| Runtime: | 20 minutes |
| Country: | Germany |
| Language: | German |
| Company: | RTL News GmbH |
| Network: | RTL |
| Location: | Cologne |
| Last Aired: | present |
RTL aktuell is a German television news programme broadcast on the commercial station RTL. The main 20-minute bulletin airs every evening at 18:45 CET, supplemented by a breakfast news bulletin (Punkt 6, Punkt 7, and Punkt 8 formerly Guten Morgen Deutschland), a lunchtime magazine programme (Punkt 12), a daily short news programme in the afternoon (RTL News), a news magazines (RTL Direkt) and a late night bulletin (RTL Nachtjournal). Weekend bulletins are branded as RTL aktuell Weekend.
RTL aktuell was launched in 1988 as the direct replacement for 7 vor 7, and since 11 September 2010 it is broadcast in HD.
| Presenter | Time | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| News | |||||
| since 1992 | Chief anchor | ||||
| since 2008 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| since 2015 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| 2006–2016 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| Kay-Sölve Richter | 2004–2005 | Stand-in anchor | |||
| Ilka Eßmüller | 2001–2007 | Stand-in anchor | |||
| Susanne Kronzucker | 1995–2003 | Stand-in anchor | |||
| Petra Schwarzenberg | 1994–2005 | Stand-in anchor | |||
| Christoph Teuner | 1992–1997 | Stand-in anchor | |||
| 1987–1991 | weekend editions | ||||
| 1984–1992 | Chief anchor | ||||
| Sport | |||||
| since 1989 | Main anchor | ||||
| since 2003 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| since 1996 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| Weather | |||||
| since 1994 | Main anchor | ||||
| since 1992 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| since 1997 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
| since 2010 | Stand-in anchor | ||||
In 2007, RTL aktuell won the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German TV award) in the category of Beste Informationssendung (Best News Broadcast).
Market shares of RTL aktuell in the target audience of 14 to 49-years-old:
| Year | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market share (%) | 23,1 | 22,4 | 20,2 | 22,2 | 20,7 | 19,7 | 18,2 | 19,3 | 19,4 | 19,9 | 19,9 | 19,8 |