RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg

What is RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg?

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is the Luxembourgish-language television channel of RTL in Luxembourg. IP Luxembourg, the advertising sales house of RTL Group in the country, describes it as the “Seule chaîne généraliste en langue luxembourgeoise, avec priorité à la proximité et à l'information”, and names it beside RTL Zwee and digital services including RTL Infos, RTL Today and RTL Play.^[1] That description is the sales house's own.

The Euromedia Ownership Monitor's Luxembourg report of December 2025 states that RTL “is operated by a private company (CLT-UFA), of which three-quarters of the shares are controlled by the German company, Bertelsmann Capital Holding”. It also states: “RTL is thus a powerful private media company that is nevertheless subject to relative public control, since it has a public service mission and receives public subsidies that go with this by means of a signed agreement.”^[4] Those are the report's words. The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom's Luxembourg 2026 page, last modified on 2 July 2026, notes that “the core public service media—Radio 100.7 and RTL—remain predominantly Luxembourgish-speaking.”^[5]

What does RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg cover?

For sport, IP Luxembourg lists “Nombreuses retransmissions en direct d'événements sportifs : UEFA Champions League, Tour de France, Basketball, Formule 1…”, that is, live broadcasts of the UEFA Champions League, the Tour de France, basketball and Formula 1.^[1] That list is the sales house's account and carries no date or rights term.

The government's information service, in its overview of Luxembourg media published in January 2013, wrote of RTL's Luxembourgish channel: “La chaîne ne diffuse que de manière exceptionnelle de la fiction, mais transmet régulièrement des directs de compétitions sportives nationales et internationales.”^[7] That is, it rarely broadcast fiction but regularly carried live national and international sport; the account dates from 2013.

The membership list of sportspress.lu, the association of sports journalists, dated 25 February 2026, includes members from RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg and from RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg.^[8] RTL's own site, rtl.lu, could not be retrieved.

How large is RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg's audience?

Luxembourg's former joint audience survey, Plurimédia, was suspended in 2023. Adada.lu, a trade site, reported on 7 October 2025 that it has been replaced by two separate ILRES studies: TRAIL, commissioned by IP Luxembourg, for television, radio, cinema and RTL's digital platforms, and a press study commissioned by the publishers. It reported that the state no longer finances the studies.^[9]

IP Luxembourg's publication of TRAIL 2026-I, by ILRES, covers residents aged 16 and over, with fieldwork from 4 February to 24 June 2025 and from 30 September 2025 to 11 February 2026, and gives figures for Monday to Sunday. The publication gives 1,794 telephone interviews for television and radio and 3,914 online interviews, 5,708 in all, and an eDiary panel of 1,648 people over eight days. It gives RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg a daily reach of 114,700 viewers, or 20.2 per cent, and a weekly reach of 224,300, or 39.6 per cent; its footnote states that these figures include RTL Zwee and RTL Play TV video. It gives RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg a daily reach of 166,000 listeners, or 29.3 per cent, and a weekly reach of 278,300, or 49.1 per cent.^[2] For RTL's websites and apps together it gives 238,300 users on an average day and 370,600 on a weekly basis; it does not break out rtl.lu alone.^[2] These are the survey's figures for all programmes, not for sport.

Since when has RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg existed?

The government's 2013 overview dates the company to 1931: “La Compagnie luxembourgeoise de radiodiffusion, devenue aujourd'hui RTL Group, naît ainsi en 1931.” It dates the Luxembourgish radio station to 1959: “RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg naîtra en tant que station radio à part entière le 19 septembre 1959, grâce au développement des émissions existantes ainsi qu'au transfert de la diffusion sur la bande FM à 92,5 MHz.” On television, the same overview states that it “est longtemps restée réservée à la seule maison RTL, qui produit les premiers programmes en 1955”; that for twenty years Luxembourgish-language television was limited to one or two hours on Sunday afternoons; and that the news programme “Hei Elei, Kuck Elei”, launched in 1969, gave way in 1991 to a daily one-hour programme. It adds: “Ce développement faisait suite à une décision gouvernementale, décision traduite en pratique par un subside public aux producteurs de l'émission.”^[7] Those are the government's 2013 accounts.

The present public-service arrangement is dated. The government announced on 14 June 2022 the signature of the “convention portant sur la prestation d'une mission de service public en matière de télévision, radio et activités digitales conclue entre CLT-UFA, RTL Group et l'État luxembourgeois”, for the period “du 1er janvier 2024 au 31 décembre 2030”. It states that the State's participation “ne servira qu'à couvrir le déficit restant après prise en compte des recettes, de l'apport financier annuel propre de CLT-UFA et de l'utilisation de la réserve financière de CLT-UFA”.^[3] The Euromedia Ownership Monitor states: “For the period 2024–2030, this commercial media agreement provides for the transfer of 11 million euros per year at the start, rising to almost 15 million euros at the end of the period”.^[4] The convention's term runs to 31 December 2030.

Why does RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg matter in Luxembourg's sport?

It is the Luxembourgish-language television channel of the operator that holds the State's public-service convention for television, radio and digital activities from 2024 to 2030, and its sales house lists live Champions League, Tour de France, basketball and Formula 1 among its programmes.^[1][3]

Three monitoring bodies have published on RTL's position, and each is quoted in its own words. Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 entry, states: “Radio Télévision Luxembourg (RTL) dominates Luxembourg's media landscape. Whether through television, radio or the internet, this group — whose state subsidies are equivalent to the aid the state gives to all other media outlets combined — reaches the vast majority of the population every week.”^[6] The Media Pluralism Monitor's 2026 page states: “CLT-UFA (RTL) dominates the television and radio sectors while EditPress and Mediahuis maintain control over the print press”, and “There are currently no concentration limits or cross-media ownership rules in place.”^[5] The Euromedia Ownership Monitor states that the agreement refers to “the monitoring of content by the independent authority responsible for controlling broadcasting (ALIA)”.^[4] Those are the three bodies' characterisations.