Television network

A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks, but with the advent of cable television the cost of creating a television network has been reduced and there has been a huge increase in the number of networks with most of the newer networks catering to a small group. Many early television networks evolved from earlier radio networks.

Germany

• ARD - (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) - publicly owned network which operates the nationwide TV channel Das Erste (website: http://www.ard.de/) (website: http://www.daserste.de/)

Germany's many other TV channels are not networks since they do not consist of easily identifiable individual stations but broadcast identical contents, nationwide or within their single local area.

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• ZDF - Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television) second nationwide public Televison network (website: http://www.zdf.de/)
• HR Fernsehen - publicly owned TV channel for Hesse - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.hr-online.de/)
• rbb - publicly owned TV channel for Berlin and Brandenburg - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.rbb-online.de/)
• WDR - publicly owned TV channel for North Rhine-Westphalia - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.wdr.de/)
• NDR Fernsehen - publicly owned TV channel for Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony, operated by NDR and Radio Bremen - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.ndr.de/)
• BR- publicly owned TV channel for Bavaria - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.br-online.de/)
• MDR - publicly owned TV channel for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.mdr.de/)
• SWR - publicly owned TV channel for Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.swr.de/)
• SR - publicly owned TV channel for Saarland - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.sr-online.de/)
• Radio Bremen - publicly owned radio station for Bremen, operating NDR Fernsehen together with NDR - part of the ARD network (website: http://www.radiobremen.de/)
• RTL Television - Germany's and Europe's largest Television network owned by Bertelsmann subsidary RTL Group for which it is it's flagship channel (website: http://www.rtl.de/)
• RTL 2 - owned by RTL Group (website: http://www.rtl2.de/)
• VOX - owned by RTL Group (website: http://www.vox.de/)
• Sat.1 - Germany's second biggest TV network - owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (website: http://www.sat1.de/)
• Pro7 - owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (website: http://www.prosieben.de/)
• kabel eins - owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (website: http://www.kabeleins.de/)
• Tele 5 (website: http://www.tele5.de/)
• VIVA - German music channel, owned by MTV/Viacom (website: http://www.viva.tv/)
• VIVA plus (website: http://www.vivaplus.tv/)
• MTV Germany (Website: http://www.mtv.de/)
• MTV Pop (Website: http://www.mtv.de/mtvpop/)
• DSF - 24h German sports channel
• Eurosport - pan-European sports channel
• n-tv - a 24h news channel (jointly owned by RTL Group and CNN)
• n24- a 24h news channel owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG
• Euronews - pan-European news channel (Website: http://www.euronews.net/)
• SuperRTL - Europe's most successful 24h kids channel (jointly owned by RTL Group and Disney)
• Ki.Ka - der Kinderkanal - kids channel owned and jointly operated by pubcasters ARD and ZDF
• Nick - a 24h German version of Nickelodeon
• Phoenix - a 24h news and documentary channel owned and jointly operated by pubcasters ARD and ZDF
• 3sat - a multinational cultural TV channel for the German speaking countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, operated by the pubcasters in those counries (ARD, ZDF, ORF, SF DRS)
• arte - a franco-german cultural TV channel
• XXP - a documentary, reports and magazine channel operated by political weekly Der Spiegel and independent production company dctp
• terranova - documentary channel
• 9live - call-in, game show and quiz channel
• QVC - home shopping
• HSN24 - home shopping
• RTL Shop - home shopping
• 1-2-3-tv - home shopping via auctions
• Traumpartner TV - 24h dating channel owned by RTL Group
• NBC Europe
• EinsPlus - digital ARD channel (website: http://www.ard-digital.de/)
• EinsExtra - digital ARD channel
• EinsFestival - digital ARD channel
• ZDFdokukanal - digital ZDF channel
• ZDFInfokanal - digital ZDF channel
• ZDFtheaterkanal - digital ZDF channel
• premiere - pay TV platform

in addition there are numerous local, digital, cable and satelite channels

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