The German RTL Group, now called Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, will switch its broadcast format to 16:9 widescreen on most of its channels including RTL, VOX and n-tv, as well as the digital thematic channels RTL Crime, Passion and RTL Living. The switchover will be completed by the autumn of 2008.
RTL already broadcasts a number of imported series and movies in the widescreen format including House, Monk and CSI: Miami as well as most of its own drama productions on the main RTL channel. “We will now start to switch selected programming on Vox and then we will start with n-tv and all our news and current affairs programming,” said Thomas Harscheidt, MD of RTL’s facilities company CBC.