Television in Germany

Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90

minutes three times a week. It was the first public television station in the
world, named Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow. The German television market had
approximately 36.5 million television households in 2000, making it the largest
television market in Europe. Nowadays, 95% of German households have at
least one television receiver. All the main German TV channels are free-to-air.

Contents

1History
2Market
3Channels
o 3.1Subscription channels
4Public broadcasters
5Teletext
6Reception
o 6.1Satellite
o 6.2Cable
o 6.3Terrestrial
7Series
8See also
9References

History
Main articles: History of television in
Germany and Deutscher Fernsehfunk

Continuity announcer Gabriela Hellweg at the WDR

studios in Cologne (November 1953)

In 1948 the British occupation forces allowed NWDR to broadcast television

programmes for the British zone. Other regional networks also started to launch
television in their own areas. Meanwhile, the GDR was launching its own
television service, Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), based on the Soviet model.
A regular schedule began through the cooperation of all ARD members in 1954.
Basic principles in the central areas of entertainment, information and
enlightenment were established and television plays developed as the medium's
own specific art form. Improvements in technology and programming, as well
as reduced prices, led to a steady increase in licence holders, and the number of
licenses passed the 1-million mark in October 1957.
On 1 April 1963, the long-promised second TV network, the Zweites Deutsches
Fernsehen (Second German Television) started. Unlike ARD, which was
regionalised and had its roots in radio, ZDF was a centrally organised channel
devoted solely to television. On 25 August 1967, at 9:30 a.m. on both ARD and
ZDF, vice chancellor Willy Brandt started the era of colour TV in West
Germany by pressing a symbolic launch button at the International Radio and
TV Fair in West Berlin.
East Germany started DFF2 in 1969, and introduced colour programming on
both channels. In 1972, the DFF was renamed, dropping the pretense of being
an all-Germany service and becoming Fernsehen der DDR (GDR Television) or
DDR-FS. Its two channels became known as DDR1 and DDR2.
The first two privately financed TV networks, RTL plus (short for Radio
Television Luxemburg) and SAT 1, started their programming in West
Germany in 1984. (Previously RTL broadcast from Luxembourg but was only
received in parts of Southwestern Germany).
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.

Market
Today, with almost 40 million TV households, 365 TV channels licensed in
Germany and a total market volume of 9,615 million in 2008, Germany
represents one of the biggest and most diversified TV markets in the world. The
strongest revenue segment in Germany is public funding (4,430 million in
2008), followed by advertising (4,035 million) and subscription (1,150
million).[4] This dominant market position of public and advertisement funded
free TV channels in Germany explains why the German pay TV segment is
significantly underperforming in an international comparison.
In terms of total TV viewing market share Germany's market leaders in 2015
were again the two biggest public-service broadcasters (ZDF with 12.5% and
Das Erste with 11.6%) and the two leading commercial channels (RTL with
9.9% and SAT.1 with 7.9%). The leading pay TV provider was Sky
Deutschland (see below). The biggest teleshopping providers in Germany are
QVC and HSE24.
With 18.1 million TV households satellit is the dominant TV infrastructure in
Germany, followed by cable (17.9 million TV households) and terrestrial (3.8
million TV households).[7]In a 2010 survey half of German television viewers
said they often found nothing to watch on television.
The Germanophone sphere is the largest market for dubbing in Europe. Foreign
TV shows and other formats are often dubbed into German,
while subtitled formats with the original language are also becoming more
popular.

Channels

Studio of the news programme Tagesschau

The channels with the largest viewing share in 2015 are:

Share of Share of
total total
Comparison
Position Channel Owner viewing viewing
2015/2011
(%) (%)
in 2015 in 2011[10]

1 ZDF ZDF 12.5 12.1 (0.4)

2 Das Erste ARD 11.6 12.4 (0.8)

3 RTL RTL Group 9.9 14.1 (4.2)

ProSiebenSat.1
4 SAT.1 7.9 10.1 (2.2)
Media

ProSiebenSat.1
5 ProSieben 5.3 6.2 (0.9)
Media

6 VOX RTL Group 5.1 5.6 (0.5)

ProSiebenSat.1
7 kabel eins 3.8 4.0 (0.2)
Media

8 RTL II RTL Group 3.7 3.6 (0.1)

The combined share of ARD's so called Third Programmes (regional
broadcasters WDR, NDR, SWR, etc.) was 12.4% in 2014
Subscription channels

Germany's sole subscription channel Premiere had its heyday around the
millennium. Premiere offered telecasts of the German football league -
the Bundesliga. The "Bundesliga" was Premiere's cash-cow, but they lost the
broadcasting rights in 2006 to a newly formed competitor - Arena. Premiere
was the brainchild of the former television czar, Leo Kirch. He went into
insolvency after a decade of losing viewers from his subscription channel, DF1
(Digital TV 1). The company re-gained some ground with its new
manager Georg Kofler. It is trying to get viewers back by purchasing new
international shows and then introducing them to German viewers
(ABC's Lost was first shown on Premiere). Kofler and Kirch bought
international movies from American film studios in advance so they could
broadcast them one year after their release. Normally, American movies are
shown on non-subscription (free-TV) channels three years after their release.
Premiere offers a combination of multiple channels featuring Animal Planet,
the Discovery Channel and the Disney Channel; plus several themed channels
for music, crime and sport.
In 2005, several German cable companies created a new challenger to Premiere
- ARENA. The participating companies are iesy (Hesse) and ish (TV) (North
Rhine-Westphalia) through their combined partnership called "Unity Media".
Arena, a rather small company, wanted to buy the pay-TV rights to the German
Bundesliga and won by a decision of the marketing directorate of the DFL. The
rights to broadcast the Bundesliga is regarded as lucrative in the German
television market, so previous rights holders Premiere suffered a wounding
blow to their business model. Arena held the rights from 2006 to 2008. Further
negotiations were due in 2008 for the broadcasting of the Bundesliga.

Public broadcasters
ARD member broadcaster map.
As stated above, the ARD was the first German broadcasting station. It has a
federally orientated structure. At present, nine regional TV stations cooperate to
produce programs for the TV network known as Das Erste (The First):

Norddeutscher Rundfunk North German Broadcasting Hamburg, Lower

Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Radio Bremen also a television broadcaster Bremen
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting
Berlin and Brandenburg
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Central German Broadcasting
Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia
Westdeutscher Rundfunk West German Broadcasting North-Rhine-
Westphalia
Hessischer Rundfunk Hessian Broadcasting Hesse
Sdwestrundfunk South Western Broadcasting Baden-
Wrttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate
Saarlndischer Rundfunk Saarland Broadcasting Saarland
Bayerischer Rundfunk Bavarian Broadcasting Bavaria
Seven of these broadcasters run their own regional TV programs (The Third),
most of them use several frequencies and show local opt-outs. While multi-
state-broadcasters NDR, RBB, MDR and SWR have state versions (e.g. RBB
Berlin, MDR Sachsen, NDR Hamburg), BR and WDR have regional opt-outs
below state level (BR: North and South, WDR: 11 versions). Some small
regions, such as Bremen (RB) and the Saarland (SR), have their own
broadcasting stations, mainly for historical reasons. They only contribute to the
nationwide TV program Das Erste and produce a state opt-out for their
neighbour broadcaster (SR-Fernsehen on SWR, Radio Bremen TV on NDR).
Teletex

Early-January 2014 teletext page 100 of German public broadcaster ARD

Germany has run a regular Teletext service since 1 June 1980 on the public
broadcasting channels. Almost all German TV stations have teletext.[12][13]

100 Main page

110 News
300 TV schedule
333 On air
600 Chatline, phone sex (commercial channels only)
Subtitles:
ARD: 150 / ZDF: 777 / ProSiebenSat.1: 149

Satellite
Digital satellite television has been officially available in Germany since 1996.
Prior to May 2012, most of the 30+ TV stations broadcast their satellite signal
using both analogue and digital (DVB-S); however, all analogue satellite
broadcasts ceased on 30 April 2012.
There is currently a single Pay TV satellite operator in Germany - Sky
Deutschland. Prior to being known as Sky, the service was named
Premiere;[14] it (along with its former owner Leo Kirch) got into serious
financial trouble due to its early and proprietary usage of encryption (Betacrypt,
D-box). Subsequently, Premiere was bought by News Corporation and renamed
Sky, in keeping with their satellite services elsewhere in Europe (Sky (UK and
Ireland) and Sky Italia).
HDTV via satellite
In late 2004 German channel group ProSieben showed a BBC documentary and
a self-produced TV movie in 1080i via MPEG-2 DVB-S, followed by the
Hollywood films Spider-Man and Men in Black II in March 2005. These were
intended to be a test for future commercial HD services.
Regular free to air broadcast of the HD versions of ProSieben and Sat.1 began
on 26 October 2005. Unlike the test broadcasts, DVB-S2 and MPEG-4
AVC were used. Both ProSieben HD and Sat.1 HD ceased their unencrypted
broadcasts in 2008; encrypted HD broadcasting of both channels resumed under
the HD+ brand (which also included other commercial channels; see below) in
January 2010.
Premiere, after several delays, started broadcasting three HD channels one
each dedicated to films, sports and documentaries in November 2005,
although there were virtually no suitable, certified receivers available on the
market. The content was also sparse and thus often repeated. Sky (formerly
Premiere) reuses its proprietary digital rights management system embedded
into its content scrambling system (Nagravision) from SD broadcasts to block
analogue output of the movie channel from the receiving set-top box altogether,
only allowing HDCP-secured transmissions; the other channels are less
restricted.
On 1 November 2009 the premium HD+ service launched with two channels,
RTL HD and Vox HD, with Sat.1 HD, ProSieben HD and Kabel eins HD
joining the service in January 2010. DSF HD (now called Sport1 HD) began test
broadcasts in August 2010 and launched fully on HD+ on 1 November 2010,
followed by Sixx HD and RTL2 HD on 1 December 2010. In June 2011,
Comedy Central HD, Nickelodeon HD and N24 HD joined service, bringing the
number of channels offered to 11. In April 2011, HD+ became available to Sky
Deutschland subscribers without the need for an HD+ CAM and viewing card
(although an additional subscription is still required).
Currently (as of May 2012) all satellite HDTV channels are broadcast using
the h.264 codec. As of July 2014, most material is upscaled SD content.
Free-to-air HDTV via satellite
Prior to 30 April 2012 there were eight free-to-air HDTV channels originating
in Germany broadcast via satellite: Das Erste HD, ZDF HD, Arte HD, Anixe
HD,[15] EinsFestival HD,[16] sonnenklar.TV HD, QVC HD and HSE24
HD.[17] After 30 April 2012, when all analogue satellite broadcasts ceased, ten
additional FTA HD channels became available (all of which are public
service channels): Phoenix HD, NDR HD, WDR HD, BR HD, SWR HD, ZDFn
eo HD, ZDFinfo HD, ZDFkultur HD, 3sat HD and KiKa HD.[18][19] From
December 2013 on all PSB channels except ARD-alpha, SR Fernsehen and
Radio Bremen TV are available in HD.
Cable
Cable transmission is still mostly analog with usually about 30 available
channels. DVB-C transmission started in 2004 with pay TV Premiere and
digital versions of the analogue channels.
The rather late changeover to DVB was caused both by the long process of
selling the infrastructure of former monopolist Deutsche Telekom to others and
the fact that the cable network ends at the curb or property, with the in-house
cable in large apartment buildings being operated by a different company. Due
to this, the new owners of Deutsche Telekom's cable network were in many
cases not able to offer new products directly to the viewer.
By 2006, there were three major cable operators, Unity Media in Hesse, North
Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wrttemberg and by far the largest, Kabel
Deutschland in the other 13 states. Today, all companies offer about 200 TV
channels by DVB-C, which includes some 70 channels at no extra charge as
well as a number of pay-per-view offers and subscription-based packages (like
the HD-broadcasts of privately owned channels, comparable to HD+ on
satellite). In addition to that pay TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland is also
available.
In some very large apartment complexes a number of local and national
companies operate an in-house cable network which is fed solely by its own
satellite antenna on the building, not the local cable operator. The satellite
channels are either transcoded into analogue transmission, receivable by any TV
set without extra equipment, or into DVB-C.
As of 2014, still 17.2% of Germany transmits television with analogue cable
signals, compared to 29.1% of digital cable; this similar to the situation in
the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium, where analogue cable is also still widely
used.[20]
Terrestrial
Terrestrial reception had lost most of its users by the 1990s[citation needed] due to
extensive cable and satellite coverage. In a two step process analogue terrestrial
TV broadcasting in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg was switched off in
2003 and replaced by DVB-T, in 2005, about two-third of Germany's states
began to replace analogue transmission. By 2006, all metropolitan and most
rural areas had moved to digital transmission. Today, only foreign army bases
and some local TV stations still broadcast on analogue.
While the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF transmit throughout Germany,
commercial stations often are only available within metropolitan areas, so the
number of available channels varies between about 10 and 30. All DVB-T1
channels were free-to-air and the broadcasters rented transmission services
directly from a transmitter operator, usually Media Broadcast. ARD stations
also use their own transmitters.
In June 2016, a gradual switch-over from DVB-T with MPEG-2 encoding
to DVB-T2 with HEVC encoding has commenced. The first phase included one
new multiplex broadcasting six channels in selected urban areas, in addition to
the old DVB-T standard.[21] The DVB-T2 channels are broadcasting in
1080p50.[22] The commercial channels are encrypted and part of the "Freenet
TV"-Package.[23] The final switch-over to DVB-T2 occurred in steps, starting
with major metropolitan areas who switched on 29 March 2017. The last
transmitter is planned to switch in 2019.[24]

Series
Almost all fictional programs on German television are regular TV series.
While the public broadcaster(s) predominantly own(s) the productions that are
broadcast, the private stations/networks often put on series licensed from
abroad, mainly the United States. Peaking in the 1990s, the private channels had
aired self-produced series such as Der Clown (19962000), Alarm fr Cobra 11
Die Autobahnpolizei (Alarm for Cobra 11 - The Motorway Police) (since
1996), The Sentinel (19941996), Alpha Team - The Lifesaver in OP (1996
2005) or Wolff's Turf (mainly from 1992 to 2006) with great success. Since the
late 2000s, the amount of original series on the private broadcasters has
markedly declined.
The highest-rated series is the crime drama Tatort, which airs almost every
Sunday on public broadcaster ARD. It has run since 1970 and has featured
several casts, that are not related to each other.