ZDF, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany. ZDF is financed by television licence fees and advertising revenues.
Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group.
Das Erste is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. Das Erste is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are members of the ARD.
RTL, formerly RTL plus and RTL Television, is a German-language free-to-air television channel owned by RTL Deutschland, headquartered in Cologne. Founded as an offshoot of the German-language radio programme Radio Luxemburg, RTL is considered a full-service broadcaster under the Medienstaatsvertrag and is the largest private television network in Germany. As of August 2010, RTL employs some 500 permanent staff, having outsourced its news and technical departments.
n-tv is a German free-to-air television news channel owned by RTL Deutschland. n-tv broadcasts news and weather every hour and half-hour in the morning. It also broadcasts magazine shows and documentaries.
RTL Zwei, formerly spelled RTL 2 and RTL II, is a German-language television channel that is operated by RTL2 Television GmbH & Co. KG. RTL2 is a private television broadcaster with a full program (Vollprogramm) according to the Interstate Broadcasting Agreement (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag). For Austria and Switzerland, variants of the main programme are produced with nationally inserted advertising islands; these variants can be received via the cable networks in these two countries as well as via digital satellite. RTL Zwei is the second subsidiary of RTL Group in Germany.
Syfy is a German pay television channel, launched on 1 September 2003. It was the third Sci Fi Channel to be launched, following the US and U.K. versions. From 2003 until 2010, it was known as the Sci-Fi channel.
Vox is a German free-to-air television channel launched on 25 January 1993 and owned by RTL Group. The channel mainly broadcasts documentaries and US series and movies.
Kabel Eins is a German free-to-air television channel that was launched on 29 February 1992 as Der Kabelkanal. It is owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. It is largely known for airing classic American films as well as TV series and documentaries. It is considered to be a sister channel of ProSieben.
Phoenix is a German free-to-air television channel which is operated jointly by public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF. It broadcasts documentaries, news, special events coverage and discussion programmes. Phoenix's headquarters are in Bonn, the former West German capital.
Comedy Central is a German free-to-air channel owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. It is distributed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and broadcasts many American and British imported television series as well as original programming. It launched on 15 January 2007 replacing former music channel VIVA Plus. Prior to its launch, Viacom had Nick Comedy, which was a timeshared channel with Nickelodeon Germany, airing from 9:15pm to 6:00am.
ARD alpha is a German free-to-air television channel run by regional public-service broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. Its programming consists of shows made by Bayerischer Rundfunk, as well as from ARD and Austrian broadcaster ORF. The channel was originally called BR-alpha, but was rebranded as ARD-alpha on 29 June 2014.
EinsPlus was a German free-to-air television channel owned by ARD and operated by SWR. The channel launched on 29 August 1997 under the name EinsMuXx, and was renamed EinsPlus on 23 April 2005.
Tagesschau24 is a German free-to-air television channel owned by ARD and managed by Norddeutscher Rundfunk. It was launched on 30 August 1997 as "EinsExtra" before it became the current name on 1 May 2012.
ZDFneo is a German free-to-air television channel, programmed for an audience aged 25 to 49 to counter the primarily older-skewing main channels of public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. It replaced ZDF's documentary channel ZDFdokukanal on 1 November 2009.
ZDFkultur was a German free-to-air television channel owned by ZDF. It was launched on 7 May 2011, replacing ZDF theaterkanal. It mainly broadcast music shows, such as Later... with Jools Holland, pop concerts and series from the ZDF archive, but also movies and theatre plays. On 1 May 2012, a high-definition simulcast was launched on satellite. On 22 February 2013, ZDF director Thomas Bellut announced that ZDFkultur would close in the near future, due to cost-saving measures at ZDF. The channel council agreed Bellut's proposal on 8 March 2013. The programming after the closure announcement consisting mostly of old ZDF archive content from the 1970s and 80s, with an annual budget of around €2 million. The channel was finally closed down on 30 September 2016.
Sat.1 Gold is a German free-to-air television channel aimed at a females aged between 49 and 65. It is ProSiebenSat.1 Media's sixth channel in Germany. The channel manager is Marc Rasmus. Sat.1 Gold received a broadcast licence from the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht der Medienanstalten (ZAK) on 20 November 2012. The channel is regulated by the Thüringische Landesmedienanstalt (TLM), based in the state of Thuringia. The channel started broadcasting on 17 January 2013 at 20:13 CET with a 2-minute countdown, followed by a promo and a puppet show. The channel then broadcast the German film The Whore.
ProSieben Maxx is a German free-to-air channel owned by ProSiebenSat.1. The channel started broadcasting on 3 September 2013 with the movie Captain America: The First Avenger at 8:15 p.m. On 30 July 2013 ProSieben Maxx received a DVB-T broadcasting licence for the region of Munich. On 13 August 2013 the channel started a test program on these frequencies and broadcast some program trailers. It is ProSiebenSat.1's sixth channel.
13th Street is a German pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal subsidiary of Comcast through its NBCUniversal International Networks division. The channel is devoted to the genres thriller & crime and shows series, feature films as well as short films.
RTL Crime is a German pay television channel owned by the RTL Group. The channel was launched on 27 November 2006. Its programming is centred towards action and crime series.
