About RTL Super

RTL Super

RTL Super is the primetime brand of the German family channel Super RTL, introduced in August 2023 as part of RTL Deutschland's unification of its brand architecture. Broadcasting from Cologne, it identifies the channel's evening schedule — from 20:15 onwards — which targets the whole family with films and entertainment, while the daytime schedule continues under the Super RTL name with the Toggo children's programming block. RTL Super is owned by RTL Group.

Overview

RTL Super is a branding solution to a scheduling split. Super RTL, the German family channel launched in 1995, has always lived two lives: by day, it is a children's channel built around the Toggo programming block for six- to thirteen-year-olds; by evening, from 20:15, it becomes a family entertainment channel with films and shows for parents and children together. In August 2023, RTL Deutschland gave that evening identity its own name — RTL Super — aligning it with the group's unified channel branding that had already renamed RTLplus to RTLup and VOXup.

The distinction is presentational rather than structural: there is no separate RTL Super channel or licence. The Super RTL channel continues to bracket both dayparts, but from Tuesday to Sunday evenings the screen branding, the logo in social media, and the website presentation switch to RTL Super. The programming strategy continues the channel's successful primetime approach: family films, entertainment shows, and event programming.

RTL Super's parent, Super RTL, is fully owned by RTL Group following the group's acquisition of Disney's stake in 2021, and it operates from Cologne as part of RTL Deutschland.

History

The story of RTL Super begins with Super RTL, which launched on 28 April 1995 as a joint venture between RTL Group's predecessor CLT-UFA and The Walt Disney Company — a partnership that made it Germany's leading commercial children's and family channel for over two decades. Its Toggo children's block, launched in 2001, became one of the most recognised children's brands in Germany.

Super RTL expanded its brand family over the years: the timeshift channel Toggo Plus launched on 4 June 2016, showing the Toggo block delayed by one hour — the first free-to-air timeshift channel in the German market — and Toggo Radio, an online children's radio service, followed in 2020. On 3 March 2021, RTL Group announced it had fully acquired Disney's stake in the Super RTL venture, bringing the channel under its complete control for the first time.

The RTL Super rebrand was announced at the end of July 2023. Initial reports suggested the entire Super RTL channel would be renamed, but the broadcaster clarified that only the primetime slot — from 20:15 — would carry the RTL Super name and logo, while Super RTL would remain as the channel's umbrella brand for daytime children's programming. The change took effect in mid-August 2023, accompanied by the new logo's rollout across social media and the web.

In 2024, Super RTL deepened its children's programming partnerships, including a new free-to-air broadcast deal with Paramount for Nickelodeon programming in Germany — though the Federal Cartel Office blocked a related plan to acquire the Nickelodeon Germany channel outright.

Programming and Content

RTL Super's primetime programming targets the whole family. Feature films are the centrepiece: family films, animated features, comedies, and adventure films fill the evening schedule, drawing on the channel's deep library relationships — including its long Disney heritage — and on acquisitions from other studios. The film premieres and themed film evenings are the brand's ratings drivers.

Entertainment shows complement the films: family game shows, event programming, and seasonal specials give the primetime schedule variety beyond cinema. The programming is selected for co-viewing — content parents and children can watch together — which distinguishes RTL Super's evenings from the more age-segmented offerings of its competitors.

By day, the channel continues as Super RTL with the Toggo block: animated series, live-action children's series, and educational programming for six- to thirteen-year-olds, plus the Toggolino strand for preschoolers (folded into the unified Toggo brand in 2024). The Toggo Plus timeshift channel extends the children's offering by an hour.

The RTL Super brand thus represents the second half of a dual proposition: trusted children's programming by day, family entertainment by night, under a unified RTL brand architecture.

Coverage and Audience

RTL Super — as the primetime presentation of Super RTL — is available throughout Germany via digital terrestrial television (DVB-T2), cable, and satellite, broadcasting free-to-air. Its programmes stream live and on demand through the RTL+ platform.

The audience is the family: parents watching with children in the early evening, and the broader family audience for primetime films. Super RTL's daytime Toggo programming reaches children six to thirteen, while the RTL Super evenings address the household as a whole. The channel consistently ranks among Germany's leading family channels, and its primetime films regularly draw large family audiences. Detailed ratings are published by the industry's measurement bodies.

The dual-brand strategy reflects viewing realities: children's viewing peaks in the afternoon, family co-viewing in the evening, and the RTL Super identity gives the evening schedule a distinct, grown-up feel while keeping it within the trusted Super RTL universe.

Ownership

RTL Super is a brand of Super RTL, which is fully owned by RTL Group and operated within RTL Deutschland, the group's German broadcasting arm headquartered in Cologne. RTL Group acquired full control in March 2021 by buying out The Walt Disney Company's stake in the Super RTL joint venture.

RTL Group itself is controlled by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann and headquartered in Luxembourg. Within RTL Deutschland, Super RTL and its RTL Super primetime brand share infrastructure, advertising sales (through the Ad Alliance), and streaming distribution (through RTL+) with sister channels including RTL, VOX, n-tv, RTL Zwei, Nitro, RTLup, and VOXup.

As a commercial broadcaster, Super RTL is licensed by the state media authorities and operates within Germany's dual broadcasting system.

The Dual-Brand Strategy in Context

The RTL Super arrangement — one channel, two brands divided by daypart — reflects how German family television has evolved. Children's viewing peaks in the afternoon, when the Toggo block serves six- to thirteen-year-olds with animation and series; family co-viewing peaks in the evening, when parents and children watch films together. Giving the evening its own brand acknowledges that these are effectively two different audiences sharing one channel.

The Toggo brand itself is among the strongest children's brands in Germany, built over two decades since 2001, and the 2016 launch of Toggo Plus — the timeshift channel showing the Toggo block delayed by one hour — extended its reach: it was the first free-to-air timeshift channel in the German market. The 2024 decision to fold the preschool Toggolino brand into the unified Toggo name simplified the architecture further.

RTL Super's evening competition includes the family film slots of the other commercial channels and the public broadcasters' family programming, but its combination of a trusted children's brand by day and a clearly badged family entertainment offer by night is distinctive. The Disney heritage — Super RTL was a Disney joint venture from 1995 to 2021 — still colours the film library, even as the channel has diversified its acquisitions.

Digital Presence

RTL Super's programmes stream live and on demand through RTL+, the RTL Deutschland streaming platform, where its primetime films and family entertainment reach on-demand audiences beyond the linear schedule. The brand's logo and identity are visible across social media and the web, where RTL Super presents the evening schedule distinctly from the daytime Toggo offering.

Super RTL maintains one of the most developed digital children's offerings in Germany: the Toggo brand spans apps, games, and on-demand video, giving young viewers a protected digital environment. The RTL Super primetime brand benefits from this digital infrastructure while addressing its family audience through the group's general entertainment platforms.

For German speakers abroad, RTL+'s streaming offering makes much of the channel's programming available internationally, subject to rights restrictions. The RTL Super branding — part of RTL Deutschland's unified brand architecture — positions the family primetime offering for the continued shift toward on-demand and streaming viewing.