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German Television and Presentation

Discussion relating to TV in Germany (August 2020)

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TW
twolf
Hope I'm ok to start this thread - there didn't seem to be one to talk about general presentation etc on German Television. I considered starting this in the newsroom as my first post relates to the equivalent of breakfast show, but didn't want to limit this thread to just being about news presentation. I'm not sure if many people are interested or watch German television regularly, but the French TV thread seems to have gained good traction!

Here's an interesting one to begin with. Germany has two public funded broadcasters, ARD and ZDF. For everything they do, they maintain their own channels and programming etc, but an interesting quirk is the breakfast television offering.

They each broadcast the exact same morning programme 'Morgenmagazin' between 05:30 and 09:00, but interestingly they create a week each on a week-on, week-off basis. One week, ARD-Morgenmagazin is broadcast and then the next week ZDF-Morgenmagazin goes out on air!

Just announced is an updated look beginning in September for the ZDF version.

Currently, its very much a red sofa look

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevlDVDMsVE

But released images show a move to a more 'central island' style.

*

The logo has also been changed to make the O in MOMA look like a rising sun.

*

Quite a change so it will be interesting how this looks on screen and whether it reflects a change the style of the show.
TheTravelcard and Brekkie gave kudos
TG
Tim Goodwin1
I am interested to find out more about how the German system works with their channels and regional stations.
Anglialad and Brekkie gave kudos
BA
bilky asko
twolf posted:
Hope I'm ok to start this thread - there didn't seem to be one to talk about general presentation etc on German Television. I considered starting this in the newsroom as my first post relates to the equivalent of breakfast show, but didn't want to limit this thread to just being about news presentation. I'm not sure if many people are interested or watch German television regularly, but the French TV thread seems to have gained good traction!

Here's an interesting one to begin with. Germany has two public funded broadcasters, ARD and ZDF. For everything they do, they maintain their own channels and programming etc, but an interesting quirk is the breakfast television offering.

They each broadcast the exact same morning programme 'Morgenmagazin' between 05:30 and 09:00, but interestingly they create a week each on a week-on, week-off basis. One week, ARD-Morgenmagazin is broadcast and then the next week ZDF-Morgenmagazin goes out on air!

Just announced is an updated look beginning in September for the ZDF version.

Currently, its very much a red sofa look

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevlDVDMsVE

But released images show a move to a more 'central island' style.

*

The logo has also been changed to make the O in MOMA look like a rising sun.

*

Quite a change so it will be interesting how this looks on screen and whether it reflects a change the style of the show.


How many seconds will it take for that very shiny plinth under the desk to be not so shiny any more?
JW
JamesWorldNews
That’s quite a spectacular pedestal under the desk. I wonder how they made that?

Nice, fresh look. I like it.
BB
BBI45
I am interested to find out more about how the German system works with their channels and regional stations.

God! I did a presentation on that exact topic, in German, for school a few years ago. The cringe!

Moving on from that, the top three channels on the TV Guide are ARD, ZDF, and regional stations. ZDF operates by itself, although it does share some programming duties with ARD, alternating breakfast (Morgenmagazin) and lunchtime (Mittagsmagazin) programmes. ARD on the other hand, is managed by the regional broadcasters, who all produce programmes for ARD, along with their own programming.

It's a bit more complicated from that, but if you want to know more about it, Wikipedia covers it relatively well.
JA
james-2001
At one time I think the entire morning schedule was simulcast between ARD and ZDF, whereas these days it's just the morning and lunchtime show and the news bulletins. Does seem a bit of a strange arrangement really, especially in the pre-multichannel days when both main channels would have been showing the same thing.
JA
JAS84
After ARD and ZDF, the other main channels in Germany are 3sat, ProSeiben, and RTL, right? I remember all five being on Astra 19.2 in the Sky analogue days, along with RTL II and Super RTL. I wonder why the German terrestrial television channels were available throughout Europe on satellite, whereas Channel 5 was the only British terrestrial channel to do that?

It was interesting seeing how the cartoons on RTL II differed from the English versions, even though I don't speak German. Digimon in particular had an entirely different soundtrack because the German version was based on the Japanese original instead of the American dub.
TG
Tim Goodwin1
JAS84 posted:
After ARD and ZDF, the other main channels in Germany are 3sat, ProSeiben, and RTL, right? I remember all five being on Astra 19.2 in the Sky analogue days, along with RTL II and Super RTL. I wonder why the German terrestrial television channels were available throughout Europe on satellite, whereas Channel 5 was the only British terrestrial channel to do that?

It was interesting seeing how the cartoons on RTL II differed from the English versions, even though I don't speak German. Digimon in particular had an entirely different soundtrack because the German version was based on the Japanese original instead of the American dub.


The Digimon question is one which puzzles me as I was always confused why we had a different dub. I prefer the German dub. Many anime, especially kids, is like that too (DBZ is an example)
GE
thegeek Founding member
twolf posted:
They each broadcast the exact same morning programme 'Morgenmagazin' between 05:30 and 09:00, but interestingly they create a week each on a week-on, week-off basis. One week, ARD-Morgenmagazin is broadcast and then the next week ZDF-Morgenmagazin goes out on air!
I'd never heard of this arrangement before! And here was me thinking that having a different licencee for weekends was odd.
How many seconds will it take for that very shiny plinth under the desk to be not so shiny any more?
Perhaps a stagehand polishes the floor after the hosts have taken their seats.
RD
rdd Founding member
I think it came up before that something similar happens with the Olympics, with ARD and ZDF broadcasting alternative days.

There are a lot of quirks with the system in Germany, but the biggest one is that it is one of the only countries in Western Europe - possibly the world - where broadcasting policy is fully devolved to the states. (In Belgium it is also devolved, for very different reasons). Hence the states (Lander) have full responsibility for broadcasting and the Federation (Bund) doesn’t. Each state either on its own or with other (usually like politically minded) states has established its own regional broadcaster and ARD is in essence the trade association of the regional broadcasters (just as the ITV central structure was originally the trade association of the ITV companies), who jointly operate the national channel they officially call “Das Erste” (or “Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen” when they want to be even more official, like at 8pm before the Taggeschau) but everyone else calls “ARD”. Likewise ZDF is established by joint agreement of all the states and not by federal law.
thegeek, nidave and BBI45 gave kudos
KU
Kunst
Presentation-wise, commercial TV in particular in Germany feels a bit stuck in the past, I must say

It's also quite trashy, especially RTL2
TW
twolf
Kunst posted:
Presentation-wise, commercial TV in particular in Germany feels a bit stuck in the past, I must say

It's also quite trashy, especially RTL2


RTL2 - or 'RTL ZWEI' as it is now stylised is supposed to be a bit trashy - its very youth oriented and is the equivalent of ITV2.

I really like some of the commercial TV presentation.

Sat.1 in particularly think looks fresh and bright, and their beachball logo looks great on screen.



They've also done some quite good and creative break bumpers keeping the four tone chime - here's one used in the currently airing Celeb Big Brother

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