schanté and Galaxie with Thierry Guillaume, shown for the youth at the end of the afternoon and Wednesday afternoons and the job show Help!.
Refocussing on the public in Lorraine, RTL TV became more regionalised, and launched RTL Lorraine, which was separated from its big sister on cable
and satellite
with local shows (40 minutes en Lorraine
, and other programmes on cable and satellite on Wednesday evenings) only available to the public in Lorraine via the radio transmitter on Channel 21 from the Dudelange Radio Tower
.
and officially renamed the channel RTL9 at the end of the night. The official reason for the change of name was a new youth focus to the channel (RTL9, c'est neuf !), but the CLT stated that the move was to avoid confusion with the Belgian channel, RTL-TVI and the German channel RTL Television
.
In 1997, the CLT joined with the German audiovisual group UFA
and so controlled production, broadcast, and rights for programmes. Faced with their Belgian and German cousins in direct competition in their countries, and with the increasing success of M6 in France, CLT-UFA
faced questions regarding their audience in Lorraine and on French and Swiss cable
. The new German-Luxembourger group was less attached to the heritage aspect than to the economic aspect of the company and urgent cost-cutting measures were undertaken. In December 1997, the group cut staff at the channel for economic reasons (RTL9 showed a loss of 50 million French francs) and on 3 March 1998, 65% of the capital of the channel was sold to AB Groupe
, with CLT-UFA
keeping the remaining 35 %. A number of viewers deserted the channel, as did some of the key figureheads of the channel, led by Marylène Bergmann, who had been a presenter at the channel since 1977. Only Jean-Luc Bertrand, director of programmes, remained at the channel.
Reaching 650 000 homes on terrestrial channels in Lorraine and Luxembourg
, 2.1 million homes via cable
in France and Switzerland, 1.5 million via satellite contracts on the TPS
satellite package, and via the CanalSat
package, RTL9 is the number one channel in terms of relative audience for cable and satellite for the past ten years, and is the third most watched channel in Lorraine. Due to this, AB Groupe
proposed that the channel should move to digital television in France on 1 July 2002. The CSA
refused in view of the fact that the channel was a foreign channel, and therefore, it was not subject to the same obligations as its French rivals in terms of the broadcast of films and adverts, leading to unfair competition.
.
In 2005, RTL9 celebrated 50 years of broadcast with archive footage from between 1955 and 2005, but mostly from the RTL9 period, including a musical spectacular from Olympia in Paris presented by Jean-Luc Bertrand. In contrast to RTL-TVI which broadcast a documentary in March 2005 tracing the history of Télé-Luxembourg and the independence of the Belgian channel, or RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
which showed a documentary at the end of 2005 about the "T" in RTL, RTL9 did not show a similar programme, due to the loss of records when they moved offices in 1995. Instead, for the last week of December 2005, the programme of Jean-Luc Bertrand, Bienvenue chez vous, was taken over by former stars of the channel: Michèle Etzel, André Torrent, Jean Stock, Georges Lang and Marylène Bergmann, specially brought in to talk about their professional memories of the history of RTL Télévision.
Since 4 September 2006, RTL9 has renewed its graphic without changing its logo. The new graphic is 3D, created in-house, using the colours and the three shapes which form the channel's logo. A second event took place at the same time: the return of Marylène Bergmann after nine years away, to take over presenting duties on RTL-TVI, two days per week with her old co-presenter Jean-Luc Bertrand, on Bienvenue chez vous on RTL9 Lorraine.
From its foundation as the station of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the RTL empire is still growing now shown in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the East, now covering 38 television channels and 29 radio stations in 2007.
In May 2008, AB changed RTL9, changing the regional name RTL9 Lorraine to RTL9 Est and launching RTL9est.com.
In February 2009, AB AB rejuvenated the website of the channel with an emphasis on video content and the prominence of various departments of AB Groupe.
Director of broadcast:
CEO:
Programme directors :
Director of programmes and special operations:
Directors of information :
Director of Marketing and Business Development :
and 35 % by RTL Group
which was bought in 1998, with 2,25 % owned by the Banque Populaire de Lorraine.
in Luxembourg
, a building flanked by an eight-storey tower, built in 1956–1957 by the CLT and housing the offices and studios of the channel. This address has become a legendary site in the audiovisual landscape. RTL Télévision and RTL TV stayed until 1990.
RTL Télévision moved to studios at 3, allée Saint-Symphorien, Metz
at the end of 1990 to reach the public of Lorraine, but the final parts of the business remained at Villa Louvigny. In summer 1996, the television services at Villa Louvigny moved to new premises of the CLT named KB2 (KB1 was the building of the CLT dedicated to radio), built in Kirchberg
, Luxembourg
.
As the first cable and satellite channel in France, in 1995 RTL9 had a studio in Paris built at CNIT in la Défense
until 1997.
Unfortunately, this move was not a success due to the declining fortunes of the channel, and people and materials were moved back to Metz
and Luxembourg
in December 1997, when RTL9 sold 65 % of its capital to the AB Group.
This was the end of an era, and forty years of viewing was placed into the hands of the administrators.
In December 2005, the regional station left the Technopôle in Metz
to move to 29 boulevard Saint-Symphorien, still in Metz
.
with films and serials from AB Production and AB Distribution as well as from the RTL Group
.
Today, as well as a daily chat show of 360 minutes (every morning), a collection of series (Derrick
, Friends
, Due South
, Baa Baa Black Sheep
and Renegade
), they also show films and erotic series to try and maintain audiences, a recipe which seems to work. The channel is still more watched at primetime with shows such as Ça va se savoir !. However, the RTL spirit has not left the channel, and RTL9 is still a regional channel. Although the French public in general have moved to cable and satellite in place of regional programming, local information is still available every lunchtime and evening on the terrestrial channel for Lorraine and Luxembourg, run by Jean-Luc Bertrand, who still tries to make the channel a star in the east of France.
channel 21 from the Dudelange Radio Tower
in the south of Luxembourg and the Lorraine region. It is the only Luxembourgeoise channel still shown on analogue. No information regarding its change to digital yet exists, and BCE have not announced their eventual calendar. However in the 2007 report from the government of Luxembourg published in March 2008, they stated that programmes shown in Lorraine would switch to digital no later than the moment of the end of analogue television in Lorraine.
RTL TV was shown on Télécom 2B satellite from 1992 until the end of 1994, but encrypted. A payment of 120 French francs was necessary to decrypt the information via a decoder, costing 690 francs. At the end of December 1996, the new satellite package TPS
launched the analogue signal, shown by the Télécom 2B satellite, to be shown via the Hot Bird
satellite at 13° east until the start of 1998, when they would begin to broadcast in digital quality. On 26 December 2001, TPS gave the exclusive rights for the satellite broadcast to RTL9 and the channel was then shown on CanalSat
. AB Groupe
, which has operated since April 1998, include it in their AB Sat
satellite package.
In 2005, AB Groupe
proposed to the CSA
that the channel could be shown for free on Télévision Numérique Terrestre
(TNT). It would have meant making the channel dedicated to "French fiction" and no longer showing films on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday nights, as the showing of films on these evenings is still banned in France. The project did not go forward.
Due to the fusion of TPS and CanalSat in April 2007, RTL9 is still shown on the Nouveau Canalsat and AB Sat satellite packages, on Luxembourg's cable
, French (Numericable
) and Swiss (Cablecom
, Naxoo
and City TV), and on television ADSL packages.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
er television channel shown internationally to viewers in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and francophone Switzerland.
Télé-Luxembourg
On 1 July 1954, CLR (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion) changed their name to CLT (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion), to state their new ambition: television. On 20 May 1953, the administrative council of la CLR authorised their president, Robert Tabouis, to sign a contract with the Luxembourg government to run a television channel. They obtained the authority of the Grand Duke to permit a state-run monopoly of the channel.The achievement of the great works of the Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
coincided with the start of the construction of a television antenna at Ginsterberg
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
close to Dudelange
Dudelange
Dudelange is a commune with city status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with over 18,300 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border to France....
, a site which assured good reception, due to its altitude of 430 metres, and its location only 200m from the French border. The project showed the intention to broadcast eastwards towards France.
On 23 January 1955, the date of her 59th birthday, the Grand Duchess Charlotte I
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg was the reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1919 to 1964.-Early life and life as Grand Duchess:...
launched Télé-Luxembourg with her husband, Prince Félix, marking the official birth of television in Luxembourg. On screen, a young announcer stated that "Télé-Luxembourg will become a part of your family". The first show consisted of introductions to the channel. At the time no studio had been installed at Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
. The shows were directed from the building situated at the foot of the Dudelange Radio Tower
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
. This omni-directional transmitter allowed Télé Luxembourg to be well-received at first, with a range of around 150 km around Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
, Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
and as far as Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
and Mulhouse
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
. Using a VHF channel of E-07 initially showing programmes at 625 lines, and renamed "canal Luxembourg" in France, the standard was kept at the "Belgium" 819 lines or "819 narrowband" used in Francophone Belgium. It used a narrower bandwidth than Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...
(with the result that images appear a little less clear), but have the advantage of being able to cram a greater number of transmitters in the same zone) allowing the channel to be seen by French and Wallonian viewers as well as foreign viewers in (Germany, Netherlands, and Dutch-speaking Belgium. They were the first private television channel in Europe. Their mission was to show inter-regional information in French in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Belgium and Lorraine.
Even with the addition of some high-ranking staff from RTF
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...
(for which RTF unsuccessfully complained against Tele-Luxembourg), such as Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
and Robert Diligent, later of Journal de Télé-Luxembourg, the launch of the channel was hazardous, with few experienced staff, teams consisting of former radio technicians who had moved into television. The productions became more professional and from 1956–1957, the CLT built a tower towards the top of Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
which became the offices and studios of Télé-Luxembourg. The channel, which was then broadcasting for thirty hours per week, eventually was becoming noticed by the viewing public, and became a part of the audiovisual landscape.
As well as the live programmes, such as l'École Buissonnière, there were reports from around the country and neighbouring Francophone regions on Journal de Télé-Luxembourg, and Télé-Luxembourg delivered key programmes from Paris Productions and foreign films and television series. Little by little, the channel created its identity, and marked its difference from the austerity of the national French and Belgian channels. It was marked out by its sense of levity (gameshows, soaps, and nightly films) and fun (strong presence of French presenters such as Pierre Bellemare
Pierre Bellemare
Pierre Bellemare is a French writer, novelist, radio personality, television presenter, TV producer, director, and actor.-In film:Bellemare has also featured in films:...
and Georges de Caunes and announcers such as Anna-Vera). Advertising was present from the outset, but the presenters themselves delivered the messages live. The popular success was so high that their efforts were recognised by hosting the 7th Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
in 1962 shown across Europe from the Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
. This national event was shown live to every café in the country.
In 1969, the Belgian government moved the frequencies for radio relay to cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
. Coditel installed a reception station in the Ardennes at Saint Hubert
Saint-Hubert, Belgium
Saint-Hubert is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg.On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 111.16 km², had 5,737 inhabitants, giving a population density of 51.6 inhabitants per square kilometre....
and broadcast a signal from Télé-Luxembourg via cable from Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
, Brutélé which was distributed to the periphery of Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. From then on, est Belgacom
Belgacom
The Belgacom Group is the largest telecommunications company in Belgium, headquartered in Brussels. Belgacom Group is primarily state owned, with the Belgian state holding 53.3% + 1 share...
which was then able to sell this on to other television distributors. The development of cable in Belgium, and especially Francophone Belgium, meant that Télé-Luxembourg sat alongside the French channels (TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
, Antenne 2 and FR3). Télé-Luxembourg then drew its main revenue from Belgium.
This family-oriented direction was popular and led Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
in the 1970s to become the head of the channel. The programming consisted of films, American serials, gameshows, and chatshows using the same presenters gave Télé-Luxembourg star status in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, the East of France and Belgium, reinforced by their move to colour in 1972 : as well as the VHF 819 line transmitter (channel E-07) reconverting to 625 lines SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
, two new UHF transmitters were launched at the Dudelange Radio Tower
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
, one for channel 21 in SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
for France, one on channel 27 on PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
for Belgium. Every day, at the start of the channel, the heraldic lion of Luxembourg appeared on the circles symbolising the radio waves and the name Télé-Luxembourg, followed by an image of the Dudelange transmitter, with the voice of Jacques Harvey announcing : "Here is Télé-Luxembourg, channels 7, 21 and 27, Dudelange transmitter, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.". The game shows soon followed, with Coffre-fort presented by Michèle Etzel, under the slogan Vivement ce soir sur Télé-Luxembourg, and advertising based on car stickers which viewers were encouraged to place in their cars, with these cars then being filmed and broadcast on air.
On 30 July 1981, the Dudelange Radio Tower
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
was totally destroyed after a collision with a Belgian military aircraft, and RTL Télé Luxembourg was off the air for a few hours, until the back-up systems were up and running. The French president, François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
in person authorised TDF
TDF Group
TDF is a French company which provides radio and television transmission services, services for telecoms operators, and other multimedia services: digitization of content, encoding, storage, etc.Its headquarters are located in Paris.It is the dominant partner in the HDRR WiMAX consortium...
to use the former VHF
Very high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...
819 line transmitters of TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
in Lorraine to relay RTL Télé Luxembourg in colour until the rebuilding of the tower in Dudelange. However, the 819 line transmitter did not correctly show the programmes. The transmitter at Dudelange was rebuilt in 1983, replaced by an automatic pylon.
RTL Télé Luxembourg created entertainment shows and showed series before any other channels. (It was the first channel in Europe to show Dallas, before evenTF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
). A regular claim on the channel was that a programme was being broadcast "priority for RTL Television". This policy of "outreach" relied heavily on the personality of the presenters. Jacques Navadic, director of programmes, launched a search for a new presenter in 1977. On a memorable evening, entitled Dix en lice ?, the public, the channel, and a jury of celebrities (Michel Drucker
Michel Drucker
Michel Drucker, CQ is a popular French journalist and TV host.Michel Drucker was born in Vire, Calvados, in Normandy. Jacques Drucker, a doctor, is Michel's younger brother, and Jean Drucker, a TV top executive, is Michel's older brother. He started a journalistic career in 1965 at the ORTF as...
, Jean Lefebvre
Jean Lefebvre
Jean Lefebvre was a French film actor.-Selected filmography:* La Belle Américaine * La Vendetta * Konga Yo...
, Thérèse Leduc, Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic
Jacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
, Robert Diligent) chose Marylène Bergmann to become one of the emblematic faces of the channel. A generation of new faces were first seen on the channel: André Torrent, Philippe Goffin, Bibiane Godfroid, Michèle Etzel, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang.
RTL Télévision
RTL Télé Luxembourg was renamed RTL Télévision in 1982, marking the emergence of the RTL brand. During the 1980s, RTL Télévision had reached their peak. Under the direction of the new programming director, Jean Stock, a clutch of programmes and presenters were successful: Le Train des jouets, Léo contre tous, Citron Grenadine, Tête à Tête, Stop Star, Le Coffre-fort, Fréquence JLB, Atoukado and presenters Valérie SarnValérie Sarn
Valérie Sarn is a French born, Luxembourgian television producer, television presenter and artist. She is a presenter on RTL Television and commentating for Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1983 until 1991.-References:...
, Bibiane Godfroid, Michèle Etzel, Sophie Hecquet, Jean-Claude Thieltgen, Philippe Sorel, Philippe Goffin, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Marylène Bergmann, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang. The shows and presenters launched the channel to become the most watched in the core market of Lorraine, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
On 4 March 1983, RTL Télévision launched a microwave between Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
. The antenna was split channel between UHF SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
21 (Luxembourg / Lorraine) and UHF PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
27 (Belgium). It allowed the Belgian channel to show Belgian-specific programmes (JTL, presented by Jean-Charles De Keyser and entertainment) alongside programmes for viers in Luxembourg and Lorraine. RTL Télévision then moved to the bottom of Avenue Franklin Roosevelt in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and built a studio, allowing it to extend its coverage (as part of the compensation package from the Belgian government for the Dudelange accident
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
) to cover all Belgian territory via cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
which meant rapid development in Belgium.
With considerable audience enlargement in Belgium, the channel is finally profitable, and the CLT creates RTL Plus
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
on 2 January 1984 for the German market and shown on the VHF
Very high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...
channel E-07, which meant the loss a large part of the French audience of RTL Télévision from the reception zone of channel 21 to Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
, to the disappointment of those from Alsace, South-Lorraine, and Champagne-Ardenne
Champagne-Ardenne
Champagne-Ardenne is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium, and consists of four departments: Aube, Ardennes, Haute-Marne, and Marne. The region is famous for its sparkling white wine . Its rivers, most of which flow west, include the...
, who were no longer able to view the channel. Part of the financial and technical resources of RTL Télévision moved to RTL Plus, while the channel also lost staff in March 1987, when a number of technicians, journalists and presenters took part in the launch of M6, created for the French market (the sixth channel, launched after the collapse of the music channel TV6). In September of the same year, the Belgian channel of RTL Télévision became independent with the launch of RTL-TVi which produced all of its programmes in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. A number of key presenters and creative team of RTL Télévision were involved in these channels. At the same time, the five first cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
channels began broadcast in France.
Deprived of its Belgian audience, and broadcasting to Luxembourg and Lorraine, RTL Télévision was finding great difficulty in positioning itself in the French market. The need for renewal was felt to be essential, and in 1988, RTL Télévision tried to redynamise itself with small touches, such as modifying its logo and graphics (the appearance of the RTL balloon), and signing stars such as Geneviève Guicheney (from FR3) and launching new faces Agnès Duperrin and Martin Igier who had just graduated from the École Supérieure de Journalisme in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
to replace those who had joined M6 and RTL-TVI. On Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1987, Robert Diligent co-presented his last Journal Télévisé alongside Agnès Duperrin. Those responsible for the channel reorganised the programmes to have a new format which was attractive to the young and more suited to attracting a new audience base. An internal conflict escalated between the old and new generation, which stood in the way of new investment. RTL Télévision abandoned its public service mission in Luxembourg to RTL Hei Elei
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is the main television channel in Luxembourg, broadcasting in Luxembourgish.The small television market in Luxembourg led to a unique system in Europe: Luxembourg remains the only country in the world to run television stations in both the PAL and SECAM formats. Originally, both...
, a new channel created in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
at the demand of the government. This was the end of an era.
RTL TV
To mark the end of the era, RTL Télévision became RTL TV in 1991, becoming the first channel of the CLT Group, while RTL Plus took over the name RTL TelevisionRTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
in 1992.
Due to the dominance of cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
in France, RTL TV changed its format due to the new director of programmes, Hugues Durocher, to attract a younger and more urban public. Films and serials gradually supplemented the traditional programmes and presenters were replaced by a new generation: Agnès Duperrin, Laurent Lespinasse, Katia Schmidt, Thierry Guillaume, Nicolas Albrand, Véronique Buson, Jérôme Anthony
Jérôme Anthony
Jérôme Finkelstein better known as Jérôme Anthony is a French television presenter. Born in Nancy, France on 11 November 1968, he has presented many entertainment and reality shows on RTL9, TF1, France 2, Disney Channel, W9 and M6...
, Virginie Schanté, Françoise Gaujour, Fabienne Égal
Fabienne Égal
Fabienne Égal is a French announcer and television host.-Career:She became an announcer on TF1 in the 1970s, then hosted Les pieds au mur with Nicolas Hulot in 1980 and La Une chez vous . She became famous presenting TV show Tournez manège from 1985 to 1993, alongside Evelyne Leclercq and Simone...
and Charlotte Gomez made their first appearances.
The channel aimed to restore the fundamentals of the channel and capitalise on the presenters and launched a vast publicity campaign under the slogan "l'esprit de famille". This slogan was repeated on air by presenters at the key shows on the air: Scrabble RTL with Thierry Guillaume and Véronique Buson, 40 minutes
40 Minutes
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994.Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On....
with Marylène Bergmann at the start of the evening, the 52 minute weekly RTL Santé presented by Agnès Duperrin, the female magazine F comme Femmes every lunchtime with Véronique Buson and Françoise Gaujour, the video shows of Music Family and Ligne Basket with Jérôme Anthony and Virginie Schanté and Galaxie with Thierry Guillaume, shown for the youth at the end of the afternoon and Wednesday afternoons and the job show Help!.
Refocussing on the public in Lorraine, RTL TV became more regionalised, and launched RTL Lorraine, which was separated from its big sister on cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
with local shows (40 minutes en Lorraine
40 Minutes
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994.Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On....
, and other programmes on cable and satellite on Wednesday evenings) only available to the public in Lorraine via the radio transmitter on Channel 21 from the Dudelange Radio Tower
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
.
RTL9
In 1995, RTL TV marked their 40th anniversary with great ceremony in the grand auditorium of Villa LouvignyVilla Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
and officially renamed the channel RTL9 at the end of the night. The official reason for the change of name was a new youth focus to the channel (RTL9, c'est neuf !), but the CLT stated that the move was to avoid confusion with the Belgian channel, RTL-TVI and the German channel RTL Television
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
.
In 1997, the CLT joined with the German audiovisual group UFA
Universum Film AG
Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945...
and so controlled production, broadcast, and rights for programmes. Faced with their Belgian and German cousins in direct competition in their countries, and with the increasing success of M6 in France, CLT-UFA
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
faced questions regarding their audience in Lorraine and on French and Swiss cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
. The new German-Luxembourger group was less attached to the heritage aspect than to the economic aspect of the company and urgent cost-cutting measures were undertaken. In December 1997, the group cut staff at the channel for economic reasons (RTL9 showed a loss of 50 million French francs) and on 3 March 1998, 65% of the capital of the channel was sold to AB Groupe
AB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
, with CLT-UFA
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
keeping the remaining 35 %. A number of viewers deserted the channel, as did some of the key figureheads of the channel, led by Marylène Bergmann, who had been a presenter at the channel since 1977. Only Jean-Luc Bertrand, director of programmes, remained at the channel.
Reaching 650 000 homes on terrestrial channels in Lorraine and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, 2.1 million homes via cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
in France and Switzerland, 1.5 million via satellite contracts on the TPS
Télévision Par Satellite
Télévision Par Satellite was a French company that offered subscription television packages via satellite.It was created in 1996 by France Télévisions, the TF1 Group and the M6 Group...
satellite package, and via the CanalSat
CanalSat
CanalSat is a French digital satellite and DSL pay television service. It is owned by Vivendi with a 65% share, minority shareholders are Lagardère , TF1 and M6...
package, RTL9 is the number one channel in terms of relative audience for cable and satellite for the past ten years, and is the third most watched channel in Lorraine. Due to this, AB Groupe
AB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
proposed that the channel should move to digital television in France on 1 July 2002. The CSA
Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel
The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel is a French institution, created in 1989, whose role is to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television, including through eventual censorship...
refused in view of the fact that the channel was a foreign channel, and therefore, it was not subject to the same obligations as its French rivals in terms of the broadcast of films and adverts, leading to unfair competition.
.
In 2005, RTL9 celebrated 50 years of broadcast with archive footage from between 1955 and 2005, but mostly from the RTL9 period, including a musical spectacular from Olympia in Paris presented by Jean-Luc Bertrand. In contrast to RTL-TVI which broadcast a documentary in March 2005 tracing the history of Télé-Luxembourg and the independence of the Belgian channel, or RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is the main television channel in Luxembourg, broadcasting in Luxembourgish.The small television market in Luxembourg led to a unique system in Europe: Luxembourg remains the only country in the world to run television stations in both the PAL and SECAM formats. Originally, both...
which showed a documentary at the end of 2005 about the "T" in RTL, RTL9 did not show a similar programme, due to the loss of records when they moved offices in 1995. Instead, for the last week of December 2005, the programme of Jean-Luc Bertrand, Bienvenue chez vous, was taken over by former stars of the channel: Michèle Etzel, André Torrent, Jean Stock, Georges Lang and Marylène Bergmann, specially brought in to talk about their professional memories of the history of RTL Télévision.
Since 4 September 2006, RTL9 has renewed its graphic without changing its logo. The new graphic is 3D, created in-house, using the colours and the three shapes which form the channel's logo. A second event took place at the same time: the return of Marylène Bergmann after nine years away, to take over presenting duties on RTL-TVI, two days per week with her old co-presenter Jean-Luc Bertrand, on Bienvenue chez vous on RTL9 Lorraine.
From its foundation as the station of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the RTL empire is still growing now shown in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the East, now covering 38 television channels and 29 radio stations in 2007.
In May 2008, AB changed RTL9, changing the regional name RTL9 Lorraine to RTL9 Est and launching RTL9est.com.
In February 2009, AB AB rejuvenated the website of the channel with an emphasis on video content and the prominence of various departments of AB Groupe.
Managers
Presidents :- Gust GraasGust GraasGust Grass is a Luxembourg businessman and painter who has not only played a major role in the development of Luxembourg-based radio and television concern RTL but is also a talented abstract painter.-Early life:...
: 1955–1984 - Jacques NavadicJacques NavadicJacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
: 1984–1989 - Jean Stock : 1989–1995
- Christophe Chevrier : 1995–1997
Director of broadcast:
- Laurent Altide : since 3 March 1998
CEO:
- Claude Berda : since 3 March 1998
Programme directors :
- Claude RobertClaude RobertFor the Distinguished Service Cross recipient, see Claude Roberts.Claude Robert was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played 23 games in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens. He was born in Montreal, Quebec.-External links:*...
: 1955–1975 - Jacques NavadicJacques NavadicJacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
: 1975–1984 / Jean Stock (Joint directors) : 1981–1984 - Jean Stock : 1984–1987
- Hugues Durocher : 1987–1997
- Richard Maroko : since 3 March 1998
Director of programmes and special operations:
- Jean-Luc Bertrand : since 1998
Directors of information :
- Jacques NavadicJacques NavadicJacques Navadic was a Broadcasting editor and Television presenter who joined Radio Luxembourg in 1955. He worked with Robert Diligent. He was the regular Luxembourgian commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest and worked for RTL Luxembourg.-References:...
: 1955–1984 - Jean Stock : 1984–1986
- Hugues Durocher : 1987–1997
- Jean-Luc Bertrand : since 1998
Director of Marketing and Business Development :
- Gregg Bywalski : since 2002
Capital
RTL9 is owned 65 % by AB GroupeAB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
and 35 % by RTL Group
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
which was bought in 1998, with 2,25 % owned by the Banque Populaire de Lorraine.
Headquarters
The first headquarters of Télé-Luxembourg were based at Villa LouvignyVilla Louvigny
Villa Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
in Luxembourg
Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
, a building flanked by an eight-storey tower, built in 1956–1957 by the CLT and housing the offices and studios of the channel. This address has become a legendary site in the audiovisual landscape. RTL Télévision and RTL TV stayed until 1990.
RTL Télévision moved to studios at 3, allée Saint-Symphorien, Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
at the end of 1990 to reach the public of Lorraine, but the final parts of the business remained at Villa Louvigny. In summer 1996, the television services at Villa Louvigny moved to new premises of the CLT named KB2 (KB1 was the building of the CLT dedicated to radio), built in Kirchberg
Kirchberg, Luxembourg
Kirchberg or the Kirchberg is a quarter in north-eastern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It consists of a plateau situated to the north-east of the city centre, Ville Haute....
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
.
As the first cable and satellite channel in France, in 1995 RTL9 had a studio in Paris built at CNIT in la Défense
La Défense
La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...
until 1997.
Unfortunately, this move was not a success due to the declining fortunes of the channel, and people and materials were moved back to Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
in December 1997, when RTL9 sold 65 % of its capital to the AB Group.
This was the end of an era, and forty years of viewing was placed into the hands of the administrators.
In December 2005, the regional station left the Technopôle in Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
to move to 29 boulevard Saint-Symphorien, still in Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
.
Programmes
RTL9 is a general channel, although programmes produced by the channel still concentrate on the regional area. They also show programmes from the catelogue of the AB GroupeAB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
with films and serials from AB Production and AB Distribution as well as from the RTL Group
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
.
Today, as well as a daily chat show of 360 minutes (every morning), a collection of series (Derrick
Derrick (TV series)
Derrick is a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein , who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings Derrick is a...
, Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Due South
Due South
Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...
, Baa Baa Black Sheep
Baa Baa Black Sheep (TV series)
Baa Baa Black Sheep is a television series that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978. Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corps aviator Pappy Boyington and his World War II "Black Sheep Squadron". The series was created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell...
and Renegade
Renegade (TV series)
Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...
), they also show films and erotic series to try and maintain audiences, a recipe which seems to work. The channel is still more watched at primetime with shows such as Ça va se savoir !. However, the RTL spirit has not left the channel, and RTL9 is still a regional channel. Although the French public in general have moved to cable and satellite in place of regional programming, local information is still available every lunchtime and evening on the terrestrial channel for Lorraine and Luxembourg, run by Jean-Luc Bertrand, who still tries to make the channel a star in the east of France.
Broadcast
RTL9 is shown on the terrestrial UHF SECAMSECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
channel 21 from the Dudelange Radio Tower
Dudelange Radio Tower
The Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
in the south of Luxembourg and the Lorraine region. It is the only Luxembourgeoise channel still shown on analogue. No information regarding its change to digital yet exists, and BCE have not announced their eventual calendar. However in the 2007 report from the government of Luxembourg published in March 2008, they stated that programmes shown in Lorraine would switch to digital no later than the moment of the end of analogue television in Lorraine.
RTL TV was shown on Télécom 2B satellite from 1992 until the end of 1994, but encrypted. A payment of 120 French francs was necessary to decrypt the information via a decoder, costing 690 francs. At the end of December 1996, the new satellite package TPS
Télévision Par Satellite
Télévision Par Satellite was a French company that offered subscription television packages via satellite.It was created in 1996 by France Télévisions, the TF1 Group and the M6 Group...
launched the analogue signal, shown by the Télécom 2B satellite, to be shown via the Hot Bird
Hot Bird
Hot Bird is the name of a popular family of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13°E over the Equator and with a transmitting footprint over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East....
satellite at 13° east until the start of 1998, when they would begin to broadcast in digital quality. On 26 December 2001, TPS gave the exclusive rights for the satellite broadcast to RTL9 and the channel was then shown on CanalSat
CanalSat
CanalSat is a French digital satellite and DSL pay television service. It is owned by Vivendi with a 65% share, minority shareholders are Lagardère , TF1 and M6...
. AB Groupe
AB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
, which has operated since April 1998, include it in their AB Sat
AB Sat
AB Sat is a package of digital channels offered by the satellite companies Hot Bird and Astra and marketed in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. The channels are all run by the cable operators and certain networks ADSL. ABSAT has a stake in pay channel TNT and of two services in free TNT...
satellite package.
In 2005, AB Groupe
AB Groupe
The AB Groupe is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.- Television :-External links:* *...
proposed to the CSA
Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel
The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel is a French institution, created in 1989, whose role is to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television, including through eventual censorship...
that the channel could be shown for free on Télévision Numérique Terrestre
Télévision Numérique Terrestre
TNT is the national digital terrestrial service for France. It formally arrived on 31 March 2005 after a short testing period. Like Freeview in the United Kingdom it will support many new channels as well as the current terrestrial television stations...
(TNT). It would have meant making the channel dedicated to "French fiction" and no longer showing films on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday nights, as the showing of films on these evenings is still banned in France. The project did not go forward.
Due to the fusion of TPS and CanalSat in April 2007, RTL9 is still shown on the Nouveau Canalsat and AB Sat satellite packages, on Luxembourg's cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, French (Numericable
Numericable
Numericable is a British-American-Luxembourgian owned cable television operator operating in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, currently proposing standard quadruple-play services .- History :...
) and Swiss (Cablecom
Cablecom
UPC Cablecom Holdings GmbH, trading exclusively under the brand name upc cablecom, is the largest broadband cable operator in Switzerland. Founded 1994 through multiple mergers between smaller companies, it is part of Liberty Global Europe's UPC Broadband division since the end of 2005.Cablecom...
, Naxoo
Naxoo
Naxoo is a Switzerland-based cable television company and is owned by 022 Télégenève.Launched in Geneva in 1986, offers a mix of Swiss and foreign analogue or digital tv and radio channels .- Generalist :1 - TSR 12 - TSR 23 - Léman Bleu4 - TF15 - France 26 - France...
and City TV), and on television ADSL packages.
See also
- Radio Télévision Luxembourg
- Dudelange Radio TowerDudelange Radio TowerThe Dudelange Radio Tower is a 285-metre high freestanding steel framework FM radio and television transmission tower near Dudelange in Luxembourg. Dudelange Radio Tower was completed in 1957....
- Villa LouvignyVilla LouvignyVilla Louvigny is a building in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, that served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.Villa Louvigny has hosted the...
- RTL TelevisionRTL TelevisionRtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
- M6
- RTL-TVI
- RTL Télé LëtzebuergRTL Télé LëtzebuergRTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is the main television channel in Luxembourg, broadcasting in Luxembourgish.The small television market in Luxembourg led to a unique system in Europe: Luxembourg remains the only country in the world to run television stations in both the PAL and SECAM formats. Originally, both...