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 state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

. 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 broa ...

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 ...

. 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 tow ...

: ''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-Ru ...

: ''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 ...

: ''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 ...

: ''Lokalzeit aus Düsseldorf'' *

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

: ''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 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 Do ...

: ''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. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semest ...

: ''Lokalzeit Südwestfalen''

Programmes

Children

*'' Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten'' (2007–present) *''

Die Sendung mit der Maus ' (''The Show with the Mouse''), often simply ' (''The Mouse''), is a German children's television series, popular nation-wide for its educational content.Bernhard Borgeest"Von Mäusen und Machern"'' Focus, official website. (March 12, 2001) Ret ...

'' (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'' (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 ...

'' ''(Prey - Die Beute)'' (2015–2016) *'' Rote Rosen'' (2007–2009) *''

Sturm der Liebe ''Sturm der Liebe'' (, "Storm of Love") is a German television soap opera created by Bea Schmidt for Das Erste. It premiered on 26 September 2005. It follows in several interwoven plot threads stories about relationships taking place in the ...

'' (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 b ...

'' (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 (1993–2004) *''Domian'', hosted by Jürgen Domian (1995–2016) *''Domian live, hosted by Jürgen Domian (2019–present) *''Kölner Treff'', hosted by Bettina Böttinger (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