RTL II

RTL II (formerly RTL 2) is a privately owned, commercial, general-interest German television channel.

It 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 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 criticized, the newscast is well-produced and quite popular with its target audience.

On weekdays, RTL II also airs an......
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