Das Erste

Das Erste

Country	Germany
Headquarters	Munich, Germany
Programming
Language(s)	German
Picture format	1080p HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	ARD
History
Launched	25 December 1952; 68 years ago (1952-12-25)
Former names	NWDR-Fernsehen (1952–1954) Deutsches Fernsehen (1954–1984) Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen (1984–1996)
Links
Website	www.daserste.de
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television	Channel slots vary on each city
Cable
Kabel Deutschland	Channel 101 (SD) Channel 112 (HD)
Unitymedia	Channel 301 (SD) Channel 1 (HD)
UPC Cablecom (Switzerland)	Channel 5
Naxoo (Switzerland)	Channel 153
Ziggo (Netherlands)	Channel 54 (HD) Channel 950 (SD)
YouSee (Denmark)	Channel 91 (HD)
Caiway (Netherlands)	Channel 38 (HD)
DELTA (Netherlands)	Channel 450
Kabel Noord (Netherlands)	Channel 110
Sky (United Kingdom)	Channel 753
Satellite
Astra 19.2°E (Europe)	11494 H 22000 2/3 (HD) 11836 H 27500 3/4 (SD)
Canal Digitaal (Netherlands)	Channel 111 (HD) Channel 651 (SD)
Sky Deutschland	Channel 181 (SD) Channel 161 (HD)
IPTV
MagentaTV	Channel 1 (HD)
A1 TV (Austria)	Channel 18 (SD) Channel 318 (HD)
KPN (Netherlands)	Channel 45 (HD)
Tele2 (Netherlands)	Channel 37
T-Mobile (Netherlands)	Channel 391 (HD)
Orange (France)[1]	Channel 421
Streaming media
DasErste.de	Watch live
Ziggo GO (Netherlands)	ZiggoGO.tv (Europe only)
Horizon	Horizon.tv (Switzerland only)

Das Erste (German: [das ˈʔeːɐ̯stə]; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ARD and ZDF – "the Second" German Television Channel – together comprise the public service television broadcasters in the German television system. Das Erste is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are members of the ARD.^[3]

The channel was officially launched on 25 December 1952 as NWDR-Fernsehen and renamed to Deutsches Fernsehen in 1954.^[4] Since 1996, the official brand is Das Erste; the full name Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen (First German Television) is still used before every major news edition. In colloquial speech, the station is usually called Erstes Programm ("First Channel"), or by its metonym, ARD.

History[]

Former studio of the news programme Tagesschau

The Maus, the popular children's series

The channel's first experimental broadcast was on 27 November 1950 as the TV channel of the then NWDR, which in 1956 split into NDR and WDR. 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.^[5]

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 had held important roles.^[6]

ARD nevertheless produced a provisional second TV channel (de: ARD 2) from 1 June 1961 until ZDF started its transmissions on 1 April 1963. Colour television was introduced on 25 August 1967. From 1 September 1995 Das Erste broadcasts 24 hours a day.

The channel's name was changed to Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German Television") on 30 September 1984. At the same time, a new corporate design was introduced, designed by , along with new CGI idents produced by Cranston/Csuri Productions in Columbus, Ohio. 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 on 1 January 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 under the metonym 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 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[7] Das Erste HD is available via satellite (DVB-S2 on Astra 19.2°E), cable (all cable providers in Germany and some providers throughout Europe), IPTV (MagentaTV), encoded using H.264 AVC, and on digital terrestrial television in 1080p50, encoded using H.265 HEVC.

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 (themselves informally referred to as "Die Dritten", "the Thirds") contributes programming to the channel's schedule in proportion to the population of the area it serves. As of February 2006, the time allocations as percentage shares of total broadcast hours were:^{[citation needed]}

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. Indeed, Das Erste's broadcasts, particularly its newscasts, were far more popular in East Germany than those of state broadcaster Deutscher Fernsehfunk. Exceptions included Dresden, located in a deep valley in southeastern East Germany, and the area around Rügen. One popular nickname for ARD in East Germany was Außer Rügen und Dresden (except Rügen and Dresden).

Areas with ARD and Das Erste reception in East Germany in gray with black areas having no reception (often jokingly referred to as Außer (except) Rügen und Dresden), and broadcasting transmitters near the inner German border.

On 15 December 1990 following reunification, programming from ARD was distributed by Deutsche Post of the GDR for the first time. 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.^[8]

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

Das Erste is available throughout Europe on free-to-air digital satellite television via Astra, as well as on many cable providers. Transmission via the Hot Bird satellite was stopped on 1 April 2017.

Logo history[]

• 

  1970–1984

• 

  1984–1996

• 

  1996–2003

• 

  2003–2015

• 

  2003–2015

• 

  2015–present

• 

  2015–present

• 

  2015–present

Programmes[]

Children[]

Entertainment[]

Information[]

Series[]

Sport[]

Talk[]

Former programmes[]

Audience share[]

Germany[]

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Annual average
1990[9]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	30.8%
1991[10]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	24.5%
1992[11]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22.0%
1993[12]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	17.0%
1994[13]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16.3%
1995[14]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	14.6%
1996[15]	14.8%	15.2%	14.4%	14.1%	13.6%	18.2%	15.8%	14.5%	14.5%	14.3%	13.9%	14.2%	14.8%
1997[16]	14.3%	15.2%	13.3%	15.0%	13.7%	14.9%	15.0%	16.0%	15.6%	14.3%	14.6%	14.6%	14.7%
1998[17]	14.8%	15.8%	14.8%	14.2%	15.1%	19.9%	18.1%	15.2%	14.8%	14.3%	14.1%	14.0%	15.4%
1999[18]	14.8%	15.3%	14.8%	14.1%	13.7%	14.8%	14.5%	13.9%	13.7%	13.1%	13.4%	14.3%	14.2%
2000[19]	14.4%	14.4%	14.1%	13.5%	14.3%	15.7%	15.1%	14.1%	15.9%	13.3%	13.7%	13.5%	14.3%
2001[20]	12.9%	14.3%	13.3%	12.7%	13.2%	14.1%	14.7%	13.8%	14.8%	13.4%	13.7%	14.2%	13.7%
2002[21]	13.6%	15.9%	13.7%	13.8%	13.6%	17.1%	13.9%	14.9%	13.8%	13.4%	13.5%	13.5%	14.2%
2003[22]	14.0%	14.9%	14.2%	13.6%	13.2%	14.0%	14.8%	14.1%	14.6%	13.3%	13.7%	13.6%	14.0%
2004[23]	13.1%	13.8%	13.7%	13.7%	13.8%	17.4%	13.3%	16.0%	12.6%	13.1%	13.8%	13.4%	13.9%
2005[24]	13.2%	14.3%	13.4%	13.8%	12.3%	13.8%	13.5%	13.8%	13.3%	12.9%	13.2%	14.0%	13.5%
2006[25]	13.9%	15.4%	13.7%	13.3%	13.6%	18.4%	14.2%	14.1%	13.7%	13.5%	13.5%	13.7%	14.2%
2007[26]	13.8%	14.3%	13.9%	13.1%	13.0%	12.9%	12.2%	13.9%	13.4%	13.3%	13.4%	13.1%	13.4%
2008[27]	13.6%	13.8%	12.5%	12.5%	12.9%	18.0%	12.6%	15.1%	12.7%	12.4%	12.6%	12.7%	13.4%
2009[28]	12.5%	13.3%	13.1%	12.7%	12.5%	12.5%	12.0%	13.1%	12.6%	12.7%	12.8%	12.5%	12.7%
2010[29]	13.4%	14.0%	12.8%	12.8%	12.9%	17.1%	14.0%	12.2%	12.5%	11.9%	12.2%	12.7%	13.2%
2011[30]	12.5%	12.9%	13.2%	12.6%	12.8%	13.1%	12.1%	12.3%	11.8%	11.8%	11.6%	11.9%	12.4%
2012[31]	12.9%	11.8%	12.2%	11.2%	11.2%	15.9%	11.4%	13.5%	11.5%	11.7%	11.7%	12.2%	12.3%
2013[32]	12.2%	12.4%	12.5%	12.1%	11.7%	12.3%	11.7%	12.0%	12.0%	11.7%	11.7%	12.3%	12.1%
2014[33]	11.7%	13.4%	12.3%	11.4%	12.0%	17.4%	15.0%	11.3%	11.3%	11.1%	11.8%	11.5%	12.5%
2015[34]	11.3%	11.8%	11.6%	12.2%	11.8%	12.1%	10.9%	11.2%	10.9%	11.2%	11.9%	11.9%	11.6%
2016[35]	12.2%	11.6%	11.3%	11.5%	12.1%	16.0%	13.1%	14.0%	11.0%	10.7%	11.2%	11.2%	12.1%
2017[36]	10.6%	11.8%	12.0%	11.8%	11.4%	10.7%	10.7%	11.0%	11.2%	10.9%	11.3%	11.8%	11.3%
2018

The average age of the viewers is 61 years (as of 2016).^[37]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Das Erste.

• Official website (in German)
• DasErste Mediathek (VoD Portal) (in German)