About Regio TV Stuttgart

Regio TV Stuttgart

Regio TV Stuttgart is the regional television channel for the Stuttgart metropolitan region, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. On air since 15 January 1995, it broadcasts a regional full programme in three sub-regional versions, covering Stuttgart and the districts of Böblingen, Calw, Freudenstadt, Esslingen, Göppingen, Ludwigsburg and Rems-Murr. The channel is part of the Regio TV group of the Schwäbischer Verlag media house — described as Germany's largest regional broadcaster group, with a technical reach of around five million viewers — alongside Regio TV Schwaben (Ulm) and Regio TV Bodensee (Ravensburg).

Overview

Regio TV Stuttgart is a private regional full programme (regionales Vollprogramm), receivable via cable, satellite and internet. The operating company is REGIONAL-Fernsehen Böblingen/Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG of Stuttgart. Felix Kovac became managing director in late 2025; editorial leadership has included Chris Fleischhauer (programme chief, January 2010 – March 2017) and Günter Seibold (editorial director since March 2017).

History

The channel launched on 15 January 1995 under the name R.TV — not to be confused with the later Karlsruhe station of the same name. Founded in the Böblingen district, it was the first district-television station (Landkreisfernsehsender) in Baden-Württemberg; from December 2004 it also covered the rest of the Stuttgart region with a separate local version. Until the end of 2006, the Böblingen version was additionally broadcast terrestrially from the chimney of the Daimler power plant in Sindelfingen. In October 2005 the Baden-Württemberg media authority (LfK) approved the takeover by the Medienhaus Schwäbischer Verlag. In December 2009 the station moved its seat to Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, into the "Römerkastell".

In early 2007 it was renamed REGIO TV Regional-Fernsehen, and in March 2011 the three stations of the group were rebranded as Regio TV Bodensee, Regio TV Stuttgart and Regio TV Schwaben, giving the group a unified identity.

The Regio TV group belongs to the Medienhaus Schwäbischer Verlag (Schwäbisch Media), the Ravensburg-based publisher of the Schwäbische Zeitung — one of Germany's largest regional newspaper groups. The group's television arm also includes Regio TV Schwaben in Ulm (on air since 22 September 2006, covering Alb-Donau, Biberach, Heidenheim, Ostalbkreis, Ulm and Bavarian Neu-Ulm, with studios in Ulm, Aalen and Biberach) and Regio TV Bodensee in Ravensburg (covering the Lake Constance region and the Black Forest-Baar-Heuberg area, with studios in Konstanz and Tuttlingen). Together the three stations employ dozens of journalists and reach a combined technical audience of around five million in Württemberg and parts of Baden and Bavaria.

Satellite distribution for the group began on 1 August 2009, when the three stations started sharing a transponder on Astra 19.2° East (12.480 GHz vertical), time-sharing the channel. Since January 2008 the group has operated a permanent online media library — a "video memory of the region" — on its homepage and YouTube channel, archiving all broadcast reports.

Programming

Regio TV Stuttgart's defining feature is its three sub-regional versions, broadcast from three locations:

• for the districts of Böblingen, Calw and Freudenstadt;
• for Stuttgart and the districts of Esslingen and Göppingen;
• for the districts of Ludwigsburg and Rems-Murr.

The programme focus is news and reports from the Stuttgart region. Contributions are repeated in the evening, partly half-hourly and partly hourly; in remaining time the channel carries teleshopping. The daily news journal and in-house productions — formats such as the interview series "Auf ein Bier mit," the magazine "Querformat," the annual review and "M3" — reach more than 300,000 households and give the channel its profile. Regio TV Schwaben's formats follow the same model, with around 25 staff in editorial, production, technology and media consulting.

The Schwäbischer Verlag Group

Regio TV Stuttgart's ownership by the Medienhaus Schwäbischer Verlag (Schwäbisch Media) places it inside one of Germany's most significant regional media houses. Based in Ravensburg, the Schwäbischer Verlag publishes the Schwäbische Zeitung — among the largest regional dailies in the country — and has built a cross-media portfolio spanning print, television and digital. The Regio TV group — Stuttgart, Schwaben (Ulm) and Bodensee (Ravensburg) — is the television pillar of this portfolio, described as Germany's largest regional broadcaster group with a combined technical reach of around five million viewers.

The group structure allows resource sharing that standalone stations cannot match: joint satellite capacity (the shared Astra transponder since August 2009), a common online media library and YouTube presence, coordinated technology and centralised administration, while each station maintains its own newsroom and sub-regional identity. The Schwäbischer Verlag holds 51 percent of Regio TV Schwaben alongside the publishers of the Augsburger Allgemeine and the Südwest Presse, with entrepreneurial leadership stated to lie with the Ravensburg house.

This publisher-led model contrasts with the investor-led or broadcaster-led models elsewhere in German regional TV, and it has proven durable: the group has operated continuously since the 1990s through every advertising crisis.

The Sub-Regional Model

Regio TV Stuttgart's three-version system — Böblingen/Calw/Freudenstadt, Stuttgart/Esslingen/Göppingen, Ludwigsburg/Rems-Murr — is the most granular sub-regional television in any German metropolitan area. Each version is produced for its own audience: the automotive and technology belt around Böblingen and Sindelfingen differs editorially from the state-capital politics of Stuttgart, the industrial Neckar valley around Esslingen and Göppingen, and the residential and wine-growing districts of Ludwigsburg and Rems-Murr.

The model is expensive — three editorial variants of a daily news journal — but commercially logical in a region where local identity is strong and advertisers buy precisely the sub-region they serve. The evening repeat loops (half-hourly to hourly) maximise the utility of each day's production, while teleshopping fills the remaining hours and contributes revenue. The daily news journal and signature productions ("Auf ein Bier mit," "Querformat," the annual review, "M3") reach more than 300,000 households, giving the channel measurable impact in the region's media market. Three decades after the 1995 launch, Regio TV Stuttgart remains the reference television service for the Stuttgart metropolitan region — a publisher-owned, sub-regionally differentiated broadcaster with few equivalents in German local television, and a cornerstone of the Schwäbischer Verlag's cross-media presence in Baden-Württemberg. Its three-version model continues to define the standard for sub-regional television in German metropolitan areas.

Regio TV Stuttgart covers the Stuttgart metropolitan region — the economic heart of Baden-Württemberg, home to Daimler/Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch and a dense network of automotive suppliers and Mittelstand manufacturers. Reception is via cable (Unitymedia/Vodafone Baden-Württemberg), satellite (Astra, shared channel) and internet livestream; around 2.8 million viewers can receive the Stuttgart station's programme via cable and satellite. The group's combined technical reach of around five million viewers makes it the largest regional-TV operation in Germany by coverage.

Ownership

The channel is operated by REGIONAL-Fernsehen Böblingen/Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG and belongs to the Medienhaus Schwäbischer Verlag (Schwäbisch Media) of Ravensburg, which holds 51 percent of Regio TV Schwaben alongside the publishers of the Augsburger Allgemeine and the Südwest Presse, with entrepreneurial leadership stated to lie with the Schwäbischer Verlag. The supervisory authority is the Baden-Württemberg State Authority for Communication (LFK).

Digital Presence

The Regio TV group operates a joint website with a livestream and a comprehensive media library — archiving every broadcast report since January 2008 as a "Videogedächtnis der Region" (video memory of the region) — alongside a YouTube channel. Individual reports are thus permanently available on demand, a distinctive feature among German regional broadcasters. Programme schedules appear in electronic guides.

Market Position

Regio TV Stuttgart is the television arm of one of Germany's most powerful regional newspaper publishers, and its three-version sub-regional model is the most granular among German metropolitan TV stations. In the Stuttgart media market it operates alongside the SWR's Stuttgart-centred programming, the Stuttgarter Zeitung/Stuttgarter Nachrichten group and the region's strong business press. The channel's longevity — three decades since the 1995 launch as R.TV — and its integration into the Schwäbischer Verlag's cross-media portfolio (print, television, digital) make it a model of publisher-led regional television consolidation in Germany.