Germany has two public TV channels - ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands), also known as the 1st channel, while ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) is also known as the 2nd channel. ARD was founded by several regional public stations which produce the national program shown on the 1st channel, while regional shows are mostly broadcast on the 3rd channel. Due to a lack of public channels, private channels are very diverse and popular, especially Bertelsmann AG and ProSiebenSat.1Media groups. ProSiebenSAT.1Media AG consists of Pro7, Kabel1, Sat1, 9live and N24. Bertelsmann Group is also known as the RTL group and includes RTL, RTL2, Super RTL, RTL Shop, Vox, Traumpartner TV and n-TV. Even more programs were introduced in 2006, offering special-interest channels such as Disney, Viacom and others. Large cities such as Hamburg or Berlin have established the regional commercial TV channels.

Germany has a lot of different newspapers

At 8 pm ARD is broadcasting daily news program - Tagesschau. German TV program isn't exactly the most attractive TV program in Europe but you'll still be able to watch some decent and interesting shows. Kulturzeit (Culture Age) is shown at 3Sat program at different times and is a result of cooperation between Germany, Switzerland and Austria, while ARTE channel cooperates with French TV stations. Reality TV is very popular among Germans, especially Big Brother show, but also the shows where women swap their families or raise someone else's children. The police series Tatort are shown on ARD on Sundays and the show is very popular, rotating between different German cities and Austrian capital, Vienna. Opening scenes have the original music and graphics of the first show broadcast in 1970. Best productions are those of Berlin and Cologne and the quality of shows is often compared with the mini cinema standard. The most popular (and successful) TV production of German television is the crime series Derrick, the production of which stopped in 1998. Newer crime show Der Bulle von Tölz is broadcast at Sat1 and not as popular as Derrick, since it is placed in the rural landscape of Bad Tölz where Kommissar Berghammer solves the cases in episodes such as the 'Death in Lingerie' and 'The Manure Fork Murder'. The show has got a nickname 'corpulent crime series' due to Komissar Berghammer's physical appearance. Most popular German current affairs TV show can be seen on ARD channel every Sunday and usually has several important guests.

Germany has a lot of different newspapers - in total 359 daily newspapers. However, most of them are local and regional newspapers, which are very important and particularly strong in Germany. 'Boulevard press' is a German term for the tabloid press. There aren't so many national newspapers - the most important are Bild, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Tageszeitung (taz), Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) and Welt. All of them are officially 'independent' but most of them are known as liberal or conservative newspapers. Press and broadcasters are both free of censorship. Most of the German newspapers are owned by only a few publishers. Axel Springer Group is the biggest publisher and has about 22% of the market. AS group publishes Bild, Hamburger Abendblatt, Welt, Berliner Morgenpost and other newspapers. Second biggest publisher is the WAZ Group (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung) which publish mostly regional newspapers. Other big newspaper publishers are Verlagsgruppe Stuttgarter Zeitung, Ippen Gruppe and DuMont Schauberg. Except for daily newspapers, Germans like to read weekly newspaper, presenting not so actual news and analyzing the events. The most popular weekly newspaper is Die Zeit, known for their liberal orientation and independence.