Television in Germany (Freedom Ascendant)

Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90 minutes three times a week. It was the first public television station in the world, named Fernsesender Paul Nipkow. The German television market had approximately 106.9 million television households in 2000, making it the largest television market in Europe. Nowadays, 98% of German households have at least one television receiver. All the main German TV channels are free-to-air.

Post-War Re-Forming of Broadcasting
After the end of the Second World War, Germany was largely in ruin, with the Americans and British, through the Marshall Plan, rebuilding of Germany began. The electrical system was rebuilt with American technology, with AC of 120V stepped down from 240V, and a frequency of 60Hz. This meant that television in Germany would need to operate at 30 frames per second, due to the technology of the time, though by the 1950s the PAL color system would mean that European TV would remain largely incompatible with American television until digital television in the 1990s and 2000s.

Sensitive to the German war experience under French and Polish occupation, the Americans and British set up regional broadcasters with Germans in charge, wherein they would train technicians, broadcasters, and engineers on how to operate and run television programs. In practice, the stations they set up were more British or American than German in their practices, which influenced news presentation and the formatting of shows created on the networks they set up. American forces met with both British forces, and the German provisional government, to discuss the restoration of television broadcasting, to help Germans 'get over' the war and to have something happy to watch, something hopeful to watch.

The initial meetings would culminate in the formation of ARD in Bonn, June 5, 1946, with broadcasts beginning December 25, 1946. The initial broadcast was limited, weekly programming for an hour a day of very local news. Each of the Regierungsbezirke (government districts) of each new state would get a transmitter, and would join into a regional broadcast network to avoid the spectre of a national, government-owned propaganda machine. The first program, still running today, was Deutschland Heute, on WDR, starting January 3, 1947. Soon, German broadcaster Jan Berghoff, who piloted the Deutschland Heute program, largely on the American news models, with graphics and maps to help viewers understand what was going on, piloted a few other programs on WDR: Um die Geschichte, Wissenschaft Heute, Weltanschau, and Kinder, Kinder.

Soon after, a second over the air sender began operation, ZDF, on April 1, and broadcasting the same day, by Dieter Schächter, starting in Hesse Rundfunk, and soon going nationwide. His first program, heute, airs to this day. He brought out several other shows, including game shows like Die 16.000 Mark Show, Weißt du...?, Geh aufs Ganze!, and kid shows like Raumschiff Abenteuer, and sitcoms like Neue Liebe.

Another long-running news program still seen today, tagesschau, premiered in 1947 on December 26 on NDR. Also in 1947, Aktuell premiered November 15 on RTL, and Preußen Heute on POR the same day, and Tagesbuch on April 9 on SDR.

The British, Americans, and Germans set up a series of regional broadcasters, which survive to this day:

Programming
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