RTL shifts licences to Luxembourg

European broadcast giant RTL Group is set to move the licences for its Hungarian cable channels to Luxembourg, blaming the poor economic situation in Hungary.

From January, the licences for cable channels including RTL+, Film+ and Cool TV will come under RTL Group’s Luxembourg subsidiary CLT-UFA, which already houses the group’s channels in Belgium and the Netherlands.

However, the move will not apply to flagship service RTL Klub, whose licence will remain in Hungary.

“Having reassessed the unfavourable economic situation in Hungary we have decided to make the operation of our cable portfolio more cost-efficient and move the channels to Luxembourg, where we have an appropriate infrastructure and crew,” the company said in a statement supplied to index.hu.

The firm added that “this measure is not new and not even unusual from the pan-European RTL Group, and it is compliant with every EU law and regulation.”