Phoenix (German TV station)
Encyclopedia
Phoenix is a publicly-funded television
station
in Germany
which is produced jointly by public broadcasting organizations ARD
and ZDF
. Its programming consists of documentaries, news broadcasts, special events coverage, and discussion programmes. Phoenix's headquarters are in the former West German capital, Bonn
.
version of the Tagesschau, ARD's flagship news broadcast, and the premier news broadcast of ZDF, Heute-Journal
, in German Sign Language
.
The flagship news broadcast of Phoenix is "Der Tag" ("The Day"), which is aired from 11pm to 12 midnight. Its length enables extended reports and interviews to be included.
The show "Vor Ort" (literally "On Scene") includes live coverage of political events, public lectures of important personalities, press conferences and assemblies of the Bundestag
and Bundesrat
.
Daily talk shows (like "Phoenix Runde - Phoenix Roundtable with Anne Gesthuysen or Alexander Kähler, "Unter den Linden" with Christoff Minhoff or Michael Hirz), discuss current topics are discussed with experts or politicians.
As a benchmark in coverage a "Meet the Press
"-like show, "Internationaler Frühschoppen" is broadcast Sunday at 12 noon when the ARD's "Presseclub" is not broadcast.
The series "Historische Debatten" (Historical Debates) and "Historische Ereignisse" (Historical Events), with journalist Helmut Illert, examine important topics relating to the of the development of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Phoenix is comparable to the American channel C-SPAN
or BBC Parliament
, because it also covers government and national politics.
, because he wanted a "European Parliamentary Channel". But because of criticism of public channels (ARD and ZDF), the idea rejected because of the obvious suspicion that political pressure of Kohl could lead to a "Helmut-Kohl-Channel".
The real idea for "Phoenix - Der Ereignis- und Dokumentationskanal" came from viewers of ARD and ZDF who wanted a media-political correction of faults in the system of information transfer. That created the opportunity to create a "Parliamentary Channel", with the aim of increasing credibility and to satisfy consumer demand.
Private channels (RTL
and Sat. 1) criticized the creation of Phoenix because they were at the time creating their own news channels (RTL's n-tv
and Sat1's N24
).
The headquarters of Phoenix were provisionally situated in Cologne
. However in 2000, the headquarters were relocated studios in Bonn
.
In August 2006, Phoenix had the highest ratings of its history:a 1.0 % market share. With about 4.5 million viewers, it had more viewers than the news channels of the private channels, N-TV and N24 respectively.
and the BBC
, dubbed into German.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
which is produced jointly by public broadcasting organizations ARD
ARD (broadcaster)
ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...
and ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
. Its programming consists of documentaries, news broadcasts, special events coverage, and discussion programmes. Phoenix's headquarters are in the former West German capital, Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
.
Programming
Phoenix broadcasts a deaf-subtitledClosed captioning
Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
version of the Tagesschau, ARD's flagship news broadcast, and the premier news broadcast of ZDF, Heute-Journal
Heute
heute is a news show on the German television channel ZDF. The main show is broadcast at 7 PM, or 19:00, consisting of news of the day, weather forecasts and sport...
, in German Sign Language
German Sign Language
German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache is the sign language of the Deaf community in Germany. It is often abbreviated as DGS. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Gallaudet University estimated 50,000 in 1986.The language has evolved through use in deaf...
.
The flagship news broadcast of Phoenix is "Der Tag" ("The Day"), which is aired from 11pm to 12 midnight. Its length enables extended reports and interviews to be included.
The show "Vor Ort" (literally "On Scene") includes live coverage of political events, public lectures of important personalities, press conferences and assemblies of the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
and Bundesrat
Bundesrat
Bundesrat means federal council and may refer to:* Bundesrat of Germany* Federal Council of Austria* Swiss Federal Council...
.
Daily talk shows (like "Phoenix Runde - Phoenix Roundtable with Anne Gesthuysen or Alexander Kähler, "Unter den Linden" with Christoff Minhoff or Michael Hirz), discuss current topics are discussed with experts or politicians.
As a benchmark in coverage a "Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
"-like show, "Internationaler Frühschoppen" is broadcast Sunday at 12 noon when the ARD's "Presseclub" is not broadcast.
The series "Historische Debatten" (Historical Debates) and "Historische Ereignisse" (Historical Events), with journalist Helmut Illert, examine important topics relating to the of the development of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Phoenix is comparable to the American channel C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
or BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...
, because it also covers government and national politics.
Creation
The creation of Phoenix is credited to the former chancellor, Helmut KohlHelmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
, because he wanted a "European Parliamentary Channel". But because of criticism of public channels (ARD and ZDF), the idea rejected because of the obvious suspicion that political pressure of Kohl could lead to a "Helmut-Kohl-Channel".
The real idea for "Phoenix - Der Ereignis- und Dokumentationskanal" came from viewers of ARD and ZDF who wanted a media-political correction of faults in the system of information transfer. That created the opportunity to create a "Parliamentary Channel", with the aim of increasing credibility and to satisfy consumer demand.
Private channels (RTL
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
and Sat. 1) criticized the creation of Phoenix because they were at the time creating their own news channels (RTL's n-tv
N-tv
n-tv is a German television news channel owned by the Bertelsmann AG Media's RTL Group and an affiliate network of CNN since the networks creation in 1992....
and Sat1's N24
N24 (Germany)
N24 is a television news channel based in Germany. It is owned N24 Media GmbH. It was previously owned and operated by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. N24 provides regular news updates to ProSiebenSat.1 Media properties like kabel eins and ProSieben.-History:...
).
The headquarters of Phoenix were provisionally situated in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. However in 2000, the headquarters were relocated studios in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
.
In August 2006, Phoenix had the highest ratings of its history:a 1.0 % market share. With about 4.5 million viewers, it had more viewers than the news channels of the private channels, N-TV and N24 respectively.
Alignment of Programming
Phoenix's stated aim is it to create balance of the shortening of information, which are seen in news and magazines on television. The programming should be a truthful illustration of the reality in correspondence with the constitutional order of the publicly-funded broadcast and television stations in Germany. The target is fulfilled with current reportages and documentaries from the vast archive of ARD and ZDF, as well as international productions from Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, dubbed into German.
Reception of the channel
- DVB-TDVB-TDVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
(digital terrestrial television) - analogue cable
- DVB-CDVB-CDVB-C stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable...
(digital cable) - analogue satellite television
- DVB-SDVB-SDVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...
(digital satellite television) - livestream (only a few shows are transmitted online)