RTL9

RTL9

Country	Luxembourg
Broadcast area	Luxembourg France Monaco Switzerland French Speaking Africa
Headquarters	2850 Luxembourg City
Programming
Language(s)	French
Picture format	1080i HDTV (downscaled to 576i for the SD feed)
Ownership
Owner	Mediawan Thematics
Sister channels	AB1, Mangas, Action, Automoto La chaîne, Animaux, Science et Vie TV, Toute l'Histoire, Trek, Chasse et Pêche, Ultra Nature, Crime District, Golf Channel, Lucky Jack.tv, XXL
History
Launched	23 January 1955; 69 years ago (1955-01-23)
Former names	Télé-Luxembourg (1955–1972) RTL Télé Luxembourg (1972–1982) RTL Télévision (1982–1991) RTL TV (1991–1995)
Links
Website	www.rtl9.com

RTL9 is a French-language

.

History of the channel

Télé-Luxembourg

Test Card G as seen from a monoscope. Used on Télé-Luxembourg from 1955 until the early-1970s.^[1]

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 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 (1400'), and its location only 200 metres (yards) 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

, Belgium and Lorraine.

Even with the addition of some high-ranking staff from

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

). Télé-Luxembourg then drew its main revenue from Belgium.

This family-oriented direction was popular and led

, 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 even TF1). 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.

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 many presenters.

On 4 March 1983, RTL Télévision launched a microwave between

) 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

. 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

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

RTL Television

in 1992.

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.

RTL9

In 1995, RTL TV marked their 40th anniversary with great ceremony in the grand auditorium of

.

In 1997, the

, director of programmes, remained at the channel.

Reaching 650 000 homes on terrestrial channels in Lorraine and

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

, 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

empire is still growing now shown in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe, 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 accompanied by a dedicated website.

In February 2009, AB rejuvenated the website of the channel with an emphasis on video content and the prominence of various departments of AB Groupe.

Since 16 September 2009, RTL9 have a Swiss feed with local ads.

On 1 June 2010, RTL9 passed in 16:9.^[2] On 13 May 2014, RTL9 went on high definition on the Canalsat bouquet and in 2015 on Numericable and SFR. The channel is no longer broadcast in standard definition from this date on Astra.^[3]

On 21 July 2017,

and became its sole owner.

Visual identity (logos)

• 
  Logo used from 2011 to 2023
• 
  Logo used since 2023

Finance

From 23 January 1995 to 2 March 1998, RTL9 was wholly owned by CLT SA, which became CLT-UFA SA in 1997. On 3 March 1998 the CLT-UFA Board of Directors decided, under pressure of the Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, to sell 65% of the capital of RTL9 to AB Groupe SA, with 2.25% of the capital held by the Banque Populaire de Lorraine.^[4] RTL9 is now 65% owned by AB Luxembourg SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of AB Groupe SA, and 35% by CLT-UFA SA, a 99.7% subsidiary of RTL Group, which bought in 1998 the 2,25% of the Groupe Banque Populaire de Lorraine.

From 21 July 2017,

.

Organisation

Managers

Presidents:

• Gust Graas :1955–1984
• Jacques Navadic: 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 Robert: 1955–1975
• Jacques Navadic: 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 Navadic: 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 97.75% by Mediawan Thematics (who acquired RTL Group's stake in 1998 and 2017), with 2.25% owned by Banque populaire Alsace Lorraine Champagne.

Headquarters

The first headquarters of Télé-Luxembourg were based at

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,

.

As the first cable and satellite channel in France, in 1995 RTL9 had a studio in Paris built at

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

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.

Programmes

RTL9 today is a TV station without any regional content, and is dedicated to recent cinema releases and to general entertainment consisting of numerous imports of recent popular US TV shows and of programmes from the AB Groupe catalogue.

Broadcast

Transmission of RTL9 on the terrestrial

to the Lorraine region ended just after midnight on 1 January 2011. On 28 February 2011, digital TV transmission on channel 21 relaunched with a new TV station, "Air, l'autre télé".

RTL TV was shown on

satellite package.

In 2005,

for pay-DTT.

RTL9 is available with

packages.

It is also available on Molotov.tv and Watch it.

Timeline

See also

• Radio Télévision Luxembourg
• Dudelange Radio Tower
• Villa Louvigny
• RTL Television
• M6
• RTL-TVI
• RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg

References

External links

• (in French) Official site of the channel
• (in French) Official site of Marylène Bergmann with stories and photos of the history of RTL Télévision
• (in French) Documents relating to the canditature for RTL9 to CSA to terristrial digital television