Deutsche Welle Television

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DW

Type	International public broadcaster
Country	Germany
Founded	3 May 1953
Headquarters	Berlin/Bonn, Germany
Broadcast area	National and international
Owner	DW
Launch date	3 May 1953
Affiliation	World Radio Network
Official website	www.dw.de

The Deutsche Welle building in Bonn

Deutsche Welle (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈvɛlə]) or DW is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio in 30 languages (DW (Radio)). It has a satellite television service (DW (TV)), that is available in four languages, and there is also an online news site. Deutsche Welle, which in English means "German Wave", is similar to international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, France 24, Voice of America, Radio Canada International, Radio Free Europe and Radio France Internationale.

Deutsche Welle has broadcast regularly since 1953. Until 2003 it was based in Cologne, when it relocated to a new building, the "Schürmann-Bau", in Bonn's former government office area. The television broadcasts are produced in Berlin. Deutsche Welle's website is produced in both Berlin and Bonn. On February 6, 2012 Deutsche Welle underwent a significant rebranding.^[1]

History[link]

Deutsche Welle was inaugurated on 3 May 1953, with an address by West German President Theodor Heuss as its first shortwave broadcast. On 11 June 1953, the public broadcasters in the ARD signed an agreement to share responsibility for Deutsche Welle. At first, it was controlled by Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR). In 1955, when this split into the separate Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) networks, WDR assumed responsibility for Deutsche Welle programming. In 1960, Deutsche Welle became an independent public body after a court ruled that broadcasting from Germany was part of the federal government's foreign-affairs function. On 7 June 1962, it joined the ARD as a national broadcasting station.

Broadcast languages[link]

German reunification[link]

With German reunification in 1990, Radio Berlin International (RBI) of East Germany ceased to exist. Some of the staff and personnel of RBI joined Deutsche Welle, and it inherited some broadcasting apparatus, including the transmitting facilities at Nauen as well as RBI's frequencies.

DW (TV) began as RIAS-TV, a television station launched by the West Berlin broadcaster RIAS (Radio in the American Sector / Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor) in August 1988. The fall of the Berlin Wall the following year and German reunification in 1990 meant that RIAS-TV was to be closed down. On 1 April 1992, Deutsche Welle inherited the RIAS-TV broadcast facilities, using them to start a German- and English-language television channel broadcast via satellite, DW (TV), adding a short Spanish broadcast segment the following year. In 1995, it began 24-hour operation (12 hours German, 10 hours English, 2 hours Spanish). At that time, DW (TV) introduced a new news studio and a new logo.

Deutsche Welle took over some of the former independent radio broadcasting service Deutschlandfunk's foreign-language programming in 1993, when Deutschlandfunk was absorbed into the new Deutschlandradio.

In addition to radio and television programming, DW sponsored some published material. For example, the South Asia Department published German Heritage: A Series Written for the South Asia Programme in 1967 and in 1984, published African Writers on the Air. Both publications were transcript of DW programming.

World Wide Web presence[link]

In late 1994, Deutsche Welle was the first public broadcaster in Germany with a World Wide Web presence, which at the time was (www.dwelle.de), although for its first two years the site listed little more than contact addresses. This later evolved into the current 30-language web site. The URL later changed to www.dw-world.de, and switched to www.dw.de in 2012.

For its 10th anniversary celebration in 2004, DW provided a Klingon language version of its website under klingon.dw-world.de.

The Internet news site offers daily exclusive coverage in seven core languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese for Brazil and Russian) as well as a mixture of news and information in 23 other languages corresponding to Deutsche Welle's radio programs. Persian became the site's eighth focus language in 2007.

German and European news are DW's central focus, but the site also offers background information regarding Germany and German language courses.

Recent events[link]

In 2001, Deutsche Welle (in conjunction with ARD and ZDF) founded the German TV subscription TV channel for North American viewers. The project was shut down after four years due to low subscriber numbers. It has since been replaced by the DW-TV channel (also a subscription service).

Unlike most other international broadcasters, DW-TV doesn't charge terrestrial stations for use of its programming, and as a result its News Journal and other programs are rebroadcast on numerous public broadcasting stations in several countries, including United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In the Philippines, it is shown nationwide on Net-25 and GEM TV.

Deutsche Welle is still suffering from financial and personnel cuts. Its budget was decreased by about €75 million over five years and of the 2,200 employees it had in 1994, 1,200 remain. Further cuts are still expected.

In 2003, the German government passed a new "Deutsche Welle Law", which defined DW as a three-media organization—making the Deutsche Welle website an equal partner with DW-TV and DW Radio. The website is available in 30 languages, but focuses on German, English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese for Brazil, Chinese and Arabic. Persian became the eighth focus language in 2007.

In March 2009, DW-TV expanded its television services in Asia with two new channels, namely DW-TV Asia and DW-TV Asia+. DW-TW Asia (DW-TV Asien in German) contains 16 hours of German programming and 8 hours in English while DW-TV Asia+ on the other hand contains 18 hours of English programs plus 6 hours in German programs.^[10]

In August 2009, DW-TV's carriage in the United Kingdom on Sky channel 794 ceased, although the channel continues to be available via other European satellites receivable in the UK.^[11]

Shortwave relay stations[link]

Domestic shortwave relay stations[link]

Transmitter sites[link]

The Jülich radio transmitter site began operation in 1956, with eleven 100 kW Telefunken transmitters.

The Wertachtal site was authorized in 1972 and began service with four 500 kW transmitters. By 1989, there were 15 transmitters, four of which relayed the Voice of America.

The Nauen transmitter site was inherited from Radio Berlin International. RBI's Russian-made three 500 kW and one 100 kW transmitters were replaced by four Telefunken 500 kW transmitters and four rotatable antennas.

External shortwave relay stations[link]

• Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
  • 3 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters
  • 1 × 400 kW mediumwave transmitter
  • 20 antennas (to be verified)

• Kigali, Rwanda: A relay station in Kigali, Rwanda, provides coverage for Africa, but the site was destroyed during genocide and civil war in 1994.
  • 4 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters

• Sines, Portugal
  • 3 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters

A relay station in Malta had three SW and one 600 kW- MW transmitter and gave partial coverage of the Americas, Southern Asia, and the Far East.^[12] It was established in the early 1970s in exchange for a grant of nearly 1 million GBP. The station closed in January 1996.

DW shares a transmitting station in the Caribbean with the BBC, and has a relay-exchange with the CBC that allows DW to use two 250 kW transmitters in Sackville.^[13]

Relay stations leasing transmitter time to DW[link]

DW leases time on the following relay stations

• Novosibirsk, Russia
• Irkutsk, Russia
• Alma Ata, Kazakhstan
• Skelton, United Kingdom
• Woofferton, United Kingdom
• Kranji, Singapore (BBC Far Eastern Relay Station)
• Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (Radio Netherlands)
• Talata Volonondry, Madagascar (Radio Netherlands)
• Dhabayya, United Arab Emirates

DW (Europe)
Launched	August 1988 (as RIAS-TV) 1 April 1992 (as DW-TV) 6 February 2012 (as DW (Europe))
Closed	1990 (RIAS-TV), 5 February 2012 (as DW-TV)
Owned by	DW
Picture format	16:9 (576i, SDTV)
Slogan	"At the Heart of Europe" (English) "Aus der Mitte Europas" (German)
Country	Germany
Language	German English
Broadcast area	Europe Middle East Africa North Africa
Website	www.dw.de
Availability
Satellite
Hot Bird 8 (Europe, Middle East, North Africa) Atlantic Bird 3 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)	11604 H 27500-5/6 3727 R 29950-7/8
DW Platform DStv (South Africa)	Channel 228 Channel 446
Cable
Naxoo	Channel 159 (Sweden)
UPC Poland	Channel 814
R	Channel 203
Internet television
Livestation	Watch (Free, 502 Kbit/s, German and English on same channel]

DW (Arabia)
Owned by	DW
Picture format	16:9 (576i, SDTV)
Country	Germany
Language	Arabic, German, English
Broadcast area	Middle East, North Africa
Website	www.dw.de/dw/0,,9106,00.html
Availability
Terrestrial
TDT	27 (Gurayat) 20 (Amman) 89 (Rafha)
Satellite
Arabsat BADR4 (Middle East, North Africa)	11,996 H 27,500-3/4
Nilesat 102 (Middle East, North Africa)	11,900 V 27,500-3/4