ZDF
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008) |
 |
|
| Type | Broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country | Germany |
| Availability | National; also distributed in: Austria Luxembourg Switzerland Belgium Italy Netherlands |
| Key people | Markus Schächter, President |
| Launch date | 1 April 1963 |
| Official website | www.zdf.de |
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (English: "Second German Television"), ZDF, is a public-service German television channel based in Mainz. It is run as an independent non-profit agency established by joint contract between the German federal states (Bundesländer). ZDF is funded from a television licence and advertising.[1]
The station began broadcasting on 1 April 1963 from Eschborn. The channel broadcast its first programme in colour in 1967. In 1974 ZDF moved its base of operations to Mainz-Lerchenberg, after briefly being located in Wiesbaden.
Contents |
[edit] Transmission and reception
[edit] Antenna
As ZDF is a channel, not a network, the channel is broadcast without any regional variation or affiliates throughout the country, using a number of signal repeaters. Prior to the reunification of Germany, ZDF, like ARD, positioned many of its transmitters in locations favourable to its broadcasts being easily receivable in extensive areas of the GDR, where both channels were viewed by large parts of the population.
Starting in 2002 and completed in 2008, the ZDF transmitters have been switched from analogue to digital signal. Digitally, the ZDF mux contains the ZDF itself, 3sat, ZDFinfokanal (ZDF's news channel), KI.KA (children's channel; daytime only), ZDFneo.
ZDF does not run any transmitters itself. Throughout the analogue days, all of the ZDF transmitters had been run by the Deutsche Bundespost which was later privatized as Deutsche Telekom's subsidiary T-Systems Media Broadcast. (This is in contrast to the other public German broadcaster, ARD, which owns its main transmitters.) Due to recent laws, the ZDF had not been allowed to use ARD's transmitters. As the law has changed in the 1990s, since the digital switchover the ZDF uses both ARD and Telekom transmitters.
[edit] Cable
ZDF has also been relayed by cable since the days of the first cable pilot projects.
[edit] Satellite
The first Europe-wide satellite broadcast via Astra 1C began in August 1993 during the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA - "International Broadcasting Exhibition") in Berlin. In the same decade, these new technologies were used to enable the start of digital broadcasting of ZDF. Today, ZDF is available free-to-air throughout Europe.
[edit] Other ZDF channels
 |
This section may need to be updated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information. |
ZDF also operates the channels KI.KA, arte, 3sat and Phoenix in cooperation with other networks. Included in its digital offering ZDFvision are the channels ZDFneo (formerly ZDFdokukanal), ZDFinfokanal, ZDFtheaterkanal. Today ZDF is Europe's largest television network.
[edit] Design
ZDF's animated station identity mascots, the Mainzelmännchen (a play with the words "Mainz" and "Heinzelmännchen"), created by Wolf Gerlach in 1963, quickly became popular and are still shown in between commercials. In 1976 graphic designer Otl Aicher made a corporate design for ZDF.
[edit] Administration
Administratively ZDF is headed by a director general (Intendant), who is elected by the ZDF Television Council, the composition of which is in turn determined by the "societally relevant groups" named in the ZDF contract. Since the founding of the network in 1963, the following have held the office of Intendant:
- 1963 - 1977: Karl Holzamer
- 1977 - 1982: Karl-Günter von Hase
- 1982 - 2002: Dieter Stolte
- since 2002: Markus Schächter
[edit] Membership
ZDF was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union in 1963.
ZDF is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) innitiative (a consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies including SES Astra, OpenTV and Institut für Rundfunktechnik) that is promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.
[edit] Programmes
- Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst
- The Bold And The Beautiful (Reich & Schön)
- Derrick (cancelled)
- Disco
- Ein Fall für Zwei
- Jack Holborn (1982 mini-series)
- Heute (Newscast)
- Der Kommissar (cancelled)
- Kultnacht
- The Old Fox (Der Alte)
- The Young And The Restless (Schatten der Leidenschaft)
- Veronica Mars
- Wetten, dass..?
- Rockpop
- Rock Pop Music Hall (cancelled)
Audience share (March 2008): 13.4%, from 14–49 years 7.1%.
[edit] Musicals
[edit] External links
- Official site (German)
- Official site (English)
- ZDF at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] References
- ^ "European Benchmarking: Public Service Broadcasters in the Digital Era". Circom Regional. May 2002. pp. 46. http://www.circom-regional.org/crdocs/european-benchmarking2002.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: ZDF |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
