WDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air television network owned and operated by
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...
and serving
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" television stations that are offered within the federal
ARD network.
History
The station began broadcasting on 17 December 1965, as ''Westdeutsches Fernsehen'' (WDF), changing its name to ''West 3'' in 1988, before settling for ''WDR Fernsehen'' in 1994.
Originally airing only in North Rhine-Westphalia, the channel has become available across Germany with the advent of
Cable TV
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...
and satellite television. The station is also available free-to-air across Europe via
Astra 19.2°E
Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.
Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly k ...
.
In November 2013, the channel faced a graphical rebrand.
News sub-regions
WDR Fernsehen operates eleven sub-regional opt-out services, each broadcasting a 30-minute local news programme entitled ''Lokalzeit'' at 19.30 each Monday to Saturday evening together with a shorter, 5-minute bulletin at 18.00 on Mondays to Fridays:
*
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Aachen''
*
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
: ''Lokalzeit
Bergisches Land
The Bergisches Land (, ''Berg Country'') is a low mountain range region within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of Rhine river, south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by woods, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains ...
''
*
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Bonn''
*
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Dortmund''
*
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Duisburg''
*
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Düsseldorf''
*
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
: ''Lokalzeit aus Köln''
*
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
: ''Lokalzeit
Münsterland''
*
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
: ''Lokalzeit
OWL
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
aktuell''
*
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
: ''Lokalzeit
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
''
*
Siegen
Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...
: ''Lokalzeit Südwestfalen''
Programmes
Children
*''
Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten
''Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten'' ''(The Program with the Elephant)'' is a German television series and a spin-off of ''Die Sendung mit der Maus''. It follows the story of a blue elephant and his friend, a pink rabbit.
See also
*List of German t ...
'' (2007–present)
*''
Die Sendung mit der Maus'' (1971–present)
Entertainment
*''Die Wiwaldi-Show'' (2012–2016)
*''Zimmer frei'' (1996–2016)
Information
*''Aktuelle Stunde'' (1983–present)
*' (1997–present)
*''Lokalzeit'' (1996–present)
*''Westpol'' (1992–present)
Series
*''
Eyewitness (Øyevitne)'' (2017)
*''
In aller Freundschaft
(''In all friendship'') is a German television soap opera that began airing in 1998 every Tuesday. The series follows the staff of the fictional Sachsenklinik hospital in the city of Leipzig.
The series is produced by Degeto (a subsidiary of ...
'' (2003–present)
*''
Lindenstraße
''Lindenstraße'' (literally "Linden Street") was a long-running German television drama series, broadcast by Das Erste. The first episode aired on 8 December 1985 and since then new episodes were broadcast weekly until 2020. Its last timeslot ...
'' (1997–present)
*''Phoenixsee'' (2016–present)
*''
Prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
'' ''(Prey - Die Beute)'' (2015–2016)
*''
Rote Rosen
''Rote Rosen'' (Red Roses) is a German telenovela produced by Studio Hamburg Serienwerft Lüneburg and broadcast by Das Erste since 6 November 2006. The show is a complex telenovela, which tells one love story every season about women in their ...
'' (2007–2009)
*''
Sturm der Liebe'' (2005–2009)
*''
Schimanski'' (1998–2016)
*''
Tatort
''Tatort'' ("Crime scene") is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by ...
'' (2006–present)
*''
The Game'' (2015)
Sport
*''Sport Inside'' (2007–present)
*''Zeiglers wunderbare Welt des Fußballs'', hosted by Arnd Zeigler (2007–present)
Talk
*''B. trifft...'', hosted by
Bettina Böttinger
Bettina Böttinger (born 4 July 1956 in Düsseldorf) is a German television presenter and producer.
Life
Böttinger studied German language and history at the University of Bonn.
In 1985, she began as a journalist at Westdeutscher Rundfunk. S ...
(1993–2004)
*''Domian'', hosted by Jürgen Domian (1995–2016)
*''Domian live, hosted by Jürgen Domian (2019–present)
*''Kölner Treff'', hosted by
Bettina Böttinger
Bettina Böttinger (born 4 July 1956 in Düsseldorf) is a German television presenter and producer.
Life
Böttinger studied German language and history at the University of Bonn.
In 1985, she began as a journalist at Westdeutscher Rundfunk. S ...
(2006–present)
Logos
File:West 3 Logo Variante.svg, Logo of the predecessor of WDR Fernsehen called ''West 3'' (1988–1994)
File:WDR Fernsehen rot.svg, Used from 1994 until 2013
File:Wdr-fernsehen-logo.svg, Alternative logo, 1994–2013
File:WDR Senderkennung.svg, Used from 1994 until 2013
File:WDR Fernsehen 2013.svg, Used from 2013 until 2016
File:WDR Fernsehen HD 2013.png, HD logo used from 2013 to 2016
File:Wdr fernsehen logo 2016.svg, Used from 2016
File:Cornerlogo of WDR Fernsehen September 2016.png, Used from 2016
File:WDR Fernsehen HD Logo 2016.png, HD logo used from 2016 until 12 December 2019
File:WDR Fernsehen HD Logo seit 2019.jpeg, HD logo used from 13 December 2019
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wdr Fernsehen
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Television stations in Germany
Television channels and stations established in 1965
German-language television stations