RTL Plus

It all started on January 2, 1984, shortly before 6 p.m., when „RTL Plus“ began broadcasting, a German-language commercial channel operated from Luxembourg in a cooperation between Bertelsmann and CLT.

It was something like the starting shot for private television among our German neighbors. It was initially produced in Bartreng in the studios of RTL Productions. Nostalgic feelings arise. Who doesn’t think of „Der Preis ist heiss“, „Tutti-Frutti“, „RTL-Samstag Nacht“ and „Ich bin ein Star, holt mich hier raus“ or of the legendary US-American series that RTL broadcasted: „Prince of Belair“, „Columbo“ and „A-Team“ - and all the sensationally inspiring commercials that ran in the meantime.

Here at RTL Eent we like to tell about historical events in a way that reminds us of the good old days, when everything was still in order and where real pioneering work was done here in Luxembourg. The name „Radio Luxembourg“ alone is world-famous, you remember!

First of all, we would like to leave out the fact that we at RTL Eent are still annoyed that Sat1 went on air a day earlier at the time. The German RTL, „RTL Plus“, from Luxembourg could also be received only just as far as the Saarland, RTL Plus only received the cable connection a few months later. And just under 4 years later, it was already over again with the short intermezzo RTL Plus in Luxembourg, where the company moved its location to Cologne. This means, to be correct, none of the more well-known programs, up to „Der Preis ist heiss“, has anything to do with Luxembourg. Sorry, correction: „Der Preis ist heiss“ was actually first recorded in Germany in 1989. RTL Plus had its breakthrough in Germany through the TV rights for Bundesliga players and Formula 1 at the time Michael Schumacher started. But still, everything somehow started in Bartreng, it’s hard to imagine. In Bartreng.

How did the crazy media pioneers in and from Luxembourg come up with the wonderful idea of ​​giving their big neighbor the gift of private television? We would leave this question unanswered for now in order to stimulate the general imagination and not endanger nostalgic feelings. Otherwise, one would think of Helmut Kohl, for example, who is the real mastermind behind the introduction of private television in Germany. His reasoning was that private television would be significantly more economical and that its expansion and the complete commercialization of the media could limit the influence of public television. In any case: Happy birthday, German RTL.