ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen

Type	Broadcast television network
Country	Germany
Availability	National; also distributed in: Austria Luxembourg Switzerland Liechtenstein Belgium Italy Netherlands Denmark Kosovo
Headquarters	Mainz, Germany
Key people	Markus Schächter, Director General
Launch date	1 April 1963
Official website	www.zdf.de

ZDF headquarters

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (English: "Second German Television"), ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz (Rheinland-Pfalz). It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by three German federal states (Bundesländer). ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues. The ZDF is well known for its famous TV formats heute (newscast; established in 1963) and Wetten Dass...? (entertainment show; established in 1981).

ZDF was founded in 1961 by federal treaty, after the West German federal government's plan to set up a TV channel controlled by the federal government caused uproar. West Germany's constitution stipulated that regulation of culture and media was a compentency of the federal states (Bundesländer). The station began broadcasting from Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main on 1 April 1963, with a speech by the first director general (Intendant), Dr. Karl Holzamer. 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. Markus Schächter, the current director general, was elected by the ZDF Television Council in 2002.

Finances

Since 1 January 2009, the licences fee in Germany for Radio, TV and New Media has been € 17,98 per month. These fees are not collected directly by ZDF but by the GEZ which is a common organisation of ARD, its members, ZDF and Deutschlandfunk. Every resident in Germany with a radio, TV or other relevant device (such as a computer or mobile phone with internet access) is obliged to pay this licence fee.

Transmission and reception

Antenna

As ZDF is a channel, not a network, the channel is broadcast throughout Germany, with no regional variations or affiliates, using a number of signal repeaters. ZDF transmitters broadcast a digital signal. Analog signals were gradually faded out, a process which lasted from 2002 to 2008. The ZDF group includes the main ZDF channel itself, 3sat, ZDFinfokanal (a topical information and news channel), KIKA (a children´s channel; daytime only), ZDFkultur (culture-oriented), ZDFneo (youth-oriented) and arte. ZDF does not run any transmitters itself. Throughout the analogue days, all ZDF transmitters were run by the Deutsche Bundespost which was later privatised 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.) ZDF was not previously allowed to use ARD's transmitters. ZDF uses both ARD and Telekom transmitted since changes to the law in the 1990s and since the digital switchover.

Cable

ZDF has also been relayed by cable since the days of the first cable pilot projects.

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 digital broadcasting of ZDF. Today, ZDF is available free-to-air throughout Europe on Astra 1H (19.2 degrees East) and Hotbird 6 (13 degrees East).

Other ZDF channels

ZDF reporter in Ledra Street, Cyprus

ZDF also operates the channels KI.KA, Arte, 3sat and Phoenix in cooperation with other networks. Included in its digital offering, called ZDFvision are the channels ZDFneo (formerly ZDFdokukanal), ZDFinfo (formerly ZDFinfokanal), ZDFkultur (formerly ZDFtheaterkanal) and ZDF HD. Today ZDF is one of Europe's largest television networks.

A commercial subsidiary called ZDF Enterprises GmbH manages programme sales, acquisitions, international coproductions and a growing number of important activities in new media.

Design

ZDF's animated station identity mascots, the Mainzelmännchen (a play on the words "Mainz" and "Heinzelmännchen"), created by Wolf Gerlach in 1963, quickly became popular and are still shown between commercials. In 1976 Otl Aicher, a graphic designer, created ZDF's corporate design. A new design for ZDF was created by Lee Hunt in February 2000.

Administration

Intendant

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 "societally-relevant groups" named in the ZDF contract.

Intendants since the start of ZDF :

• 1963 - 1977: Karl Holzamer
• 1977 - 1982: Karl-Günter von Hase
• 1982 - 2002: Dieter Stolte
• since 2002: Markus Schächter

Supervising board

The supervising board supervises the work of the intendant Markus Schächter. They pay special attention to the budget. The supervising board has 14 members:

• 5 representatives of the federal states
• 1 representative of the federal republic of Germany
• the other 8 members are not allowed to work for the government or other public entities.

Television board

The Television board supervises ZDF and authorizes the budget. They also elect the intendant. The Television board has 77 members:

• 16 representatives of each federal state
• 3 representative of the federal republic of Germany
• 12 representatives of the parties
• 2 representatives of the Protestant Churches
• 2 representatives of the Catholic Church
• 1 representative of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
• the remaining members are chosen by the representatives mentioned above.

Membership

ZDF became a full member of the European Broadcasting Union in 1963. It has also a numerous individual cooperation agreements with broadcasters around the world.

ZDF is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) innitiative (a consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies including SES, OpenTV and Institut für Rundfunktechnik) which promotes the establishment of an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.

Programmes

• Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst
• The Bold And The Beautiful (Reich & Schön)
• Dance Academy (2010)
• Derrick (cancelled)
• Die größten Musical Hits (The Greatest Musical Hits)
• Disco
• Dog City
• Ein Fall für Zwei
• Fraggle Rock (Die Fraggles)
• In Plain Sight
• Jack Holborn Christmas (1982 mini-series)
• Lafer! Lichter! Lecker! (2006–2010)
• Markus Lanz (2008–2010)
• Mino (1986 Christmas mini-series)
• Heute (Newscast)
• New Tricks (TV Series)
• 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)
• ZDF-Magazin (1969–1988)
• Die Deutschen

Audience share (March 2008): 13.4%, from 14–49 years 7.1%.

External links

• Official site (German)
• Official site (English)
• ZDF at the Internet Movie Database