RTL Nederland will launch RTL Lounge, its first digital channel, on the Ziggo and UPC cable networks on October 2. Aimed at young women, the channel will broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
RTL Lounge will broadcast a mix of drama (soaps and series) and lifestyle programming (including food, beauty & fashion, house & garden, travel and love & life). The line-up will include reruns of the daily soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden, the drama series Gooische Vrouwen, and programmes such as RTL Travel, Nigella Bites, Project Runway and others.
New programming will include Fashion House, Desire and Rough Guides as well as the new Dutch soap Lotte. Programming will start on the hour and half hour, with no commercial breaks within the programmes itself.
RTL Lounge is the first digital channel from a major Dutch commercial broadcaster. In the past, SBS had announced a number of channel which never materialised. RTL has previously announced a classical music channel, which to date has yet to launch.
RTL Lounge will be part of extended digital tiers (e.g. UPC Royaal and Ziggo’s Film & Entertainment and Digitaal Totaal packages).
Negotiations with other platforms are under way.
