Name | NTV |
Category | General News Documentary German |
Country | Germany |
n-tv, a German free-to air television news channel, is owned by RTL Group of Bertelsmann Media. Every hour, n-tv broadcasts weather and news. It broadcasts documentaries and magazine shows.
n-tv was started as a business development initiative at Time Warner International, which, under the guidance of Steve Ross, was looking for international ways to expand its business. Time Warner was a major shareholder of Turner Broadcasting System at the time, which is now WarnerMedia. They began to look for international opportunities in the news channel industry. Under the guidance of Tom McGrath (then-president of Time-Warner International Broadcasting), the company created a strategy to target Austria, Germany and the German-speaking regions of Switzerland in 1991.
McGrath was fondly involved in the development of a 24-hour news channel in German. McGrath obtained the Kopernikus satellite's last transponder and several terrestrial TV licenses to transmit n-tv. McGrath recruited several German companies, including Apax Partners and Otto Group, to be his partners. He also hired Karl Kuhlo as the CEO, a veteran German broadcaster.
The station began broadcasting in Berlin on the 30th of November 1992. It became the first German-language news station. CNN purchased 27.5% of the company in 1994 and increased its share to 50 percent later. The station's headquarters was moved to Cologne in 2004. There are other RTL stations located there. RTL Group assumed full control of nTV in 2006 after having purchased half the company in 2002.
September 2010 saw the move of n-tv to the Rheinhallen media centre in Cologne-Deutz. This is where RTL's entire TV operation in Germany is based. N-tv received a new visual identity with a new logo, graphics package and logo on September 1, 2017. RTL, another sister channel was also rebranded.