The
Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten
der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD), the Association of
Public Broadcasting Corporations in the Federal Republic
of Germany, is a consortium of ten independent public broadcasting
corporations (established by states or groups of states)
and the federal broadcasting corporation Deutsche Welle.
The ARD was founded in 1950 and produces radio and television
programs providing the German population with information,
education, and entertainment.
(1)
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg was created on May 1st,
2003 through the merger between Sender
Freies Berlin (SFB) headquartered in Berlin and Ostdeutscher
Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) headquartered in Postdam.
Each
corporation caters for the states in which they are located;
others supply programs for several states. Each broadcasts
several radio programs. Together they operate a nationally
transmitted television program called
"Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen", also known as "Das
Erste"
(The First Channel) for which they all provide material. In
addition, they produce their own "Channel Three"
TV programs, "das dritte Programm", which can be
viewed regionally or in some cases received nationally via
satellite or cable. Bayerischer Rundfunk also broadcasts the
educational TV program "Alpha". Deutsche Welle, as
Germany's external broadcaster, produces programs for all five
continents. It broadcasts DW-Radio via short wave and it also
airs the international news channel DW-TV.
The
radio station DeutschlandRadio was founded in 1993 through
the transfer of the rights and obligations of the stations
Deutschlandfunk and RIAS Berlin. It is jointly financed by
ARD and ZDF and is headquartered in
Cologne and Berlin. Since 1 January 1994, DeutschlandRadio
has been broadcasting two radio programs, Deutschlandfunk
(based in Cologne) and
DeutschlandRadio Berlin (based in Berlin), which focus on information
and culture and have no advertising.
The
ARD also runs, together with different partners, several
specialist channels: the children’s channel Ki.Ka,
the current affairs
and documentary channel PHOENIX, the European cultural
channel ARTE (in cooperation with the ZDF and
the French channel La
Sept Arte), and the satellite cultural channel 3sat (in cooperation
with ZDF and the Austrian and Swiss
public channels ORF and
SRG). ARD joined 3sat in 1993.
The
ARD is financed largely through monthly fees charged to television
and radio owners and through commercials. Deutsche Welle
is financed largely by federal funds. |