Das Erste

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**Das Erste**

Type	Broadcast television network
Country	Germany
Availability	National; also distributed in Austria and Switzerland, via satellite all over Europe, free-to-air
Owner	Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Key people	Thomas Gruber, President
Launch date	November 1, 1954
Website	www.daserste.de

Das Erste ("The First") is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany. It is a joint production of Germany's regional public broadcasters acting through, and co-ordinated by the ARD consortium.

1 History
2 Member broadcasting organizations
- 2.1 Time assigned
3 Programmes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The channel's first, experimental broadcasts started on 27 November 1950 as tv channel of the then NWDR, which later split to become NDR and WDR in 1956. The regular NWDR television service started on 25 December 1952. Nationwide transmission began on 1 November 1954 within the ARD framework. It was West Germany's only television channel prior to the establishment of ZDF in 1963. ARD nevertheless produced a provisonary second tv channel from 1 June 1961 until ZDF started its transmissions on 1 April 1963. Colour television was introduced on 25 August 1967.

The channel's original name of Deutsches Fernsehen was changed to Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German television") on 30 September 1984. Since 1996 it is usually marketed as Das Erste, but the long version is still used for rather official purposes like the introduction of the main editions of its news programme Tagesschau that has been on air since 26 December 1952).

[edit] Member broadcasting organizations

Map of the nine regional broadcasting members of ARD

All nine of Germany's regional public-broadcasting organizations contribute to the output of Das Erste and broadcast its programming in a common schedule.

[edit] Time assigned

Each regional member of ARD contributes programming to the channel's schedule in proportion to the population of the area it serves. The current (February 2006) time allocations as percentage shares of total broadcast hours are:

Broadcasting Organisation	% of total
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)	15.25
Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)	7.35
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR)	11.45
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)	17.45
Radio Bremen (RB)	1
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)	7
Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR)	1.3
Südwestrundfunk (SWR)	17.95
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)	21.25