Photo: Peter Linke

On January 1, 2021, the new contract between the Luxembourg state and the multi-billion-dollar corporation CLT-UfA/RTL Group came into effect.

For the first time, the state is pouring money directly into media work. With up to 10 million euros a year, the state is stepping in to make up for a deficit, as government circles said at the time. Where that deficit comes from was not so clear. But when it comes to the only TV station in the country, you sometimes turn a blind eye.

In order to avoid further unnecessary debates, instead of the usual 10 or 15-year term of the contract between the state and CLT-UfA, a duration of 3 years was chosen this time. This allows the then Minister of Media Xavier Bettel not to have to submit a financing law to the Chamber. This also leaves out any overly ambitious transparency requirements. RTL finances are not examined very closely. RTL Luxembourg basically does not have its own balance sheet. The staff, infrastructure, equipment and even the work of radio, TV, Internet but also of the CLT-UfA subsidiaries IP, ENEX and BCE are mixed together. Basically, only the profits and losses are clearly separated. The profits go to RTL Group and the losses to the Luxembourg state to be balanced.

The state subsidization of CLT-UFA, i.e. the group behind RTL Luxembourg, is not as new as claimed, after all, up to €950,000 per year has already been allocated to BCE over many years. However, this subsidy ended 3 years ago - but they did not want to exaggerate.