About ARD

ARD (full name: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – "Consortium of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany") is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters. It was founded in 1950 in West Germany to represent the common interests of the new, decentralized, post-war broadcasting services — in particular the introduction of a joint television network.

The ARD is the world's second largest public broadcaster after the British Broadcasting Corporation, with a budget of €6.3 billion and 23,000 employees. The budget comes primarily from the licence fees required to use radios and TV sets in Germany. For radio and TV reception, the fee is currently €17.98 per month. These fees are not collected directly by the ARD, but by the GEZ, a common organization of the ARD member broadcasters, the second public TV broadcaster ZDF, and Deutschlandradio.

ARD maintains and operates a national television network, called Das Erste ("The First") to differentiate it from ZDF, a.k.a. "das Zweite" ("The Second"), which was founded in 1961. The ARD network began broadcasting on 31 October 1954 under the name of Deutsches Fernsehen ("German Television"), becoming Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German Television") with a corporate redesign in 1984; it adpoted its current name (Das Erste) in 1994. ARD's programs are aired over its own terrestrial broadcast network, as well as via cable, satellite and IPTV.

ARD also produces three free-to-air digital channels (EinsFestival, EinsPlus and Tagesschau24) and participates in the production of cable/satellite channels Phoenix (current events, news and documentaries), KI.KA (children's programmes), 3sat (cultural/traditional programming) and arte (Franco-German cultural programming).

ARD's constituent broadcasting institutions operate 54 regional and local radio stations and seven regional TV networks, some of which split further during certain parts of the day. ARD also owns international broadcaster Deutsche Welle. ARD's regional members (see also Institutions and member organizations) are Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Hessischer Rundfunk (HR), Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), Radio Bremen, Rundfunk Berlin–Brandenburg (RBB), Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR), Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

Note: This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Source: Wikipedia. Updated: September 17, 2012. For a complete list of authors see the article's revision history.

About Tagesschau

Tagesschau (stylized as tagesschau) is a German national and international television news service produced by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) on behalf of the German public-service television network ARD.

The main edition of the programme is aired at 20:00 on Das Erste. It is also simulcast on several ARD-affiliated networks, including NDR Fernsehen, RBB Fernsehen, SWR Fernsehen, WDR Fernsehen, hr-fernsehen, 3sat, Phoenix, tagesschau24 and EinsPlus. It can also be seen in the United States through the Roku streaming player.

Tagesschau (literally "Day's Show", or loosely "Review of the Day"; a play on the term Wochenschau, the weekly newsreel formerly shown in cinemas) is both the oldest and the most watched news program on German television. The first edition was transmitted on NWDR (Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk) on 26 December 1952. Initially broadcast three times a week, the programme expanded in 1956 to air Monday to Saturday, with Sunday editions beginning in 1961. The nightly 8pm edition of Tagesschau is watched by up to 10 million viewers, equivalent to a 33% audience reach. Currently, the bulletin is produced by NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) in Hamburg.

The main 15-minute bulletin is broadcast at 20:00 CET each evening with shorter bulletins broadcast throughout the day. The end of the 20:00 bulletin, at 20:15, marks the beginning of prime time on German television. An attempt by commercial station Sat.1 in the late 1990s to begin their prime time schedule at 20:00 was so unsuccessful that it was discontinued after only a few weeks.

In 1978, the late edition of Tagesschau was replaced by Tagesthemen (Subjects of the Day or "Themes of the Day"), a half-hour programme featuring more in-depth reports, analysis and commentary. The programme continues to air at 22:15 each evening. A late-night magazine-style programme, Nachtmagazin (Night Magazine), airs at around 00:30. A weekly review programme entitled Wochenspiegel (Mirror of the Week) is produced by the Tagesschau production team and airs on Sundays around lunch time.

Note: This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Source: Wikipedia. Updated: September 17, 2012. For a complete list of authors see the article's revision history.

About NDR

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (North German Broadcasting) is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. NDR is a member of the ARD consortium.

Note: This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Source: Wikipedia. Updated: September 17, 2012. For a complete list of authors see the article's revision history.