German television

Encyclopedia : G : GE : GER : German television

As one of the largest industrial nations and with the largest population in the European Union, Germany today offers a vast diversity of television stations.

Contents

1 History of German TV

1.1 Before World War II
1.2 1950s
1.3 1960s
1.4 1970s
1.5 1980s
1.6 1990s

2 German Television Today

2.1 ARD - Das Erste

3 See also

History of German TV

Before World War II

The first TV show to be broadcast anywhere in the world occurred in Berlin on March 22nd 1935. During the 1936 Summer Olympics, test broadcasts were sent to several thousand households in Berlin and Hamburg. The National Socialists also tried to use television as a medium for their propaganda, but it was not quite as popular as radio. As only a small part of the intended audience was able to receive television broadcasts (or could afford a TV set), by 1939 and the start of World War II plans for an expansion of television programming were soon changed in favor of radio. Though the Berlin station (along with one in occupied Paris) remained "on the air" for most of World War II.

1950s

After World War II it took several years until a TV program was broadcasted again. Directly after the war, newspapers and radio were the only available mass media and they were under direct control of the Allied government. In the West, the USA, Great Britain and France had founded the ARD, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands (Cooperative association of the public broadcasters in Germany). In the East, the Soviet Union founded its own radio and later TV stations, known as Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF). Many parts of Germany (particularly the GDR) received both channels.

In 1952 both the ARD and the DFF broadcast their first TV programs, some of them so popular, that they still run on German television, like the news show Tagesschau (West) or the children's programme Sandmännchen (East). But at that time, only few West Germans and even fewer East Germans owned their own TV set. Radios were still cheaper and a lot more popular. One of the events that enhanced the popularity of TV among the West Germans was the broadcast of the 1954 football world cup finals from Bern, which many followed on TV screens in shop windows.

1960s

In the 1960s TV became much more popular and was finally available for the vast part of the population. In 1963, a second TV network, the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television) started. In 1967, vice chancellor Willy Brandt started the era of color TV in West Germany. Also, in the 1960s, several member networks of the ARD started broadcasting their own regional television programs, known colloquially as Die Dritten (The Third Networks) In 1969 East Germany started DFF2, and introduced color programming on both channels.

1970s

In 1972, the DFF was renamed, dropping the pretense of being an all-German service and becoming Fernsehen der DDR (GDR Television) or DDR-FS. Its two channels became known as DDR1 and DDR2.

1980s

Until the early 1980s, the average German TV viewer could choose only between a few programs, all of them publicly financed through license fees. These programs were only shown at certain times of the day (afternoon and evening) and not always in color. In Western Germany this changed in 1984, as the first two privately financed TV networks, RTL plus (short for Radio Tele Luxemburg) and SAT 1, started their programming (previously RTL had transmitted from Luxembourg into southwestern Germany). In contrast to the national public TV services, these new stations were only able to show their programs in the bigger cities via aerial, via satellite or via broadband cable. But as the new stations introduced some very different kinds of programs (especially RTL plus, which in its first years was known for its erotic programs in the late evening), their popularity increased and more people invested in broadband cable access or satellite antennas.

1990s

After reunification, the TV stations of the German Democratic Republic were dissolved and the remnants were used to found new regional networks, e.g. the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Central German Broadcasting), as part of the ARD. In addition, more private TV stations opened, becoming available through cable, satellite, and in some cases, over the airwaves.

German Television Today

The average German TV viewer today has, if he or she is supplied with a digital satellite receiver, a choice among several dozens of TV stations (not even counting the foreign TV stations).

ARD - Das Erste

As stated above, the ARD was the first German broadcasting station. It has a very federally oriented structure. Currently, nine regional TV stations cooperate together to produce programs for the TV network known as Das Erste (The First):

NDR - Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting - Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony)
RB - Radio Bremen (Bremen)
RBB - Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg - Berlin, Brandenburg)
MDR - Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Central German Broadcasting - Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia)
WDR - Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting - North-Rhine-Westphalia)
HR - Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting - Hesse)
SWR - Südwestrundfunk (South West Broadcasting - Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg)
BR - Bayrischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting - Bavaria)
SR - Saarländischer Rundfunk (Saarland Broadcasting - Saarland)

(The fact that small regions like Bremen or the Saarland have their own broadcasting stations has mainly historical reasons. They only contribute to the nationwide TV program Das Erste and only have limited regional TV programs.)

Das Erste is a network which consists of programming oriented for the whole family. Especially well-known and respected are its TV news, e.g. the Tagesschau, produced by the NDR and broadcast nightly at 8 p.m. The Tagesschau is a national institution since its inception 1952. Until the early 1990s, it was considered taboo by some to call someone else between 8:00 and 8:15, as everybody was supposedly watching the "Tagesschau" then. As of today there is news available around the clock. Other famous programs are Tatort (a crime series, which is located in several different cities and produced by all the partners of the ARD in turn). Das Erste also shows children's programs like Sandmännchen, daily soap operas like Marienhof or Verbotene Liebe, Germany's longest running weekly soap opera Lindenstraße, sport events (though extremily popular sports like soccer or car racing are also shown on the private broadcasting stations) and also TV shows for senior citizens, often featuring German folk music.

The ARD is not only responsible for Das Erste. There are seven regional networks, called Die Dritten (The Third Networks). Only RB and SR do not have their own full-time third networks, but mostly broadcast the programming of the NDR and the SWR, respectively. The third networks feature documentaries, older movies and regional news programs, often shown for only one federal state or only parts of it. For example the NDR every evening at 19:30 stops broadcasting its common program and broadcasts instead regional news bulletins for Schleswig-Holstein (Schleswig-Holstein-Magazin), Hamburg (Hamburg Journal), Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Nordmagazin), Bremen (Buten & Binnen) and Lower Saxony (Hallo, Niedersachsen!)).

Since the 1980s, the ARD also produces several niche channels. The first one was EinsPlus, which was intended as a culture niche channel and was broadcasted from 1986 till 1993. Afterwards, the ARD co-produced 3sat, in cooperation with the ZDF, the Austrian Broadcasting network ORF and the Swiss Broadcasting network DRS. A second culture niche channel is arte, which is co-produced with the French Broadcasting Service LaSept.