Partner Channels
Apart from its main television channel ZDF, including teletext service ZDFtext, ZDF German Television operates, either individually or with partners, a number of television channels and related media services:
3sat, launched in 1984, is the longest-running European satellite television project of the four German-language public broadcasters ZDF and ARD (Germany), ORF (Austria) and SF-DRS (Switzerland). 3sat broadcasts mainly cultural programming, the channel's operational centre is based at ZDF in Mainz.
ARTE, the bi-lingual European cultural channel started as a French-German cooperation in 1992. It has since entered partnerships with several European public broadcasters; overall responsibility rests with its shareholders (ARTE France 50 %, ARD and ZDF 25 % each).
KI.KA is the children's channel of ZDF and ARD. Since it first went on air in 1997, it has been offering a violence free and high-quality viewing alternative for our younger audience.
PHOENIX is the German public affairs and documentary channel, another joint ARD/ZDF project launched in 1997. It specialises in in-depth analysis and live coverage of political debates and public events.
DW-tv, the television service of Germanys public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, is transmitting some of ZDFs programmes to a worldwide audience.
DeutschlandRadio with its two national radio channels "Deutschlandfunk" and "Deutschlandradio Kultur" is jointly run by ZDF and ARD. The national public radio broadcaster cooperates with ZDF in different fields, eg administration and training, and is also simulcasting two of our regular TV talk shows on medium-wave radio.
