Das Erste

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Das Erste
Launched 25 December 1952
Owned by ARD
Picture format 16:9 576i (SDTV)
720p50 (HDTV)
Audience share 13.4% (2007, [1])
Country Germany
Broadcast area National; also distributed in:
Austria
Luxembourg
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Belgium
Italy
Netherlands
Denmark
Kosovo
Headquarters Munich, Germany
Formerly called NWDR-Fernsehen (1952-1954)
Deutsches Fernsehen (1954-1984)
Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen (1984-1997)
Website www.daserste.de
Availability
Terrestrial
DVB-T Channel 1
Satellite
Astra 19.2°E (Europe) 11.836 GHz Horizontal
SR: 27500 FEC: 3/4
SID: 28106
Video PID: 101
Audio PIDs: 102 stereo, 106 Dolby Digital
Astra 19.2°E (DVB-S2 HDTV) (Europe) 11.494 GHz Horizontal
SR: 22000 FEC: 2/3
SID: 10301
Video PID: 5101
Audio PIDs: 5102 stereo, 5106 Dolby Digital
Hot Bird (13°E) (Europe, Middle East & North Africa) 11.541 GHz Vertical
SR: 22000 FEC: 5/6
SID: 3622
Video PID: 300
Audio PID: 301
Cable
Kabel Deutschland Yes (SD and HD)
UPC Cablecom (Switzerland) Yes (SD and HD)
SD - Channel 005 (digital CH-D)
Naxoo (Switzerland) Channel 153
Ziggo (Netherlands) Channel 610
YouSee (Denmark) Channel 51
UPC Netherlands Horizon
Channel 43 (SD/HD)
Mediabox
Channel 43 (SD)
Channel 88 (HD)
Streaming media
DasErste.de Watch live
UPC Horizon Watch live (Netherlands only)
Watch live (Switzerland only)

Das Erste ("The First"), rarely also called Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German Television"), is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany. It is a joint production of Germany's regional public broadcasters acting through, and coordinated by the ARD consortium.

History

Studio of the news programme Tagesschau
The Maus, the popular children's series

The channel's first experimental broadcasts started on 27 November 1950 as the 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, under the name Deutsches Fernsehen ("German Television"). It was West Germany's only television channel prior to the establishment of ZDF in 1963.

The new channel consisted of jointly-produced shows such as the nightly news programme Tagesschau (on the air since 26 December 1952), as well as broadcasts produced individually by ARD member stations. The programs were coordinated by the Programmdirektion based in Munich. Besides several entertaining shows, ARD went political in 1957 when it launched its first political TV magazine, Panorama. Germany's first political TV show adopted the slogan "What is being talked about and what should be talked about" and pictured all aspects of postwar West German society--including conflict-laden topics, scandals, and other taboo topics, such as former Nazis who then held high positions in the political and legal systems.

ARD nevertheless produced a provisional 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 name was changed to Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German Television") on 30 September 1984. Also around 1984, a new corporate design was introduced. The previous logo, with stylized waves, was replaced by a new logo showing a stylized number "1" which is still in use today. It changed its name to Das Erste in 1997, but the long name Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen is still used for some purposes (e.g. the introduction to the main editions of the Tagesschau). Informally, it is also known as ARD among viewers.

In addition to its SD broadcast, a 720p50 HD version of the channel, Das Erste HD, is also broadcast. Broadcast of Das Erste HD began in February 2010 with the coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.[2] Das Erste HD is available via satellite (DVB-S2 on Astra 19.2°E) and cable (Kabel Deutschland in Germany, Cablecom in Swtzerland).

Member broadcasting organizations

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

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:[citation needed]

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) 1.00
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) 7.00
Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) 1.30
Südwestrundfunk (SWR) 17.95
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) 21.25

Broadcasting

Before 1990, Das Erste was only distributed in West Germany, and was almost exclusively broadcast using transmitters owned by the Deutsche Bundespost. However, the transmitters were powerful enough that Das Erste could easily be seen in nearly all of East Germany as well. On 15 December 1990, programming from ARD was distributed by Deutsche Post of the GDR for the first time.[citation needed] The GDR-transmitters were later taken over by the Bundespost and merged organizationally with the West German transmitters. The transmitters of the Bundespost were transferred in 1995 to Deutsche Telekom, and then in turn to T-Systems.

Between 2002 and 2008 the transmission facilities in Germany were successively converted from the analogue PAL standard to the new digital DVB-T standard.

Programmes

Former programmes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ARD und ZDF so schlecht, Vox so stark wie nie" (in German). Medienmagazin DWDL.de. 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 
  2. ↑ "HDTV im Ersten". daserste.de. Retrieved 2 March 2010. 

External links

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