ZDF is offering a growing number of archived items and even complete programmes for on-demand viewing via ZDFmediathek, our integrated video streaming platform which also includes RSS feeds and Podcast services.

ZDF’s Mediathek is to be expanded from its current service of around a quarter of programmes on ZDF’s main channel to half of all programmes. It will be officially launched as a seven-day on-demand viewing service at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the industry fair taking place in late summer 2007. It means that ZDF's programmes will be available in the Mediathek as an any-time free-TV service for a period of one week after the original broadcast.

Viewers who have additional digital equipment and special software, and also access to the ADSL and VDSL platforms launched last year, can already watch programmes from the ZDF Mediathek on their television sets. Viewers on the move can also access selected programmes from the Mediathek via video-podcast or UMTS on their mobile phones. The Mediathek has three different play-out features for PCs, television sets and mobile receivers, respectively: the PC Edition, the TV Edition and the Mobile Edition. All three versions draw on the same broadcasting material and are operated from one and the same production system, but they are technically geared to different reception paths.