RTL II
Encyclopedia : R : RT : RTL : RTL II
The German RTL II television channel is produced by the company RTL 2 Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG. RTL II is a privately-owned, commercial, general-interest channel as defined in the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag. For cable networks in Austria and Switzerland, a local version of the main program with adapted commercial breaks is produced.
RTL II was founded as a second-generation commercial broadcaster in 1993. It quickly became infamous for its perceived "trash programming", comprising lots of soft porn as well as shows such as Peep and many pseudo-documentaries being mainly vehicles for nudity. Despite dropping all erotic programming in late 2001, its bad reputation follows RTL II to this day. Today, programming pillars are a daily anime afternoon, wildlife programming on Sunday afternoons, daily episodes of the local Big Brother in access primetime, and a primetime lineup consisting mostly of docu-soaps, movies and licensed series such as 24 and Stargate SG-1. Recent efforts to move further towards quality programming with science magazines and documentaries have met with an indifferent audience response.
The channel's prime-time newscast RTL II News is frequently criticized for its selection of news stories: Catering to a young audience, it has been known to put a CD release or the launch of a new gaming console in the second headline slot directly after the day's top event. This unconventional approach has supposedly brought RTL II's broadcasting licence into jeopardy at least once, as a German commercial broadcaster has to feature minimum amounts of serious informational and cultural programming to be allowed a full channel licence. Though widely critiqued, the newscast is well-produced and quite popular with its target audience.
RTL II ist also criticized for cutting scenes in Anime series like Detective Conan, InuYasha or One Piece. Sometimes this happens even through the series or episode in question was rated FSK 6 or 12 in its uncut state, meaning that it is suitable for children ages 6 or 12 up, and is shown in an appropriate timeslot. [link]
RTL II's corporate identity used to change more often and more drastically than that of any other competing channel in the same time, sporting three totally different logos and at least four on-air design strategies in less than ten years. This is believed by some to reflect the difficulties to establish the channel as dynamic and provocating yet not as the "trash" that defined its early years. The pace of design change has slowed in recent years, with the Roman-numeral rendition of the channel's name (the "pause button") being in use since 1999.
RTL II is partly owned by RTL Group, but also by publishers Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Burda, and, jointly, by Disney/ABC and Tele München.
Series
Anime
- Beyblade
- Captain Tsubasa
- Detective Conan
- Crayon Shin-chan
- Digimon
- DoReMi
- Dr. Slump (2nd series)
- Dragon Ball
- Dragon Ball Z
- Ganbare, Kikka-zu!
- Hamtaro
- Inuyasha
- Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (Jeanne, die Kamikaze Diebin)
- Monster Rancher
- Naruto (September 18, 2006)
- One Piece
- Pokémon
- Power Stone
- Pretty Cure
- Ranma ½
- Sailor Moon
- Taro the Space Alien
- Wedding Peach
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Non Japanese Animated Series
Other Series
- According to Jim (Immer wieder Jim)
- Andromeda''
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Dead Zone (Dead Zone)
- Full House
- Jesse
- 24
- Stargate SG-1
- Stargate Atlantis
- The Twilight Zone
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Der Prinz von Bel-Air)
- Undressed
- Walker Texas Ranger
- What I Like About You (Hallo Holly)
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.