German TV in North America

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German TV in North America

German Language TV in the US and Canada

Update: After a little over one year of service, the private ChannelD German television satellite broadcaster filed for bankruptcy with a Bremen court on Oct. 4, 2002. With only about 1,000 subscribers, ChannelD was not economically viable. Its public TV competitor, German TV (Deutsche Welle) temporarily provided programming for ChannelD customers for two months, at which time they had to switch over to German TV or lose their programming. That leaves German TV as the only source of German television programming in North America.

NOTE: For more current information, see this newer article about my own experiences with German TV: Adventures with German TV in the U.S.

Original Article from 2002:

If you're willing to make the investment in time and money, you now have two choices for receiving German television broadcasts in North America: German TV and ChannelD. This is in addition to the old reliable standby, Deutsche Welle (DW), that has long broadcast its multilingual news and cultural programming to most parts of the world via several satellites. But unlike DW-TV, the newer television options offer more standard TV fare and require completely different (digital) equipment than that used for DW's analog broadcasts. More importantly, these new options are not free.

In our previous article about ChannelD we discussed the issues of having to buy new equipment and the need for a clear satellite line of sight. With German TV it's the same. You must buy special equipment and a card that is not compatible with ChannelD or with DW's free analog TV service. So potential subscribers are faced with separate Ku-band satellite receiver equipment for each service - if they want both ChannelD and German TV. - Continued below...

For the Rest of Us
If you are one of those people who can't afford or don't want a special satellite dish just for receiving German television, there are some great streaming video options. Online TV is best if you have a broadband (cable, DSL) connection, but it also works with normal 56Kbps phone line access. A good jumping-off point is the Broadband TV - German Web page. (They also offer slower links.) You'll also find many more links to online TV in German on our own Online Video links page! - I recently watched the online steaming video version of N24Live and the quality was very good. It's news and sports only, not real TV, but the audio was crisp and the video viewable if slightly jerky.

Unfortunately, neither ChannelD nor German TV is available on cable or from the major direct-broadcast satellite services. On top of the initial equipment costs (around $300), a German TV subscription costs $15.00 per month, while ChannelD recently dropped its price from $24.95 to $20.00 a month. So, what do you get for your money?

NOTICE! See the announcement of ChannelD's
Oct. 2002 bankruptcy at the top of this page!

According to German TV's Web site, you'll be able to watch German talk shows, quiz shows, series and the nightly news programs Tagesschau and heute Journal. But their free test broadcasts in February didn't include any of that. Apparently, you'll have to pay before you can see the promised full schedule that began on April 8, 2002. If German TV delivers as promised, their programming offers more bang for the buck, compared to ChannelD. It's hard for German TV's competitor to beat the offerings from ARD and ZDF that the new DW service provides. Although ChannelD has some of the same programs ("Tatort"), they are older episodes and they can't afford most of the ARD/ZDF shows. (Both services provide stereo radio services in German.) German TV also promises complete broadcasts of German soccer games - but at a price. The soccer offerings are pay-per-view only.

Of course, you'll have to judge for yourself. We've made it easy for you to compare the two television services using the Web links that we provide on the next page. Also read the Reader TV Comparisons page for more information.

MORE > Adventures with German TV in the U.S. (Update!)

MORE > German Sat TV Links

> 1: German TV in the US
> 2: German Sat TV Links
> 3: Reader Comparisons
> 4: About DW - auf Deutsch
> 5: ChannelD TV (article)