TV channels Germany

German television lives in a dual system: public broadcasters with channels for each region of the federation, private news and shopping operations, and a local TV scene so dense that even small towns keep their own newsrooms.

Public television and culture

ZDF carries the main program of Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen - magazine and news shows plus a wide range of entertainment. Arte is the Franco-German culture channel founded by treaty between France and Germany, broadcasting documentaries, films, concerts and the arts in both languages from Strasbourg. 3Sat is the German-language culture channel run jointly by the public broadcasters of Germany, Austria and Switzerland - advertising-free. ZDFinfo adds documentaries and reports, Phoenix offers public current-affairs coverage in cooperation between ARD and ZDF, ARD Alpha is the educational channel of the ARD network on air since 1998 as BR-alpha, and KIKA TV serves the youngest viewers.

News around the clock

n-tv is Germany's first news channel - on air since November 30, 1992, part of RTL Deutschland, with politics, business, markets and world news from Berlin. Welt is a commercial news channel headquartered in Berlin. Deutsche Welle is present in force: DW Deutsch, DW English, DW Español and DW Arabic carry its news and analysis in four languages, and Euronews Deutsch adds the European perspective. Der Aktionär TV covers the stock market and private investment from Kulmbach.

The regional broadcasters of the Länder

WDR Fernsehen serves North Rhine-Westphalia, NDR Fernsehen covers Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein with its own NDR - Mecklenburg Vorpommern window, MDR-Fernsehen broadcasts from Leipzig for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and BR Fernsehen Süd and BR Fernsehen Nord carry Bavaria from Munich and Nuremberg. HR Fernsehen is the channel of Hessischer Rundfunk, and SR Fernsehen serves the Saarland.

City and local television

Berlin appears with TV Berlin and the community broadcaster Alex Berlin tv, Hamburg with Hamburg 1 Fernsehen, noa4 Hamburg and noa4 Norderstedt. Saxony is covered by Leipzig Fernsehen, Dresden Fernsehen, TV Halle and Sachsen Fernsehen around Chemnitz, while Jena TV serves East Thuringia. Bavaria's local screens include TVO for Upper Franconia, Franken Fernsehen, TVA, Oberpfalz TV and RTL Muenchen. The list continues with Baden TV, L-TV for Heilbronn, TV Mittelrhein around Koblenz, seenluft24 for the Lusatian Lakeland, KWtv, OSF - Oder-Spree-Fernsehen and TV Kiel - the citizen channel of Kiel - together with the open channels OK Mainz, OK54, Offener Kanal Magdeburg and Oeins Tv.

Shopping and faith

QVC, Channel 21, the HSE family - HSE Live TV on air since 1995, HSE Trend TV and HSE Extra TV - and Juwelo TV with its live jewelry auctions from Berlin form the shopping side, while Pearl TV streams in 4K. Hope channel Deutsch - the television channel of the Seventh-day Adventist Church serving Germany and Eastern Europe - completes the picture on the religious side.